Why I owe Vin Scully cookies (and you owe me)

Vin Scully called me at home the other night.

This is the part where I sit back and gloat. Ha, ha, ha. I don’t care if you forgive me or not. I need to write it again.

Vin Scully called me at home the other night.

I witnessed the Lakers finally beat the Celtics in the NBA Finals at the old Boston Garden, Kirk Gibson’s home run and Muhammad Ali light the torch, but this rated right up there on my personal list of greatest sports moments.

“Hello, Steve, this is Vin Scully …”

My first reaction was, “Who do I know who can do such a great Scully impersonation?”

But as he went on, and began to explain his call, I realized this was the one and only. Now I’ve had the great pleasure of knowing Scully for more than 30 years and spoken to him hundreds of times, but never before had he found cause to give me an unexpected phone call.

The impetus was a post I’d written that day on the Dodgers releasing their 2012 spring training broadcast schedule. In it I had one paragraph that read:

“The only sigh-inducing element is that Vin Scully will not broadcast any games from Camelback, so he won’t be heard from until April 3 when the Dodgers and Angels meet at Dodger Stadium. Maybe we should have sent him some cookies.”

The latter was a reference to when Scully announced on TV last August he’d return for a 63rd season of broadcasting the Dodgers while holding a pair of cookies sent to him by Woodland Hills costume designer Marti Squyres, and said then:

“God's been awfully good to me, allowing me to do the things that I've always wanted to do. I asked him for one more year at least. He said, ‘OK, and be quiet, and eat your cookie.' I'll do the same thing.”

Less than a half-hour after the post about the Dodgers’ spring broadcasting plans came an email update from the team saying Scully was now scheduled to do a pair of games March 17 and March 18.

Scully said when he read my post about the broadcast schedule, and the cookies, he decided, “I could use a little spring training, too. So I’m going to do the St. Patrick’s Day game on March 17 against the Giants and then the following day against the Angels.”

In appreciation I promised him cookies, the responsibility of which was immediately passed on to the wife. She is very excited.

Now maybe that’s not exactly the way it all unfolded and how he decided to do a pair of 2012 spring games, but you’ll never convince me otherwise.

Because Vin Scully called me at home the other night.

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-- Steve Dilbeck

Photo: Vin Scully shares a laugh before a game at Dodger Stadium. Credit: Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times

Dodgers web musings: There is never getting enough of Vin Scully

Amazing, isn’t it? Vin Scully has been around for 61 wonderful years in Los Angeles, must have called more than 9,000 games.

Anyone else going back to the days of Mickey Cohen would have worn out their welcome several decades ago. Yet there never seems to be getting too much of the most beloved man in Los Angeles history.

So here comes another profile on Scully, this one from Drew Schmenner of the Desert Sun in Palm Springs, in advance of his speaking at the Sacred Heart Church and School on Feb. 11.

There may not be anything particularly revelatory in this latest piece, but Schmenner does a solid job, and even if we’ve heard the stories before, they still seem fresh coming from Scully.

Here he describes the origin of sitting back in key moments and letting the crowd’s reaction tell the story:

“It all goes back to when I was a little boy, and we had a big, four-legged radio, and I loved to crawl underneath it and listen to a college football game. When I heard the roar of the crowd — I've made it a cliché by now — but the speaker suddenly became like a showerhead with water coming all over your body, only this time, it was just sound, and it just thrilled me beyond belief, and so, to this very day, if something well-done elicits a roar from the crowd, why I enjoy every second of the pure sound of it.”

Also on the web:

-- Yes, it’s true. I guess it’s understandable, but still unsettling. The Times’ Carol Williams on Dodgers asking the bankruptcy judge to reject claims by the family of Bryan Stow for his severe beating on opening day.

-- Hall of Fame baseball writer Ross Newhan says the Dodgers’ sale is growing more shadowy every day. And he reasons correctly if Fred Claire’s group can get back in the auction if they raise enough capital to reach Frank McCourt’s $1.5-billion figure, isn’t that true of Dennis Gilbert and anyone else eliminated in the first round?

-- More hugs for McCourt. The New York Daily News’ Bill Madden writes the looming record price for the Dodgers portends well for all baseball owners, but particularly embattled Mets owner Fred Wilpon.

-- The Times’ Mike DiGiovanna looks at the best and worst free-agent signings this winter by position. He calls the Dodgers’ signing of Mark Ellis the worst value signing at second base.

-- Another ranking, this one slightly better for the Dodgers. The Chicago Tribune’s Phil Rogers ranks the Dodgers baseball’s 14^th best team, one spot behind the Giants.

-- Steve Dilbeck

Dodgers web musings: It's the daily question

The off-season for the Dodgers used to be spent wondering if the new pieces would fit, if they’d be any good, if they had a shot at the World Series.

That would normally be the first question asked by acquaintances, or those I was just meeting who discovered what I did for a living:

How are the Dodgers going to be this year?

Only, not this off-season. This winter it is seldom asked. Now the first question is always:

Who’s going to be the new Dodgers owner?

Like I had some remarkable insight into the curious cranium of Frank McCourt. I usually just reply, "The guy who bids the most." Not trying to be flip, it’s just that those of us follow the Dodgers professionally have no double-secret knowledge of what is really happening behind the scenes that we’re failing to share with the public.

Which doesn’t mean we don’t like to speculate as much as the next guy. Will it be all money for McCourt? If bids are close, does a guy with L.A. roots win out, the guy with a baseball background, the guy who took McCourt to lunch?

Jon Heyman, the veteran baseball writer now at CBS Sports, likes the chances of the Magic Johnson/Stan Kasten combo, particularly if local billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong joins their group.

Heyman  said he heard the bidding is already up to $1.5-billion range, which is certainly believable since Larry King, who was in the Dennis Gilbert group that didn’t make the first cut, told ESPN’s Jim Bowden they bid $1.25 billion.

The Times’ Bill Shaikin reported that at least eight groups advanced into the next round. They’re all stupid rich, and still waiting in the wings are billionaires Soon-Shiong and Ron Burkle, who are still expected to join someone’s group. Or some groups may yet merge, or bring in a group that didn’t make the first cut.

Really, I would tell you exactly what’s going to happen, if I or anyone else, actually knew.

Dodgers get nod they wanted: Vin Scully bobblehead night

How would you like to market the 2012 Dodgers? No significant new players to trumpet, coming off a third-place finish, ownership still in flux . . .

The Dodgers’ solution is their "Dodger Stadium Greats Bobblehead Series," which became more interesting Monday with the announcement their final three bobblehead giveaways would be Vin Scully, Kirk Gibson and Eric Karros.

Not sure which is a bigger coup, getting the beloved Scully, who had resisted previous efforts to have a bobblehead night, or Gibson, whom I believe was so irritated the Frank McCourt Dodgers would not give him a managerial look that he auctioned off his 1988 World Series memorabilia.

Guess they could have combined the two –- like they plan to do somehow with Don Drysdale and Maury Wills in their first one. You could tap Vin’s head and it could play a recording of  "In the year of the improbable, the impossible has happened." And then have Gibson’s spring on a leg so you could pat him and it looks like he’s limping around the bases.

There are 10 bobblehead nights in all -– available in their own mini-plan ticket package. Here is the schedule:

Date                Opponent                  Bobblehead

April 28           Nationals                   Drysdale and Wills

May 15            Diamondbacks           Orel Hershiser

May 29           Brewers                      Steve Garvey, Davey Lopes, Bill Russell and Ron Cey

June 12          Angels                        Mike Scioscia

June 28          Mets                           Karros

July 14           Padres                        Tom Lasorda with Walter Alston

July 31           Diamondbacks             Gibson

Aug. 7           Rockies                       Sandy Koufax

Aug. 21         Giants                         Fernando Valenzuela

Aug. 30         Diamondbacks             Scully

Three games are against Arizona, so I guess the Dodgers aren’t figuring on the Diamondbacks' NL West title last season turning them into a draw.

The list includes two ex-Dodgers whose bobbleheads will go out on the night they come in managing an opposing team (Scioscia and Gibson), two who are current broadcasters (Scully and Valenzuela) and two who want to buy the team (Garvey and Hershiser).

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Putting a face on the next Dodgers owner

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-- Steve Dilbeck

Putting a face on the next Dodgers owner

I need a new face. Though friends have been telling me that for years, I’ve finally come to that belated realization. Truth is, the Dilbeck Investment Group (DIG) bid to purchase the Dodgers is flagging.

Despite our enormous wealth, I’m certain it’s because our feisty group lacks an identifiable Dodgers/baseball face.

Everybody else has one.

Maybe Frank McCourt ultimately does select the next Dodgers owner from a pure bottom-line perspective. But if the bids are close –- and keep donating those 10-speeds to Dilbeck Investment Group -– perhaps McCourt’s farewell gift and last attempt at mollifying his shattered legacy is to select a local owner with ties to the Dodgers.

Which sadly, the Dilbeck Investment Group lacks. Although Petros Papakakis was kind enough to offer his services when I spoke with him and Matt Smith about the Dodgers ownership situation on the "Petros and Money Show" at KLAC-AM (570), I fear his Dodger connect could fall a tad short of what the competing groups are putting together.

Now clearly, if you’re Peter O’Malley, your own face is just swell. Ditto with Fred Claire, though he also has former Dodgers bat boy Ben Hwang and A’s ex-president Andy Dolich. Dennis Gilbert is a former superstar baseball agent, minor league player and current White Sox executive.

Steve Garvey and Orel Hershiser have the reverse problem. Plenty of face, gathering investors.

Every other would-be owner is adding someone with an established baseball pedigree.

Joe Torre is Rick Caruso’s guy. He’s the calming face that adds legitimacy to a developer who otherwise has no baseball background. But add Torre, and it’s instance credibility.

Magic Johnson is beloved in Los Angeles and has the kind of name recognition the other groups can’t even dream about, but zero baseball background. So he’s hooked up with former Braves and Nationals executive Stan Kasten.

Hedge fund guru Steven Cohen is stupid rich, but lives on the East Coast, and as far as we know, has never seen Dodger Stadium. Which would be just like the last couple to buy it. Cohen is reportedly adding Steve Greenberg, the former assistant MLB commissioner, and influential sports agent (and L.A. resident) Arn Tellum.

Mark Cuban remains on his own planet, as best serves him.

Other groups will emerge, and will probably have nice face. O’Malley, of course, could probably add anyone he wants with a simple phone call. Which means I need to strike quickly. Hmm, let’s see, Vin Scully or Sandy Koufax? What the heck, maybe I’ll reach out to both.

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Photo: Magic Johnson. Credit: Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times.

Never underestimate the love for Sandy Koufax

So were you at all surprised that Koufax ended up No.1 in The Times’ poll of greatest sports figures in Los Angeles history?

Shouldn’t have been.

This is not to take anything away from the others on the deserving list -– six others were from the Dodgers organization -– but Koufax is unique in Southern California sports history.

Which is why he didn’t just win, but won in a virtual blowout. He had 90 more first-place votes than No.2 Magic Johnson, 57 more than No.3 Vin Scully.

The only mild surprise should be that most of those who voted, probably never saw him pitch.

Unlike Magic, he did not make his home in Los Angeles after he retired. Unlike Scully, he did not devote more than 60 years to the game (he pitched in Los Angeles for only nine seasons).

But Koufax and the birth of the Dodgers as a Los Angeles cultural treasure are intertwined so deeply, their roots have become one. When the team moved to Dodger Stadium for the 1962 season, Koufax was their star.

Dodgers Web musings: Frank McCourt and all that jazz

It’s hard to live up to a titanic build-up, but I’m thinking the Frank McCourt versus Bud Selig face-off is going to pull it off just fine.

The bankruptcy showdown is scheduled to begin Monday in Delaware, but the pre-court filings have continued to come and they aren’t getting any sweeter.

Now Major League Baseball has attempted to put a precise number ($189.16 million) on how much money McCourt took from the team for his personal use –- or as MLB called it, "looting."

The Times’ Bill Shaikin has that update, plus how Bryan Stow could prove pivotal in the case and McCourt’s claim that Selig appointing a task force to examine stadium security after Stow’s beating was largely responsible for the attendance decline. Wrote Shaikin:

"Two days after Stow was beaten, and two weeks before Selig appointed the task force, the Dodgers drew their smallest crowd in eight years for a weekend Giants home game. The crowds remained small -- the Dodgers' attendance dropped 18% this season -- and the team blamed Selig for trumpeting his dispatch of a security task force and a trustee to Dodger Stadium within six days in April.’’

Right, that’s why attendance plummeted. Everybody was talking about that task force. Or it could be 99.9% of the fan base knew nothing about it.

The honors just keep on coming for Vin Scully

At some point, the honors for Vin Scully may abate. It seems, however, they are never going to cease as long as he’s behind a microphone. Next season will mark his 63^rd year broadcasting the Dodgers, and the honors are still rolling in.

Scully was voted into the broadcasters’ wing of the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1982. In 2010 the American Sportscasters Association named him the greatest sports broadcaster of all time. No one in Los Angeles argued.

Now on Nov. 16, Scully is scheduled to be honored at the Westcoast Sports Associates’ 16^th annual Roy Firestone Award Dinner at the St. Bonaventure Hotel.

I know, it seems as if there should be a Scully award going out to other broadcasters, not the other way around.

But the WSA is a nonprofit that promotes sports for disadvantaged youth in Los Angeles and Orange counties and says it has funded nearly $2.5 million in programs since 1995.

Web musings: One former GM looks at Dodgers' options

What to do, what to do?

It could be an interesting off-season for the Dodgers. Or it could prove highly uneventful.

But what should they do? Suggestions will come from everywhere, but here’s one from a former general manager who has some big ideas. Jim Bowden, former GM for the Reds and Nationals but now a commentator for ESPN, is suggesting a powerhouse trade with the Reds.

Assuming the Dodgers can’t sign Prince Fielder or Albert Pujols, Bowden thinks they should package Andre Ethier and Chad Billingsley to Cincinnati and consider trading James Loney to the Indians. Probably not for Carlos Santana, though.

Also on the Web:

-- Roberto Baly of Vin Scully Is My Homeboy, has found a story from Venezuela that has Ronald Belisario claiming he's going to save 20 games -- for Bravos de Margarita.

-- Orange County Register columnist Mark Whicker is not liking the chances of Matt Kemp to win the National League MVP.

-- ESPN/L.A.’s Jon Weisman looks back on Eugenio Velez and his amazing O-fer streak, though predicts he will someday beat the Dodgers with a double down the line.

-- Vin Scully gives a lengthy interview on the Petros and Money Show on the Dodgers’ new station, KLAC-AM (570). Even Scully said he often second-guesses himself after a broadcast: "I'll go home and say, 'I wish I hadn't said that, or I wish I had said this.' "

-- A retired judge has officially been named mediator between the Dodgers and Major League Baseball in the team's bankruptcy proceeding.

-- CBS Sports found a funny spoof of the "Moneyball" trailer at Jest.com. First the actual trailer, followed by the spoof on the Yankees having too much money.

  

 And from Jest.com:

  

-- Steve Dilbeck

Gloves are off: Now imagine baseball without the Dodgers

When the gloves come off, the blows tend to get your attention. As soon as Frank McCourt gets those steaks off his eyes, let’s hope he can finally see how hopeless his situation is.

Not that he has any history to suggest he will.

But on Friday, Major League Baseball did away with the feints and jabs and the fancy footwork and just delivered a blow from the ankles. Pretense is no longer invited.

The Times’ Bill Shaikin wrote that MLB asked the bankruptcy court in a filing to order the team sold, said it would never approve any media rights deal that would enable McCourt to maintain team ownership and that such a sale could result in MLB discipline that could include the team's suspension from the league.

"No one will pay the [Dodgers] to broadcast Dodgers games if the club is not part of Major League Baseball," the filing reads. "Consequently, the [Dodgers'] path in this case is a dead end or worse."

Silly, right? Come on, that would be like the NFL playing the last 17 years without a team in Los Angeles.