Watchdog

Scully on a print of a Polo Grounds painting he has at home:

"When Shea Stadium first opened, Mrs. Payson owned the ball club. Where the press box is now was a room covered with oil paintings. I saw one and I felt like I had been kicked in the stomach.

"It was as if the artist was sitting in a box seat behind home plate at the old Polo Grounds, where I really grew up, and it’s all dark umbers and dark greens and the eye takes you out toward centerfield, because there’s a light in the clubhouse.

"There are two men standing there talking in street clothes. Now the sun is just starting to change the coloration of the sky, so your eye naturally now starts to go up the clubhouse and as the sky is brightening, you realize there is a huge derrick, and hanging from it is the destruction ball, and you realize when the sun goes up they’re going to knock down the ballpark.

"So if you want to talk about how you feel when an old ballpark goes, that’s the way I feel. That really touched me. I couldn't buy the oil, but thanks to Ralph Kiner, Mrs. Payson had a print made and framed and gave it to me and I have it to this day."

Scully on Joe Torre coming to L.A.: "Oh, you know Joe. He’ll fit in anywhere. And I’ve known him for 40 years as a player, later on when he was managing, the Mets and Cardinals. It’s great. They had a place for him and he’s a perfect fit."

Scully on sleep problems affecting him: "Although I heard 60 percent of Americans have trouble sleeping, the older you get, and the travel complicates matter with the time zones, sleep and lack of sleep seems to me plays a big part in the way your perform."

Scully on why he works alone: "It goes back to Brooklyn with Red Barber and Connie Desmond and back to New York, period. In the old days, you had Mel Allen and Curt Gowdy, and you had Russ Hodges and Ernie Harwell, and you had Red Barber and Connie Desmond.

"There was never any interplay on the air. I know Red always felt one man, one voice, and the more I thought about that when we were moving out to California, and this is probably very simplistic, but it works.

"If I want to sell you a car, is it more effective for me to talk directly to you about the merits of the car or do you think you’d be more inclined listening to me talk to somebody else about the car? The network is strictly interested in selling soap, where the local broadcast your whole idea is to get people in the ballpark. I’ve found it just makes more sense, one man, one voice, and - sell."

Scully on his old neighborhood in Washington Heights: "It was a wonderful neighborhood growing up. In those days it was basically Jewish, European Jews fleeing Hitler. And they were hard working people. Doors were wide open. It was a wonderful area to grow up."

Scully on why he rarely listens to other announcers: "I'm not a listener. It’s not ego at all. But Red Barber gave me a bit of advice when I first joined him and he said you shouldn’t listen to other broadcasters because you bring something into the booth that no one else has.

"And I looked at him and I thought what the heck do I have just out of college, and he said yourself, there’s no one else like you. He didn’t want me to consciously or subconsciously borrow tonal effect or whatever. So I don’t listen. Whatever comes out of me is me, it’s pure original, good bad or indifferent."

Scully on being honored by his alma mater, Fordham: "Back in about 2001 or 2000 when they invited me to give the commencement address I was in shock. I did that with kind of a smile in my heart looking at these fellows and girls sitting where I sat a long time ago."

More on Scully rarely watching or listening to games he is not working: "I'm not really a fan. That has long since gone. I might turn on an SC football game. I watched the last three minutes of the Super Bowl. I have 18 grandchildren, and everyone was in one house. As Eli was performing his magic, everything stopped."

Scully on Al Campanis: "Al and I roomed together for several years in Vero Beach. It's really one of life's tragedies what happened to him. When you say Al Campanis, my heart winces."

Scully on his favorite announcer when he was a child: "When I was growing up, I thought the No. 1 announcer in tonal quality was Ted Husing. His command of the language really made an impression, even on a little kid growing up."