(Story & Photos by Marco Stoovelaar)
 Presidential Medal of Freedom for Vin Scully
Nederlands
 WASHINGTON, D.C. (USA) -
Legendary broadcaster Vin Scully was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom on Tuesday (November 22) at the White House by President Barack Obama.
The Presidential Medal of Freedom is the highest civilian award of the United States and is presented to individuals who have made especially meritorious contributions to the security or national interests of the USA, to world peace, or to cultural or other significant public or private endeavors.
The 21 recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom were named by President Barack Obama on November 16.
The Presidential Medal of Freedom was established in 1963 by President John F. Kennedy, superseding the Medal of Freedom that was established in 1945 by President Harry S. Truman to honor civilian service during World War II.
In October, Vin Scully concluded a career of 67 seasons as broadcaster of the Brooklyn Dodgers and Los Angeles Dodgers.
Many generations of baseball-fans grew up listening to the voice of Scully on radio and/or television, covering the games of the Dodgers since 1950.
...The White House in Washington, DC...
(© Photo: Marco Stoovelaar) |
By the way, not only in the USA, but also abroad, as the writer of this article also is a fan of Vin Scully, listening to his coverage, his knowledge of the sport and its history and the wonderful, historic anecdotes and stories for more than forty years.
His voice became known as the 'Soundtrack to Summer'.
Throughout his impressive career, Scully covered many memorable moments in Dodger (and baseball) history.
That include not only a Perfect Game by Dodger-legend Sandy Koufax, but also the Perfect Game of Yankee-great Don Larsen in the 1956 World Series.
Scully also covered the record-breaking 715th homerun hit by Hank Aaron (Atlanta Braves) in 1974 that broke the al-time record of legend Babe Ruth.
Which happened in a game against the Dodgers.
Other baseball-personalities who have received the Presidential Medal of Freedom are:
Hank Aaron (2002), Ernie Banks (2013), Yogi Berra (2015), Roberto Clemente (2003), Joe DiMaggio (1977), Willie Mays (2015), Stan Musial (2011), Buck O'Neil (2006), Frank Robinson (2005), Jackie Robinson (1984) and Ted Williams (1991).
Coincidentally, the three actors who were awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom also have a link with baseball.
And as this website covers (international) baseball and softball, here are the details.
Robert De Niro played in drama-movie Bang the Drum Slowly (1973) and action/drama-movie The Fan (1996), which both are situated in the baseball-world.
Robert Redford played the leading role of Roy Hobbs in The Natural (1984) and Tom Hanks played Coach Jimmy Dugan in comedy/drama A League of Their Own (1992).
Also honored were:
Basketball-player Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the all-time leading scorer of the National Basketball Association.
He won the Championship-title five times with the Los Angeles Lakers and was named Most Valuable Player six times, while playing in 19 All Star Games.
For the film-fans amongst us, Abdul-Jabbar is also known for his role as pilot Roger Murdock in the comedy Airplane! (1980).
In this movie, he played a hilarious scene with Peter Graves, who played the part of Captain Clarence Oveur.
Elouise Cobell received the Medal posthumously.
She was a Blackfeet Tribal community leader and an advocate for Native American self-determination and financial independence.
She was one of the founders of the Native American Bank and inspired Native American women to seek leadership roles in their communities.
Comedian, actress and talkshow-host Ellen DeGeneres has won or has been nominated for numerous awards (including 29 Emmy Awards) for her work and charitable efforts.
Since 2003, she hosts her popular daytime talkshow The Ellen DeGeneres Show.
Ellen DeGeneres also is the voice of Dory in the animation films Finding Nemo and Finding Dory and she hosted the Academy Awards (Oscars) twice.
In her TV-series Ellen (1994-1998), she wrote television history in 1997 when her character revealed she was a lesbian.
For her performance in this comedy series, she was nominated three times for a Golden Globe.
Ellen DeGeneres has been a passionate advocate for equality and fairness of lesbians and gays and she is an active member of PFLAG (Parents & Friends of Lesbians and Gays).
Actor Robert De Niro has played in several memorable movies in five decades.
De Niro was nominated seven times for an Academy Award and won the Oscar twice.
One of his first major roles he played was in 1973 in the (baseball)-drama movie Bang the Drum Slowly.
De Niro played in more than hundred movies, which also include Mean Streets (1973), The Godfather: Part II (1974), The Deerhunter (1978), Raging Bull (1980), The Untouchables (1987), Awakenings (1990), Backdraft (1991), Cape Fear (1991), The Fan (1996) and Men of Honor (2000).
In 2004, he was the voice of Don Lino in the animation film Shark Tale.
He won the Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role in 1974 for The Godfather: Part II and for Best Actor in a Leading Role in 1981 for Raging Bull.
Polymath physicist Richard Garwin made pioneering contributions to US Defense and intelligence technologies, low-temperature and nuclear physics, detection of gravitational radiation, computer systems, laser printing and nuclear arms control.
He was the director of Applied Research at IBM's Thomas J. Watson Research Center and wrote 500 technical papers.
Bill and Melinda Gates established the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in 2000 to help all people lead healthy and productive lives worldwilde.
Since its start, the Foundation has provided more the 36 billion dollar in grants.
Architect Frank Gehry is wellknown worldwide.
Amongst the buildings he designed are the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, the Dancing House (Tančící dům) in Prague (Czech Republic) and the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao (Spain).
Margaret Hamilton earned the award for her contribution that led to the first manned landing on the Moon of Apollo 11 in 1969.
She led the Software Engineering Division of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which developed the guidance and navigation system for the Apollo spacecraft.
Tom Hanks is another well-respected and successful actor and movie/tv-producer.
He was nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor five times and won the award twice.
After making guest appearances in TV-shows as The Love Boat, Taxi, Happy Days and Family Ties, Hanks got his first leading role in a motion picture in 1984 in Splash.
Hereafter, Hanks played in big movies, such as A League of Their Own (1992), Sleepless in Seattle (1993), Philadelphia (1993), Forrest Gump (1994), Apollo 13 (1995), Saving Private Ruan (1998), The Green Mile (1999), Cast Away (2000), The Da Vinci Code (2006) and Sully (2016).
He won the Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role in 1994 and 1995 for respectively Philadelphia and Forrest Gump.
Besides that, he voiced several characters in animated films or series, including Woody in Toy Story 1 through 3 and will do so again in part 4, which will be released in 2019.
As a producer (and narrator/voice-over), Tom Hanks was involved in such series as From the Earth to the Moon (1998), Band of Brothers (2001) and The Pacific (2010).
He is an advocate for social and environmental justice and for American veterans and their families.
...Michael Jordan playing baseball...
...in Arizona in 1994...
(© Photo: Marco Stoovelaar) |
Rear Admiral Grace Hopper was awarded the Medal of Freedom posthumously for her leadership in the field of computer science.
She was a pioneer in computer and programming development since the 1940s and helped made coding languages more accessible.
She also created the first compiler, which translates source code from one language into another.
Grace Hopper later joined the US Naval Reserve during World War II.
Former basketball-great Michael Jordan played 15 seasons in the NBA, mostly for Chicago Bulls.
Jordan also briefly played professional (minor league) baseball.
In his career, he won the Championship-title with his team six times, was named Most Valuable Player five times and played in 14 All Star Games.
Sculpture and landscape artist and designer Maya Lin is very known in art and architecture.
She designed the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington, DC.
Maya Lin is an environmentalist and works to bring awareness to the planet's loss of habitat and biodiversity.
...The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall...
...in Washington, DC...
(© Photo: Marco Stoovelaar) |
Producer and writer Lorne Michaels is known for creating and/or producing several wellknown TV-shows.
He is the creator and producer of Saturday Night Live, which made its debut in 1975.
In this show, a guest host participates in parodies and sketches which are created by the cast.
He also produced late night talk shows The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and Late Night with Seth Meyers.
Lorne Michaels also produced TV-series 30 Rock (2006-2013) and has won 13 Emmy Awards throughout his career.
Attorney Newt Minow served in the US Army during World War II, was a Supreme Court clerk and counsel to the Governor of Illinois.
In 1961, he was named Chairman of the Federal Communications Committee by then-President John F. Kennedy.
Minow continued working private law practice and also was active in numerous public and charitable causes.
Eduardo Padrón is the President of Miami Dade College for more than four decades.
He worked to ensure that all students have access to high quality and affordable education and also innovated teaching and learning strategies.
Actor, director and producer Robert Redford also in an environmentalist.
In 1981, he founded the Sundance Institute, which includes the annual Sundance Film Festival, to stimulate the work of independent filmmakers throughout the world.
He won the Academy Award for Best Director in 1981 for Ordinary People and also has won the Lifetime Achievement Honorary Oscar in 2002.
After having played guest parts in several TV-series in the early sixties, Robert Redford went on to star in many big movies, including Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), The Candidate (1972), The Sting (1973), The Great Gatsby (1974), All the President's Men (1976), A Bridge Too Far (1977), The Natural (1984), Out of Africa (1985) and The Horse Whisperer (1998).
In 1994, he was the director of Quiz Show.
Diana Ross has a career of more than 50 years in the entertainment industry, being active as a wellknown singer, but also as an actress.
She had been nominated for an Academy Award, has been inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and has received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.
Her films include Lady Sings the Blues (1972), Mahogany (1975) and The Wiz (1978).
Singer, songwriter Bruce Springsteen is active in more than five decades.
He helped shape American music, made many famous songs, wrote storytelling lyrics and conducted memorable concerts.
He has been elected into Rock & Roll Hall of Fame with his E Street Band.
Actress Cicely Tyson has been active on television, in films and also on stage for more than 60 years.
She won two Emmy Awards for her television work.
In 2013, she won the Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in the theater-play The Trip to the Bountiful.
In 1972, Cicely Tyson was nominated for an Academy Award.
Her television-work includes The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman (1974) and Roots (1977).
(November 22)
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