[4] He worked delivering beer and mail, pushing garment racks and cleaning silver in the basement of the Pennsylvania Hotel in New York City.

Since he lived near the Polo Grounds and because he was a member of the NYC Police Athletic League and Catholic Youth Organization, he was able to attend games for free and became a "very big Giants fan".

[6] After serving in the United States Navy for two years, Scully began his career as a student broadcaster and journalist at Fordham University, where he majored in English.

Expecting an enclosed press box, Scully had left his coat and gloves at his hotel, but never mentioned his discomfort on the air; the game proved an exciting affair that attracted Barber to ask him for further assignments.

During the Dodgers' first four seasons in Los Angeles, inexperienced baseball fans had difficulty following the action in the very large Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, and it soon became common for them to bring transistor radios to the games to hear Scully and Jerry Doggett describe the action, a practice that continued even after the team moved to the much smaller Dodger Stadium for the 1962 baseball season.

[15] In 1964, the New York Yankees offered Scully the job to replace the recently fired Mel Allen as their lead play-by-play announcer.

Typically, the Gillette Company, the Commissioner of Baseball and NBC television would choose the announcers, who would represent each of the teams that were in the World Series for the respective year.

For the 1966 World Series, Curt Gowdy[18] called half of each game before ceding the microphone to Vin Scully in Los Angeles, and Chuck Thompson in Baltimore.

When Doggett retired after the 1987 season, he was replaced by Hall-of-Fame Dodgers pitcher Don Drysdale, who previously broadcast games for the California Angels.

He worked alongside several different color analysts, including Sonny Jurgensen, Paul Hornung, Alex Hawkins, George Allen, Jim Brown, John Madden, and Hank Stram.

Scully called Dwight Clark's touchdown catch in the NFC Championship Game on January 10, 1982, which put the San Francisco 49ers into Super Bowl XVI.

[27] Scully also contributed to the network's PGA Tour golf coverage, usually working with Pat Summerall, Ken Venturi, and Ben Wright.

[29] Scully also had his first of two stints calling baseball for CBS Radio during this period, broadcasting the All-Star Game from 1977 to 1982 (usually paired with Brent Musburger)[30] and the World Series from 1979 to 1982 (alongside Sparky Anderson).

An angry Scully, who felt that his intelligence had been insulted by the move,[33] was assigned as a consolation prize that year's NFC Championship Game, which he called alongside Stram.

[33] Outside of Southern California, Vin Scully is best remembered for his stint as NBC Sports' lead play-by-play announcer for its Major League Baseball coverage from 1983 to 1989.

During his stint at NBC, Scully provided the call for one of baseball's most memorable plays when Bill Buckner made a tenth-inning error in Game 6 of the 1986 World Series against the New York Mets.

[36] Teaming with Joe Garagiola (who was the full-time lead play-by-play man for NBC's baseball telecasts from 1976 to 1982 before converting into a color commentary role to work with Scully) for NBC telecasts (except in 1989, when he was paired with Tom Seaver after Garagiola left NBC Sports following the 1988 World Series due to a contract dispute), the pair were on hand for several key moments in baseball history: Fred Lynn hitting the first grand slam in All-Star Game history (1983); the 1984 Detroit Tigers winning the World Series (along the way, he called Tigers pitcher Jack Morris' no-hitter against the Chicago White Sox on April 7); Ozzie Smith's game-winning home run in Game 5 of the 1985 National League Championship Series; the New York Mets' miracle rally in Game 6 of the 1986 World Series; the 1987 All-Star Game in Oakland, which was deadlocked at 0–0 before Tim Raines broke up the scoreless tie with a triple in the top of the 13th inning; the first official night game in the history of Chicago's Wrigley Field (August 9, 1988); Kirk Gibson's game-winning home run in Game 1 of the 1988 World Series; and chatting with former President of the United States Ronald Reagan (who said to Scully, "I've been out of work for six months and maybe there's a future here.")

[38] Laryngitis prevented Scully from calling Game 2 of the 1989 National League Championship Series between the San Francisco Giants and Chicago Cubs.

[48][49] He missed most of the Dodgers' opening homestand of the 2012 MLB season (the first five out of six games) because of an illness, returning to the announcers' booth on April 15, 2012, which was the 65th anniversary of Jackie Robinson's breaking of the color barrier in baseball.

If Scully was calling the game, Charley Steiner took over play-by-play on radio beginning with the fourth inning, with Rick Monday as color commentator.

[53] Scully was honored by the Dodgers during their September 23 home game against the Rockies, which featured a pre-game ceremony that paid tribute to his career.

The team also unveiled that Kirk Gibson's 1988 World Series home run had been named the most memorable Vin Scully call in a fan vote.

The Dodgers ended up winning on a 10th inning walk-off home run by Charlie Culberson and in doing so clinched the NL West Division title.

"[59] Scully did, however, take part in the first pitch ceremony prior to Game 2 with Steve Yeager and Fernando Valenzuela, teammates on the Dodgers team that won the 1981 World Series.

Matt Vasgersian, Eric Karros, and Steve Lyons (and formerly Dave Campbell and Rex Hudler) took over as the lead announcers in the video game series, which was retitled MLB: The Show.

[68] Harry Shearer impersonated Scully in a sketch for Saturday Night Live,[69] and has used the voice for The Simpsons when the storyline includes the fictional team the Springfield Isotopes.

He was the 14th recipient and (after Rachel Robinson) second non-player to receive the award, which was created to recognize accomplishments and contributions of historical significance to the game of baseball.

[87] During the pre-game ceremony on September 23, 2016, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti presented Vin Scully with the key to the city.

[89] In 2017, Scully's commentary for the final Brooklyn Dodgers/New York Giants game in 1957 was selected for preservation in the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

[94] Although Michael's death still haunted him, Scully, a devout Roman Catholic, said in numerous interviews that he credited his religious faith and being able to dive back into his work with helping him ease the burden and grief from losing his wife and son.