Update 4:55 p.m. Hall of fame announcer Vin Scully has been behind the mic for 64 Dodger seasons. And this afternoon he announced that he would return for at least one more.
Vin Scully is 85 years old, but he says that as long as he’s healthy, has permission from his wife and still has enthusiasm for the game, he won’t do what Dodgers fans dread: retire.
"The health has a great deal to do with it,” said Scully.
Scully said he starts every season thinking it could be his last. For the last couple years, he’s signed one-year contracts that mostly keep him off the road.
He said the team’s historically good summer certainly made his decision easier.
“[Yaisel] Puig arrived and the crowd went bananas,” Scully told reporters Friday afternoon before the Dodgers started a three-game series with the Boston Red Sox. “It was just thrilling."
He feels energized by the roar of the crowd.
"I get goosebumps, the same as anyone in the stands," Scully said. "As long as I get excited — as long as I truly feel the emotion — I should still be here.”
The always-modest Scully said he didn’t want a press conference to trumpet his return — the Dodgers insisted on it.
He didn’t seem to know what all the fuss was about.
“My career is one of talking about the accomplishments of others,” said Scully. “I haven’t accomplished anything.”
- Ben Bergman
EARLIER: Vin Scully will be back in the Dodger broadcast booth next season.
The Los Angeles Dodgers announced Friday that the Hall of Fame broadcaster will return to call all Dodger home games and road games in California and Arizona in 2014. The season will mark his 65th with the Dodgers.
"I have thoroughly enjoyed the excitement of this season and there is no way I could leave this truly remarkable team and our great fans," Scully said in a statement, adding that he has his wife, Sandi's blessing. "I love what the new ownership has brought to the team, and the energy provided by the fans, who have packed renovated Dodger Stadium. "
The feeling is mutual for the Dodgers' new owners. News of Scully's return comes as the team is on a roll, leading the National League West, nine and a half games ahead of the 2nd place Arizona Diamondbacks.
"Vin IS Dodger baseball," said Dodgers Chairman and Owner Mark Walter. "The Dodgers, the sport of baseball and the city of Los Angeles are extremely fortunate to have him in our midst."
“Being able to listen to Vin helps make every Dodger game something special,” said co-owner Earvin "Magic" Johnson.
He will call all nine innings of the team's television broadcasts on Time Warner SportsNet LA beginning in 2014, with the first three innings of each of his games also simulcast on AM 570 Fox Sports LA.
Vin Scully began his 64-year tenure with the Dodgers in 1950, with the then Brooklyn Dodgers. Three years later, at age 25, Scully became the youngest person in history to broadcast the World Series. The Dodgers lost that one to the New York Yankees. But in 1955, Scully called the Dodgers first - and only - World Championship in Brooklyn. He was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1982, and was elected the top sportscaster of the 20th century by the non-profit American Sportscasters Association.
Stats and Highlights:
So far in his career, Scully has called:
- Three perfect games, 25 no-hitters, 25 World Series and 12 All-Star Games
- Kirk Gibson’s miraculous Game 1 homer in the 1988 World Series
- Don Larsen’s perfect game in the 1956 World Series
- Hank Aaron’s record-setting 715th home run
- Sandy Koufax’s four no-hitters, including a perfect game
- The scoreless-inning streaks of Dodger greats Don Drysdale and Orel Hershiser
- Los Angeles Dodgers World Championships in 1959, ’63, ’65, ’81 and ’88