[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVBahpC9g-8]
By Jon Weisman
Good day, everyone. I’ve got a long buildup of links to share, and today’s off day provides the opportunity.
Tag: Vin Scully (Page 8 of 17)
By Jon Weisman
In his how-could-it-not-be-lovely feature on Vin Scully for the Washington Post, Chuck Culpepper passes along this anecdote from the legend.
… All along, he has sustained an appreciation for the skill on the field. That began in earnest his first year, 1950, in Brooklyn Dodgers days, when manager Burt Shotton had heard of Scully’s Fordham center-field days — good field, good throw, jammed too often as a hitter — and asked him to don a Gil Hodges uniform one day before an exhibition in Battle Creek, Mich.
“Gil Hodges was a marble statue,” Scully said. “And here I am, ‘Dodgers’ is down by the belt. My number is halfway down the back of my pants. But I got the uniform on, and I have a glove and all that. And I go out, and I remember, I played pepper with Carl Furillo, he was our right fielder, terrific guy. And it was just like college, playing pepper and everything. And then, I went out in the outfield, and Shotton said, ‘I want to see you shag some balls.’ And I said, ‘Okay.’
“I went out to center field, and there was a left-hand pitcher named Joe Hatten. And Joe and I were standing out there, maybe 300 feet from home plate during batting practice. And Roy Campanella got into the batting cage. And he swung, and he hit what I would call a high line drive. It just stayed straight. And I said, ‘Joe, I’ve got it.’ And he said, ‘Okay.’ And I caught it, but you know, the impact was like no impact I ever felt before. It was like maybe I was playing third base. And as soon as I caught it, I remember I turned to Joe and said, ‘Joe, I don’t belong out here.’ And you have no idea how fast that game is that they play.”
And: “And I watch them day after day and I think, ‘How good they are. Ho-oh-ly mackerel.’ And that’s what I love about it.” …
Read the entire piece here.
By Jon Weisman
One day in May, this little item appeared deep in the game notes of the Times’ Frank Finch:
Maury Wills and Willie Davis cut records with Stubby Kaye Friday afternoon as well as doing single platters. During the session Jimmy Durante made a record called ‘Dandy Sandy,’ singing the praises of Prof. Koufax. Wills said it would be a smash.
You didn’t think I would leave you hanging, did you?
By Jon Weisman
The 1965 Dodgers spent the last 28 days of May in first place — including Memorial Day, May 31, when 50,997 at Dodger Stadium saw the Dodgers and Reds split a doubleheader — but it was hardly an uneventful month. Here’s a word album of what was happening 50 years ago …
Here’s 20 minutes of Vin Scully talking to Roy Firestone in 1990 on ESPN’s “SportsLook,” which also includes an unforgettable clip of his Hall of Fame speech at Cooperstown.
Scully on the post-war Brooklyn Dodgers: “It was a team with nicknames that stuck to the ribs.”
– Jon Weisman
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Of Satchel Paige, Whitey Herzog and holes in fences … in the words of Vin Scully from Tuesday’s broadcast.
— Jon Weisman
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XJHfgGuurI&feature=youtu.be&t=25m29s
I wonder if David Letterman thought he’d retire before Vin Scully when they met up for this 1990 interview.
Pace of play is part of the conversation, and — go figure — so is the Grateful Dead.
(Thanks to Tom Hoffarth of the Daily News for the link.)
— Jon Weisman
By Jon Weisman
Moving past their big preseason scare regarding Sandy Koufax’s elbow, the Dodgers’ found some rhythm in April. Los Angeles spent most of the month in first place, going 10-5.
Here are some tidbits of the times — a really fun time capsule, if you ask me.
For more photos from Friday, visit LA Photog Blog.
Rockies at Dodgers, 6:10 p.m.
Jimmy Rollins, SS
Yasiel Puig, RF
Adrian Gonzalez, 1B
Howie Kendrick, 2B
Yasmani Grandal, C
Andre Ethier, LF
Juan Uribe, 3B
Joc Pederson, CF
Zack Greinke, P
Jimmy Rollins, SS
Yasiel Puig, RF
Adrian Gonzalez, 1B
Howie Kendrick, 2B
Yasmani Grandal, C
Andre Ethier, LF
Juan Uribe, 3B
Joc Pederson, CF
Zack Greinke, P
By Jon Weisman
A quick stack of news and notes …
- Today is the 65th anniversary of Vin Scully’s first Dodger broadcast.
- Maury Wills is being inducted into the Washington D.C. Sports Hall of Fame on Sunday.
- David Huff is back with Oklahoma City after clearing waivers and accepting an assignment there.
- Adam Liberatore, called up before Friday’s game, pitched a perfect inning in his MLB debut.
- Yasiel Puig is back in the Dodger lineup, but Carl Crawford is battling the flu. Taking Crawford’s place is Andre Ethier, who is 7 for 20 with three walks and three extra-base hits this season, for a 1.091 OPS.
- Zack Greinke takes the hill tonight with a 0.69 ERA in 13 innings, with eight baserunners against 11 strikeouts.
- Kenley Jansen threw off a mound today for the first time since his February foot surgery.
- The year’s first Viva Los Dodgers (presented by State Farm and Time Warner Cable) will take place at 11 a.m. at the historic 76 station behind center field. If it’s warm out there, blame the red-hot Dodger slugger Adrian Gonzalez, who will make a special appearance from 11-11:30 a.m. to officially launch his community program, Adrian Gonzalez’s Viva Los Dodgers Days. Manny Mota will sign autographs from 11:30 a.m. to 12:50 p.m., and musical entertainment will be provided by Latin Grammy-nominated Trio Ellas and Mexican regional artist Jesus Mendoza.
- In addition, mega-DJ Steve Aoki will be at Dodger Stadium on Sunday for a pregame performance.
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By Jon Weisman
How do you write the pitcher who has been disssected from seemingly every conceivable angle? For the 2015 regular-season debut of Dodger Insider magazine, our answer was to step out of the way and let the true experts take the lead.
For the April 2015 issue, we asked Vin Scully, Rick Honeycutt, Orel Hershiser and A.J. Ellis for bylined pieces on what, in their minds, makes Kershaw who he is. Here’s how it begins.
The stories are all insightful, with Ellis’ being particularly poignant and affecting. We’ve also transcribed Kershaw’s memorable awards-acceptance speech from January, which is only the more remarkable when you see it laid out in front of you.
Beyond the Kershaw series, this issue is chock full of features, including but not limited to what you see at right. Here are some more examples:
- Personally Speaking: Yasmani Grandal primed to prove he’s worth the price.
- Stadium Ways: For a few moments every spring, Dodger players make screen magic.
- Broadcast News: Jaime and Jorge Jarrin form a dream team in ’15.
- Myth and Reality: Even champions usually lack an ideal leadoff man.
Plus an even more expanded History Corner, our usual collection of photos and games, and much more …
The April issue of Dodger Insider is available to purchase in person at the Top of the Park gift shop at Dodger Stadium now and will be at all Dodger team stores starting with Saturday’s Freeway Series game against the Angels.
To subscribe to Dodger Insider, visit dodgers.com/magazine. Note: Subscriptions received through April 13 will begin with the May issue. Subscribe by April 30, and receive a free copy of the 2015 Dodger Yearbook.
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By Jon Weisman
If you didn’t get to hear Vin Scully at FanFest on Saturday, above is a special video capturing his words, where you can hear about his nightmare of “being chased by a giant clam screaming ‘Linguine!'” That’s right.
And now for more news about us mortals …
- Rehabbing from two surgeries, Chris Withrow is hoping to make it back to a Major League mound sometime in 2015, reports Ken Gurnick of MLB.com. “When I began tossing Nov. 2, my arm felt incredible,” Withrow said. “But you know the back has bothered me off and on for years and it had gotten significantly worse. We just felt it made sense to get it taken care of as long as I was already out.”
- Joel Peralta had a customs nightmare in Miami that prevented him from attending FanFest, writes J.P. Hoornstra of the Daily News.
- The Jaime Jarrin Scholarship is being established by Servite High School in Anaheim for Latino students with leadership potential. “I feel extremely and humbly honored,” the Hall of Fame announcer said.
- In a chat, Bill James suggested the 1942 Dodgers as the best second-place team of all time. His explanation:
The ’42 Dodgers went 104-50, but finished 2 games behind the Cardinals. You know, mathematically, one team in 8,000 should be strong at all 13 positions (8 regulars, 4 starters, relief pitchers). Since there are only about one-third that many teams in baseball history, then probably there should be no team that is above-average at every position–and, in fact, there isn’t, although I think one can argue for one of the Yankee teams of the 1990s. Anyway, there isn’t, but the 1942 Dodgers are very close to being strong at every position, with Hall of Famers at second (Billy Herman), third (Arky Vaughan), short (Pee Wee Reese) and in left field (Medwick). Their first baseman was Camilli–1941 MVP. In center field was Pete Reiser, an outstanding player for a couple of years; in right field was Dixie Walker, who had something close to Hall of Fame ability, athough his career was broken up at the start by a serious injury and fouled at the end by his infamous role in the Jackie Robinson story. Anyway, 7 really good starters; the 8th was catcher Mickey Owen, who was a good player. Starting pitchers Kirby Higbe, Whitlow Wyatt, Curt Davis and Johnny Allen–all of whom had good careers and were effective in 1942, relief ace Hugh Casey. It’s as close to a perfect team as there has ever been. Larry French was the starter/reliever swing man; he went 15-4 with a 1.83 ERA. . ..he also had an outstanding major league career.
In the same chat, James addresses who would win between a team of nine Clayton Kershaws and nine Mike Trouts.
- A career retrospective of Buzzie Bavasi at In Pursuit of Pennants comes from Mark Armour and Dan Leavitt, who rank Bavasi the No. 7 general manager in MLB history.
As good as the Dodgers were, Bavasi is perhaps underappreciated because he made fewer trades than his contemporaries. “Why play poker,” he said, “when you’re the only one in the game with any money?” The Dodgers developed their own talent, and Bavasi was rarely called upon to find more.
- Carl Erskine will play the National Anthem on his harmonica before Friday’s Pacers-Cavaliers NBA game in Indianapolis. Dana Benbow of the Indianapolis Star has a nice feature on the Dodger great, including stories you probably haven’t heard before.
- Dodger senior vice president of planning and development Janet Marie Smith will join team historian Mark Langill in presenting an insider’s tour of Dodger Stadium, complete with dinner, drinks and a Q&A, on Tuesday for $50, through a special deal with Master Card.
- Across the country, Smith will also be giving a talk at the Albany Institute of History & Art on February 22, as part of a special baseball exhibition there. Friend of Dodger Insider and official MLB historian John Thorn will also be speaking there on Sunday.
- “The Story of Billy Bean,” a one-hour documentary hosted by Bob Costas about former the one-time Dodger’s experience as one of two MLB players to publicly come out as gay, will premiere Tuesday at 6 p.m. on MLB Network. At one point, Bean talks about being sent down to the minors on the same day in 1995 that his partner died.
By Jon Weisman
For the first time, Hall of Fame broadcaster Jaime Jarrin and his son Jorge will form the broadcast team for the Dodgers’ Spanish radio broadcasts on KTNQ 1020 AM.
Pepe Yniguez and Fernando Valenzuela will be the Spanish broadcast team for SportsNet LA on television, with Manny Mota contributing on both radio and TV.
On the English-language side, the broadcast teams pick up where they left off, starting with Vin Scully on SportsNet LA for Dodger home games and select road games. Scully will simulcast the first three innings on KLAC 570 AM, with Charley Steiner and Rick Monday taking over on radio in the fourth inning.
For the other games, Steiner, Orel Hershiser and Nomar Garciaparra will work TV, with Monday joined by Kevin Kennedy on radio.
This is season No. 66 for Scully with the Dodgers and No. 57 for Jaime Jarrin. Monday is working his 23rd season behind the Dodger mic; Yniguez his 17th, Valenzuela his 13th and Steiner his 11th. Mota is in his sixth season as a Dodger broadcaster and 47th overall with the franchise.
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By Jon Weisman
“On a Thursday night at Dodger Stadium, the crafts of pitching and broadcasting came as close to perfection as we’ll ever see,” said Tom Verducci at Saturday’s Baseball Writers Association of America dinner as he introduced the Willie, Mickey & the Duke Award, going to the Cubs’ Bob Hendley and the Dodgers’ Sandy Koufax and Vin Scully in recognizing the historical significance of the September 9, 1965 night that Scully broadcast Koufax’s perfect game beating Hendley’s one-hitter.
“The broadcast of the game, we’ve heard it a lot – at least I have,” Koufax said, “and Vinny was so special, it’s probably more exciting listening to him than it was doing it that night.”
Hendley, who joined Koufax in accepting the award, noted that Saturday was the first time he had actually met Koufax. He also charmingly pointed out that five days after the perfect game, he outdueled Koufax with a four-hitter in a 2-1 victory, meaning that in the two games combined, each pitcher allowed exactly two runs on five hits.
But Hendley could not have been more gracious to Scully or Koufax.
“If you get beat, get beat by class, get beat by the best,” Hendley said. “And he is the best, and he is class.”
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By Jon Weisman
The video above captures the flavor of celebration at Saturday’s Professional Baseball Scouts Foundation dinner in Century City, with Vin Scully, Chan Ho Park, Peter O’Malley, Dusty Baker and Tommy Lasorda among the interviewees.
Next is a less Dodger-centric snapshot, with more focus on the transition between retiring MLB commisioner Bud Selig and his successor, Rob Manfred:
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Below, filmed at the same event, Stan Kasten and Charley Steiner talk about the Dodgers’ offseason changes …
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