RIP Stuart Scott

Not at all. Stuart Scott is on ESPN. Vin Scully is a local LA announcer who hasn't had a national profile in decades.

Vin Scully may be the greatest baseball announcer of all time. I grew up listening to him. I heard him doing a game for the first time in years and I started to tear up, it made me so happy (and nostalgic). When he dies it will be the Los Angeles equivalent of a state funeral, and rightly so.

Nationally, Vin does not have the impact of Stuart Scott. It's not even close.

 

Scott interviewed Obama. Obama knew him.

The current President also pardons a turkey at Thanksgiving, fills out a full NCAA bracket and welcomes championship sports teams to the White House. Nixon used to call plays in to George Allen. Clinton played hide the cigar with chubby interns. The POTUS is not consumed by pressing matters 24/7.

 

POTUS also had an opinion on the Detroit-Dallas call.

I know he was asked a question, but good lord.

 

What's the problem then, if he was asked?

 

I have more of a problem with the person who asked than the person who answered.

 

Was thinking the same thing. A real WTF moment when I saw that story on the wire.

And I'm quite late to the thread, but am also very interested in the way this played out. I was never a fan of his style at all, partly because I don't view sports so much as fun like regular fans, and partly because I'm not in the demographic who appreciated it. Had he come along when I was a teenager/college kid, I probably would have enjoyed it. However, I am not ashamed to say I teared up more than once watching the tributes. I am never up before 10 am on a Sunday, but I just happened to be watching live when Hannah Storm broke the news. The piece ESPN had put together was tremendous, and I loved the fact that it focused a lot on his daughters. That's something they will have the rest of their lives. And I think that is why I felt it more than I expected.

I was very surprised at the level of coverage, the moments of silence and the president's comments. But it is just a combination of the timing, with all the NFL folks learning of it right before they went on air, and the fact that Stu was one of the first TV faces who was like the athletes he talked about. By accounts of those who really knew him, he was a good guy, but it doesn't surprise me that there was a big-timing/egotistical side to him. I don't know him, so I can't say for sure, but it seems like his fight humbled him, and you can't help but respect him continuing to work despite what he went though. Off and on for 7 years.

 

Here's Vitale being Vitale, so of course I think he overdid it. Watch and listen to the clip.

After No. 18 North Carolina beat No. 5 Louisville at home on Saturday,
announcer Dick Vitale yelled, "boo-yah" multiple times in honor of the late Stuart Scott.

http://www.si.com/college-basketball/2015/01/10/dick-vitale-stuart-scott-boo-yah-north-carolina

 

Like his online persona or not, he definitely left an indelible mark on the profession and on the lives of many.

RIP to a man who will forever be cooler than the other side of the pillow.

 

I respect his place in the history of sports broadcasting, especially as it relates to race. And his fight against cancer was obviously tragic and heroic. But I never liked his shtick and it always struck me as less than genuine.

 

One of the greatest to anchor ESPN -- the national (and international) stage of sports. I also used to think his act was going corny but it wasn't until we lost it that I saw how valuable his work has been for sports. He made it cool to report sports at a time when most where simply "reporting sports."