HALL OF FAME BROADCASTER VIN SCULLY TO RETURN FOR 61ST SEASON

LOS ANGELES – The Los Angeles Dodgers today announced that Hall of Fame broadcaster Vin Scully will return to the broadcast booth for an unprecedented 61^st season in 2010.

“For six decades, Dodger fans have been truly blessed to have Vin Scully on the air and we are honored that he will be back in the booth again next season,” said Dodger Owner Frank McCourt. “He has been the one constant over the years and I know that our fans will cherish every game he calls.”

Scully, who recently completed his record-setting 60^th campaign with the Dodgers, will be honored prior to a game next season at Dodger Stadium. His 60 years of service constitute the longest tenure of any broadcaster in sports history.

“We have had two exciting seasons consecutively -- getting into the second round of the playoffs -- and when you get that close, you look to the next year as perhaps the one that you go all the way,” said Scully, who celebrated his 82^nd birthday on Sunday. “I’m very excited and optimistic about 2010 and the direction we’re heading and we’ll take it year-to-year after that.”

Earlier this year, Scully was named as the top sportscaster of all time by the American Sportscasters Association, an honor that has been bestowed upon him by several other associations and polls. With accolades far too numerous to detail, Scully’s crowning achievement came nearly 30 years ago when he was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1982.

Scully began his baseball broadcasting career in 1950, and since then has gone on to call three perfect games, 19 no-hitters, 25 World Series and 12 All-Star Games.  He was also at the microphone for Kirk Gibson’s miraculous Game 1 homer in the 1988 World Series, Hank Aaron’s record-setting 715^th home run, Barry Bonds’ record-breaking 71st, 72nd and 73rd home runs and the scoreless-inning streaks’ of Dodger greats Don Drysdale and Orel Hershiser.

When Scully first began broadcasting, the Dodgers had yet to win a single World Series. Gasoline cost 27 cents a gallon, a postage stamp was just three cents and the minimum wage was only 75 cents per hour. Three years later, at the age of 25, he became the youngest person to ever broadcast a World Series game and in 1955, he had his most memorable moment behind the microphone, as he called the Dodgers' first and only championship in Brooklyn.

The following season, Scully once again found himself in the enviable position of calling what he would later say was the greatest individual performance he had seen -- Don Larsen's perfect game in the World Series, a broadcast which made national news again earlier this year when the MLB Network launched on January 1 with the rare footage of that game.

In 2010, Scully will continue to call all Dodger home games and the club's road games against NL West and AL West opponents. While Scully handles all nine innings of the team's television broadcasts, the first three innings of each of his games is simulcast on radio. 

MLB Celebrates Jackie Robinson Day

For the first time in Major League Baseball history, every player, coach and umpire wore number 42 today in tribute to Jackie Robinson. Every year on April 15th, MLB honors the contributions of Robinson, not only to the game of baseball but to all of American society.

The sight of every person in uniform wearing number 42 reminded Dodgers legendary broadcaster Vin Scully tonight of a story from when the Dodgers were playing a game at old Crosby Field in Cincinnati.

The team had gotten word before a game in 1947 that Robinson had received a death threat. As you would imagine, the threat was taken very seriously. Extra police were assigned to the game, including snipers on the roof of the stadium.

Before the game in the clubhouse, all the players and team personnel held a meeting to talk about the threat and how they would handle it. To say the sentiment was quite tense would be an understatement.

Scully said that during one especially quiet moment, Dodgers outfielder Gene Hermanski stood up and shouted, "I've got it. I've got it. I know what we can do."

Just as all eyes in the clubhouse turned towards Hermanski, he said, "We can all wear number 42 so they can't tell us apart!"

Everyone soon erupted in laughter for a much needed break in the tension.

Who could have imagined, at that moment, that 62 years later, there would be a game where every player in the league would wear number 42?

DODGER HALL OF FAME BROADCASTER VIN SCULLY INDUCTED INTO SPORTS BROADCASTING HALL OF FAME

The only issue I have with this news is that it is way overdue. Congrats, Vin!

LOS ANGELES – Dodger Hall of Fame broadcaster Vin Scully will be among the distinguished list of broadcasting professionals inducted into the 2008 class of the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame in New York City tomorrow night. The ceremony, hosted by CBS’ Jim Nantz, will be held tomorrow night in Manhattan at the New York Hilton and is the culmination of a selection process by more than 80 industry leaders from national broadcast networks, cable sports networks, leagues, teams, and related organizations.

Going into the HOF alongside Scully will be Marvin Bader (ABC Olympics), Chet Forte (ABC Sports), Curt Gowdy (ABC, CBS, and NBC), Teddy Nathanson (director, NBC Sports), Don Ohlmeyer (ABC and NBC), Val Pinchbeck (NFL), Bob Seiderman (CBS and Fox Sports), and Charlie Steinberg (Ampex and Sony). The Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame, formed in 2007 to honor sports TV industry innovators and leaders, announced its inaugural class last year, which included broadcasting legends such as Roone Arledge, Howard Cosell, Jim McKay, and Ed Sabol.

Scully is expected to accept the award via videotape due to the lengthy travel required to be in attendance.

Next season will be Scully’s 60th with the Dodgers, which is the longest tenure of any sports broadcaster with one team in all of sports. Last month, Scully was honored by Pacific Pioneers Broadcasters with the Art Gilmore Career Achievement Award and he has been named California Sportscaster of the Year a record 28 times, while also receiving awards from the Southern California Sports Broadcasters Association (SCSB) and the Radio and Television News Association of Southern California (RTNA). Scully took home the Best Radio Play-by-Play and Best Television Play-by-Play awards from the SCSB and won the prestigious lifetime achievement award from the RTNA.

The New York native was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1982. In July 2000, Scully was named the “Sportscaster of the 20th Century” by more than 500 national members of the American Sportscasters Association. He has been named the country’s Outstanding Sportscaster four times, and California Sportscaster of the Year 24 times by the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association. In 2001, the press box at Dodger Stadium was named in his honor. Throughout his career, Scully has called 25 World Series and 12 All-Star Games.