[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNlg62VNxyo&w=550&h=309]

CBS broadcaster Verne Lundquist received the seventh annual Vin Scully Lifetime Achievement Award on Thursday. Jake Kring-Schreifels covered the event for MLB.com.

“If you are in the business of radio/television, there’s no better way to begin a work week than by receiving a call and hearing the wonderful, rich baritone voice of Vin Scully saying, ‘Congratulations, and welcome to the club,'” said Lundquist. “That happened to me in December. I was overwhelmed then, and I’m overwhelmed tonight.”

Scully, the longtime voice of the Dodgers and a proud alumnus of Fordham University and WFUV radio — which distributes the awards and hosts the event each year — presented a video message to Lundquist beforehand from his familiar broadcast perch in Dodger Stadium.

“[Lundquist has] done so many sports, so many. How do you define that? He has done 20 different sports. In fact, I think Verne owes it to all of us that during his acceptance speech, he should name 20 different sports,” mused Scully. “You fulfill every definition of a national and successful sportscaster. We welcome you with open arms.” …

… While Lundquist has a distant relationship with baseball, he fondly recalled attending his first Major League game, between the Chicago Cubs and Brooklyn Dodgers at Wrigley Field.

“Don Newcombe was pitching, Roy Campanella was behind the plate, Gil Hodges, Jackie Robinson, Pee Wee Reese, Carl Furillo , Duke Snider … and in the dugout, a couple of young puppies named Don Drysdale and Sandy Koufax,” remembered Lundquist. “We had seats right beyond the first-base line. I remember early in the game looking over my left shoulder and peering up into the broadcast booth, and that’s the first time I ever saw Vin Scully. He was 29 years old.”

Read the full story here. Past winners of the award include Dick Enberg, Ernie Harwell, Pat Summerall, Al Michaels, Bob Costas and Scully himself.