Vin Scully: Please tell us these fears will not be realized
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This has the makings of the saddest day in Los Angeles Dodgers history.
A day we’ve always known would come at some point, yet somehow we kept getting another magical year, were blessed with one more season of Vin Scully.
Only Vin told the Times’ T.J. Simers he would make an announcement before Sunday’s game on his future plans with the Dodgers.
Let’s be clear, I did not speak to Vin on Saturday. I spoke only briefly to T.J., and he told me nothing more than what was in his story. So this is just my reaction, and it is not good.
‘I know what I am going to do and I would imagine the Dodgers will arrange things so an announcement can be made before [Sunday’s] game,’ Scully told Simers. ‘I’d like to do that so everyone hears it at the same time. It’s the proper way to do it.’
This doesn’t sound like someone re-upping. I just don’t see Vin having a news conference to properly announce he’s coming back next year. Not even to announce he’s only going to do home games, though I’m holding out hope.
Vin has earned the right to do whatever he wants. If he only wants to do Thursday home games that fall on even numbered days, that’s what he should get.
Vin is 82 but still loves baseball, so maybe I’m way off. I hope I’m completely off. My gut is telling me otherwise.
The timing seems slightly odd, whatever the announcement. Vin has said he doesn’t want a farewell tour, which the last six weeks would become if he announces his retirement. There is always the possibility he’s going to just walk away today, though it wouldn’t be like him to leave with the rest of the season to be played out.
I keep telling myself, I could be wrong.
At every Dodgers home game, I walk into the Vin Scully Press Box. And every time it fills me with pride.
On many nights prior to the game’s start, a group of us will be sitting down in the media dining room and Vin will stop by to visit. Sometimes he pulls up a chair and we talk about whatever -- novels, World War II, some pop culture news, last night’s game. It is always the highlight of my night.
Generations, millions, have grown up with Vin feeling like part of their immediate family. And here’s the thing that probably won’t surprise you: As great a baseball broadcaster as he is, he’s an even greater person.
Vin Scully is the most beloved figure in Los Angeles history. I can’t imagine who’s second.
And selfishly, like the rest of us, I want my gut to be very wrong.
-- Steve Dilbeck