Walker Bunts, Scully Scores

Credit Vin Scully for a crowd that was big enough to fill the biggest hotel ballroom around these parts for the Orange Catholic Foundation’s 15th Annual Conference on Business & Ethics, giving even the Hilton Anaheim a challenge on parking at the breakfast hour. Leave it to Scully to smooth things over—and rest assured there were no complaints about the talk he gave after getting a Lifetime Achievement Award … Credit Dan Walker of presenting sponsor Farmers & Merchants Bank with an assist in the form of a few well-chosen words to introduce Scully, who needs little advance billing as he settles into life after a 67-year career as the voice of the Dodgers … Walker’s economy of language gave maximum time to Scully, who used it to craft a parable fitting for a Roman Catholic convocation out of Ralph Branca’s role as victim of Bobby Thomson’s “Shot Heard ‘Round the World” … Then he pulled off a touch of humor at the highest levels of religiosity with a deadpan delivery about an audience with Pope Pius XII … Scully went on to offer a thoughtful ecumenical gesture with a tale about the Jewish family doctor named Henry Rose, who might have saved baseball from a terrible loss by kindly convincing the nuns who taught the future broadcaster that forcing a left-handed kid to write with his right hand could lead to a stutter … Scully shared the big day with Annette Walker of Providence St. Joseph Health, who received the Bishop’s Award for Exemplary Business Integrity … Even bigger for Chris Furman of Ventura Foods, who received the same honor as Walker, and spent the second half of the day celebrating his 33rd anniversary with his bride, Monica … It also was a big day for Catholic schools and the students in line for the scholarships that will flow from the $630,000 netted by the event … Back to baseball, with credit to Angels Manager Mike Scioscia—a longtime Dodger before he headed south—for turning out to pay respects to Scully. Just a coincidence that the Angels won five of six in the week after the event, getting above the .500 mark for the year? … Anyone in the market for Angels tickets might want to consider seats 4 and 5 in Row Z of Field Level 110. That’s where these two guys—Mark Foley and Nick Terrazas—were seated when they each got a foul ball during the home team’s 7-6 win over the Chicago White Sox last week. Both of the balls came off the bat of White Sox catcher Omar Narvaez, by the way … Kudos: to former Angels stars Bobby Grich, Rod Carew, Chuck Finley and Clyde Wright, who put their reading skills to the test against more than 100 local second-graders as part of the nonprofit Literacy Project’s Readers in the Outfield program at the ballpark last week … Sullivan Says: Anyone else think that the freshly plowed patch of land near the 405 and 133 looks like an OC field of dreams?