The book on Scully ... not so fast
We fashioned a media column last November about Curt Smith's newest book project -- the professional life and times of Dodgers' Hall of Fame broadcaster Vin Scully. Smith, a well-known sports broadcasting biographer, told us the target date for the 320-page book, "Pull up a Chair: The Vin Scully Story" was April, '08, to coincide with the Dodgers' 50th anniversary in L.A. celebration.
There was no surprise that Scully wasn't thrilled to hear about it.
"It's a very helpless feeling on my part," Scully said at the time. "Now all my pals I turned down (in previous biography attempts) will think less of me ... It's a terrible feeling when your life doesn't belong to you. Very, very sad."
Latest word is that whatever Smith was trying to pull together won't be coming out anytime soon. After we'd been told that preorders for the book had stopped on Amazon.com, we tracked Smith down for an explanation.
"I wrote Vin in December that I'm delaying publication because of my friendship for him -- and also because I didn't want to distract from the 2008 panoply of Dodgers events scheduled to honor the 50th anniversary trek west -- to this Red Sox fan, the best being next month's exhibition at the Coliseum," wrote Smith in an email.
"There are still a couple parts of the book I'm not 100 percent satistifed with. I just need some time away from radio and GateHouse Media columns on the Presidential campaign to finish them. To me, this is the most electric election since 1960s Nixon-Kennedy classic, when I was a kid."
Smith, whohas a background in politics, having been a speechwriter for the first President Bush, teaches in the English department at the University of Rochester.
In the next few months, Smith said he'll have a better idea of when he'll be able to finish the book.
Scully, meanwhile, finds the decision just a temporary hurdle in his wishes still not to have the book done, even though Smith contends that it will only document his professional life and not get into any personal.
"I feel strongly that any public figure such as Scully deserves a biography, but I don't wish to be presumptive," said Smith last November. "It's something I've had in mind for at least the last 10 years."
So what's another year putting it off?