to Pedro Guerrero” could only be proclaimed with perfect elocution by the “GOAT” (Greatest of All Time) of baseball broadcasters. Voices of childhood Of course, growing up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin during the 80s, Bob Uecker was the AM radio sound of my baseball-loving childhood as he entered the second of six decades as the voice of the Brewers before his death earlier this year. I was blessed to later call “Ueck” a co-worker for 22 years while covering news and sports at WTMJ Radio. Yet when the biggest of games would come on your television set — the “Game of the Week” during the season, the World Series or League Championship Series in October — that smoothed-over slight Bronx accent with the ultimate levels of class would invariably flow through the television speakers: Vin Scully from Yankee Stadium, Fenway Park, his home park of Dodger Stadium. Hail Marys Scully’s Irish baritone was heard far more often in our home than Rosaries. They weren’t prayed too often in our house, one with four children attending Catholic school. We were given stories of devotion to the mother of Jesus, but it didn’t become part of our practice as kids, and it didn’t become part of regular routine for me as an adult. My Catholic faith has always been the defining element of my life — one deeply imbued into the lessons of Matthew 25 and John 15, “Love one another as I have loved you.” Hail Marys became a deeper part of my life as I met and dated the incredible woman who is now my wife of 17-and-a-half years. We would pray them at the drop of a hat, a moment of worry and concern, or a moment of great celebration. But Rosaries? Not my thing. Until a couple of months after Vin Scully retired in 2016, that is. Hooked Three years earlier, Scully told the National Catholic Register: The one saint everyone should have a devotion to is the Blessed Virgin Mary. It has been said, and I believe it to be true, that her prayers are more powerful than those of the rest of heaven combined. No one was closer or more devoted to Christ on earth, so it only makes sense to see the same thing in heaven. Now, the Blessed Virgin seeks to help her spiritual children get home to spend eternity with her Son. So it’s not surprising that the very first project Scully chose to do after 67 years of broadcasting the Los Angeles Dodgers and Major League Baseball was a Rosary. He recorded it with Catholic Athletes for Christ. With sudden strength, God hooked me to it, hooking me to the Blessed Mother who further hooked me even stronger to Jesus with it. I listened to a very unusual presentation of the Rosary in my experience. Scully not only shared with the listener — truly, the prayer participant — what each mystery is within the Rosary. He would also read the entire Biblical passage. His intonations helped me feel the strength God was funneling to Mary through the angel Gabriel, or the visceral pain as the Roman soldiers struck Jesus with a reed while mocking Him, or the wonderment and joy of Mary Magdelene and the disciples recognizing Christ had risen from the dead. The greatest baseball storyteller of them all was suddenly telling me the greatest story ever told. As I prayed those 53 Hail Marys and more, I could more completely contemplate those blessed truths coming from those moments deep in the Word of God, and find them reaching inside me where I needed healing. God, through Mary And God, through Mary, did the work. He used an everyday voice of my childhood, a fellow Jesuit-educated sports nut, to show that Ignatian truth that you can find God in all things. You can hear His handiwork in the most unexpected voices, a sound that never leaves you. Just like I miss hearing Bob Uecker break us in half with his comedic genius, I miss Vin Scully calling baseball on Saturday afternoons as the Shakespeare of sports. That’s where that Rosary recording comes in, one I’ve now devotedly prayed with just about every other day for the past eight years. God, Mary, and Vin’s voice have calmed my anxiety, renewed my faith and hope, surrounded my grief, and soundtracked my celebrations with a blanketing, perfect love that never ends. Just like the circles that line the surface of a baseball, or the sound of Vin Scully in my memory. Jay Sorgi is a veteran news and sports reporter with decades of experience with the Green Bay Packers Radio Network. He is also the author of Greater Than the Games, a study of Olympic host city bids. Marian Helper • Fall 2025 • Marian.org 25 “The greatest baseball storyteller of them all was suddenly telling me the greatest story ever told, via the Rosary.”
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