Vin Scully, the poet laureate of baseball

(CBS News) A bobblehead figure of Vin Scully is a good-natured tribute to the legendary baseball announcer's years of service to a storied team. Lee Cowan takes us out to the ball game for some Questions-and-Answers:

It was a perfect summer evening for baseball - and on this night in Los Angeles, thousands got to Dodger Stadium a little early - for a handout.

It was Bobblehead Night - popular at every stadium. But it wasn't a player being "bobbled"; it was a voice: Legendary Dodger announcer Vin Scully.

"This man is the reason why I come to baseball games. I love Vin Scully," said Denise Robertson.

"It's time for Dodger baseball!"

That melodic voice has been the soundtrack of the Dodgers since 1950, when they were still the Brooklyn Dodgers. And at 84, Vinnie (as the players call him) is still at it.

"It's been a sport that I've loved ever since I could throw a ball," he said.

"So you still get goose bumps?" Cowan asked.

"Yeah, still do. That's really the thermometer for my love affair, my fever. As long as I get the goose bumps, I know that I should still be doing it."

From his perch up behind home plate, Scully isn't just an announcer - he's a storyteller. He uses the English language the way Casey wielded a bat.

"Fernando Valenzuela has pitched a no-hitter. If you've got a sombrero, throw it to the sky!"

Many consider him the poet laureate of baseball - a description he seems uncomfortable with.

"Well, I, you know, over 60-some-odd years, you're bound to blunder into a couple," he said.

"So these aren't things that you practice or work at?" Cowan asked,

"Oh, no! Oh gosh no, no," Scully replied. "I would be scared to death of having something that I think was so precious, that I couldn't wait to get it on the air, and I'd mess it up! No, what comes out - good, bad or otherwise - it's not only me, it's me at the moment."

And what moments he's seen! In 1974 he called Hank Aaron's hit that finally broke Babe Ruth's home run record.

"What a marvelous moment for the country and the world! A black man is getting a standing ovation in the Deep South for breaking a record of an all-time baseball idol!"

He was at the 1986 World Series for one of the most infamous errors of all:

"Behind the Bag! It gets through Buckner! And the Mets win it!!!"

And he watched an injured Kirk Gibson limp to the plate and hit a heroic home run in another World Series two years later.

"In the year of the improbable, the impossible has happened." - a call Dodgers fans remember to this day.

"I have no idea where that come from, you know?" Scully said. "And that's the fun of it. If you get a good one off once in a while, you know?"

He had an ear for it from an early age, growing up in the Bronx.

"We had a big, old, four-legged radio in the living room of our walkup apartment house, and I would crawl under that radio on a Saturday afternoon. And the crowd would come out of that speaker like water out of a showerhead, and it would just cover me, and then I would think, 'Oh, I would love to be there!'"

It didn't take him long to get there. He was fresh out of Fordham University when Brooklyn's play-by -play man, Red Barber noticed Vin had something special.

"He said, you bring something into the booth, young man, that no one else does,' and I said 'What?' And he said 'Yourself. There's no one else in the world like you.' And I've really kept that all my life."

By age 25, he was announcing a World Series, the youngest to ever do so.

"Good afternoon everybody, this is Vin Scully speaking to you from the Los Angeles Coliseum..."

By the time the Dodgers moved to Los Angeles in 1958 - Vin had settled into his comfortable and reliable style.

Fans would bring their transistor radios to the games - so as not to miss any vintage Vin - and they do the same today.

"He's literally from another generation," said Jimmy Fox. "So it literally is like you are in a time machine every time you hear him broadcast."

He does try to keep up with the times, though. When Dodger catcher A.J. Ellis hit a home run a few weeks ago, Vin asked his fans to take to Twitter.

"So maybe we outta get something trending about AJ Ellis, and if you do that, I'm really cool!"

Within a matter of innings, fans had done Vin's bidding - AJ Ellis was indeed, trending - even if Vin wasn't sure what he had done.

"To be honest with you, they told me to say that. They are trending, Twittering, Tweeting, you name it, about AJ Ellis all over the United States. He's a nice boy."

But as influential as his words are -- he's just as powerful when he's quiet.

"Some of the biggest plays you've called, you stop and just let the moment play," said Cowan.

"Yeah, I can't compete with the crowd," Scully said. "And personally, I would much rather hear the crowd than my own voice. It's very natural for me to shut up . . . upon occasion!" he laughed.

It wasn't always just baseball. Over his six-decade career he's been everything from a variety show host . . . to a pitch man for razor blades.

"All the time I knew that all I was doing was learning a little bit more about myself. I was not gonna let go of baseball, I knew that."

And he didn't. But life on the road wasn't always easy.

"It sounds glamorous, you're with a major league team and you're traveling first class, and you're staying in nice hotels. Meanwhile, your wife is home with a washing machine that's broken down, the kids are driving her crazy, and you're out there making a fly ball to center field sound like something important."

He's been cutting back on the travel, and spending more time with his 16 grandchildren - nearly all of whom came decked out in Dodgers jerseys for Bobblehead Night - to watch Vin throw out the first pitch.

"I want them to remember this long after I've departed, you know? So I wanna share this with them, with all my heart and soul."

After 63 seasons - he's won nearly ever award possible, from Sportscaster of the 20th Century, to being inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

He could retire a happy man. But that roar of the crowd he first heard on the radio all those years ago remains as infectious as ever.

He's signed on for at least one more season with the Dodgers (his 64th) with the blessing of his family and the adoration of his fans.

"There's no way I could say goodbye to all of this. Not yet anyway. In my heart, I just can't do it. Not yet."

And the heavens seemed to agree. For Vin Scully, the treasure at the end of the rainbow remains right behind home plate.