Vin Scully To Return For 61st Dodgers Season

I always loved his line: "If a picture is worth a thousands words, then you have seen about a million words."

 

Loved Jackson, but he's a history lesson. Vin still is. Thank God.

 

Being in his mid-80s, Vin has lost his fastball, and it's hard to watch.

 

Is there a fall-off? Yes. But Jackson's was swifter, and more precipitious.

 

Vin would agree with that.

 

Which means he's now only 70% better than most of his contemporaries.

Not a Dodger fan, but grew up listening to Vin because, well, he's Vin. Part and parcel of the soundtrack of my life and a hallmark of summer evenings for the last 36 years.

At the dawn of my baseball awareness, in 1972, the Dodgers had Vin and the Angels (my dad's team) had Dick Enberg and Don Drysdale at the mike. No wonder I'm spoiled when it comes to Voices of the Game.

 

Padres, by the way, just signed Enberg to call their games on local TV next season:

http://www.nctimes.com/sports/baseball/professional/mlb/padres/article_39b09140-5d8f-5f99-9d1c-3c6e2a1f25f0.html

Oh, my.

 

MLB Network, on the Wednesday night "Hot Stove" episode, played its "Prime 9" Vin Scully calls:

9. Bonds' 71st and 72nd homers, 2001
8. Jack Morris no-hitter, 1984
7. Rick Monday rescues the flag, 1976 (pretty rare call -- never heard it before)
6. Will Clark NLCS-clinching hit, 1989
5. Dick Dietz HBP, 1968 (heard the call, never seen the video; amazing!)
4. Buckner, 1986 (could argue this should be higher)
3. Koufax perfect game, 1965 (my personal favorite)
2. Larsen perfect game, 1956
1. Kirk Gibson homer, 1988

 

It's worth noting Scully was at the mike for the two greatest moment in Candlestick Park history: Will Clark v. Mitch Williams in the 1898 NLCS on NBC and Joe Montana to Dwight Clark for "The Catch" in 1982 vs. the Cowboys on CBS.

 

As somebody said about Darrell Green (I think) as his career wound down: If he's lost a step, it's a step most guys never had to begin with.

 

Will Clark and Mitch Williams, 1898. Was Christy Matthewson involved in that too?

I know Vin is wanting to beat Sheppard's mark and be 100 in the booth, but geez.