by Amaury Pi Gonzalez

LOS ANGELES–Nobody is better calling a baseball game than Vin Scully. Last night at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles a crowd of 44,874 (Dodgers are #1 in attendance in Major League Baseball) rendered Scully a standing ovation. In a business much driven by egos, Vin Scully is the best and one of the most humble people you could ever meet. Nobody can broadcast a game(without missing a play on the field)while telling you what happened to Don Newcomb during a road trip with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1956 when he won 27 games, “…and the pitch…”

Vin Scully is not going to pest you with Twitters, or StatCast or any of the silly new things in today’s baseball, because he comes into the booth to tell you about the game to entertain you, to educate you about the game, to bring you history capsules with anecdotes that only he can, he doesn’t have to go crazy when a Dodger hits a 450 foot homer, he calls it, it is part of the game.

During the past five seasons when the Dodgers came to Angel Stadium in Anaheim during an inter-league series, Vin sits to the broadcast booth immediately to my left, just across the glass. Early before a game I greet him and speak with him for a few minutes, as graceful as anybody I know, he treats everybody with respect and professionalism. I am truly looking forward to the series at Angel Stadium this September 7th to the 9th when Vin Scully will visit the Halos.

I know here in the Bay Area people grow up with that innate Dodger hate, but if you are a real baseball aficionado there is no way you can hate this man. He is as objective as anybody has ever been on the air doing baseball, and by no means a “homer”, he enjoys when the Dodgers win, and that is understandable when you broadcast for a team way over a half a century, but he is honest and straight forward, if the team playing the Dodgers makes a great play, he will give credit where credit is due.

One thing that is perfect for Vin Scully is the new “replay” rule in baseball, while a play is reviewed for a few minutes, and three umpires are wearing headsets, and are waiting for the decision from New York, Vin would tell you an anecdote of 50 years ago, like it happened the last weekend.

Congratulations Vin, and Best Wishes on your new year.

Amaury Pi Gonzalez is the Spanish radio voice for the A’s and the Spanish TV voice for the Angels and does News and Commentary at http://www.sportsradioservice.com