'Vin Scully Avenue' is now the main street into Dodger Stadium
(FOX 11) - The Los Angeles City Council on Friday renamed a street leading to Dodger Stadium after Vin Scully, whose 67 seasons as the Dodgers play-by-play man concludes this year.
The council's vote finalizes a process started in January to rename Elysian Park Avenue between Sunset Boulevard and Stadium Way as "Vin Scully Avenue.''
A dedication ceremony for the sign is scheduled for Monday, in time for the Dodgers' opening day.
The Dodgers earlier this week replaced the address on its "Welcome to Dodgers'' entrance sign to read 1000 Vin Scully Avenue, in anticipation of Friday's vote.
Several speakers Friday opposed changing the street's name in honor of the Hall of Fame broadcaster who began announcing Dodger games when Harry S. Truman was president.
One opponent, Jackelyn Valladares, said she grew up going to the park and goes running through it regularly.
"I feel that Elysian Park Avenue is the entrance to the park -- it's not the entrance to the Dodgers,'' said Valladares, who lives about a half mile from Elysian Park. "It's the entrance to quinceaneras, the parties, the police academy. It's much more than just the Dodgers."
The Citizens Committee to Save Elysian Park and the Echo Park Improvement Association also opposed the idea, with several people joining them in writing protest letters to the city saying the change "blot(s) out the name of a beloved public institution and city resource, Elysian Park.''
They backed dedicating another spot -- the intersection of Stadium Way and Elysian Park Avenue -- as "Vin Scully Plaza.''
Ken Klein of Echo Park wrote that "Vin Scully Plaza would be a very fitting tribute to this man, who is after all only a sportscaster, not a war hero, or an officer fallen in the line of duty, or a revered community leader. Give the man his due, but not the whole street.''
City Councilman Gil Cedillo, who proposed the name change, has called Scully "the voice and symbol of baseball, not just for the Dodgers but the entire nation.''
The 88-year-old Bronx-born Scully has announced Dodger games since 1950, when the team played in Brooklyn. He has said the 2016 season will be his last.
Scully has been an announcer longer than anyone else in sports history.
A ranking system devised by author Curt Smith for his 2005 book "Voices of the Game'' determined that Scully was baseball's greatest announcer, giving him a perfect score of 100, based on such factors as longevity, language, popularity and persona.
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