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Scully and DeLury. Photo: Jon SooHoo/Los Angeles Dodgers.
Vin Scully had to announce another death in his Dodger family on Sunday, the day before the season opens at Dodger Stadium.
Billy DeLury began working for the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1950, when he was 17 years old. It was the same season that Scully began with the Dodgers — Scully in the radio booth, DeLury in the laundry and mail room first, then in various jobs from tickets to programs. For 20 years he was traveling secretary, the guy who takes care of the players' arrangements on road trips. He was one of the Brooklynites who came to Los Angeles in 1958 and stayed. One of the last. DeLury died Saturday evening.
“I was privileged to know Bill DeLury for more than 60 years,” Scully says in a piece for the Dodgers blog by Jon Weisman. "From the time he was an office boy in Brooklyn and rose to become a most valuable member of the organization as our traveling secretary. A Dodger from head to toe. A respected baseball man. And a deeply religious husband and father. Anyone and everyone in baseball who knew Bill will mourn his passing and he will be truly missed.”
Monday will be the Dodgers' first opening day — and Scully's — without DeLury around in 64 years. In addition to Weisman's post, Dodgers historian Make Langill and team photographer Jon SooHoo have posted their own remembrances.
