Vin Scully: Being Rose Parade grand marshall 'thrilling'

Two Southern California institutions collided Wednesday when the 125th annual Rose Parade opened with the voice of Vin Scully.

The longtime announcer for the Los Angeles Dodgers kicked off the parade New Year's morning as the grand marshall, an experience Scully described with awe.

"It's been absolutely thrilling and heartwarming," he said Wednesday evening, after conducting the coin flip for the 100th Rose Bowl game. "One of the great things about it is I was able to share it with my wife with our grandchildren, most of them, and children. So the thought that they were enjoying it as much as I made me feel even better."

Scully, 86, has participated in the parade twice before -- co-hosting the broadcast in 1967 and riding on the Dodgers float in 2008.

But neither of those experiences measured up to this year's.

"It's been really somewhat overwhelming," he said. "I'm not being falsely modest, but I didn't know why. The more people talked to me, they said, 'It's all the years you've been out here. It's your association with the Dodgers.'"

"Once I kind of grasped the idea that it wasn't that I was unworthy, and I shouldn't be doubting myself about being unworthy, then it became somewhat of a comfortable fit -- like a new pair of shoes.

"Now as we come to the end of it, it's just a marvelous treat."}

[Los Angeles Times]