Montecito resident Dean Wilson shares story of act of kindness by Vin Scully

MONTECITO, Calif. - Vin Scully was not only a Hall of Fame baseball broadcaster but he was an incredibly kind and gracious person.

Montecito resident Dean Wilson is the President and CEO of the Turner Foundation in Santa Barbara and he shared a story of how his hero Vin Scully did an act of kindness for him many years ago.

When Wilson was 17 years old he wanted to be Vin Scully and so he wrote a letter to the 'Voice of the Dodgers' and sent it to the stadium never expecting to hear from the legendary announcer.

But three days later a person from the Dodgers called Wilson's home in the bay area and said that Scully wanted to meet the teenager at Candlestick Park when LA played an upcoming game against the Giants.

"So I went up in the morning suit and tie," began Wilson. "I am 17 and he is my hero and I want to go into broadcasting and I ended up spending two hours with him in the press box just asking him questions. He was telling stories about ice skating with Jackie Robinson, just these stories and he could tell that I really liked him and that I really wanted to be him and so one of his pieces of advice was he said Dean just remember you got to be you. That was great advice and it was two hours that I will never forget."

There are probably countless stories just like that one where Vin Scully went out of his way to help out a kid or a person that he didn't even know.

Vin Scully passed away on August 2, 2022 at the age of 94. He started broadcasting Dodgers games in 1950 in Brooklyn and moved out to Los Angeles with the team in 1958.

He called Dodgers games for 67 years before retiring at the end of the 2016 baseball season.