Tonight's DJ Houlton Over/Under is a merciful 5 IPs. Over/Under on Dodger runs is 2, Over/Under on Dodger hits is 6, Over/Under on Clemens Ks is 11.
vr, Xei

my picks are:

IPs > 5
Runs > 2
Hits > 6 (3 for Robles alone)
K's < 11

Game pick...we take a 4-2 lead into the 8th

Where do over/under come from? Does somebody make them up, or is there some sort of calculation used (average innings pitched per start)?

Wunsch seems like he has a lot of heart and scrap for feeling so bad after the injury.

Thoughts re: Vin Scully -

It is hard to pick one great moment or recollection with him, he is consistently great, day in and day out. He takes a sport that can, at times, be slow and drag on, and with his stories, descriptions and accounts of the games, makes them interesting.

After 45 years of listening to him, he is like a part of our family.

4 - Wunsch has a bonus clause that kicks in with 50 appearances

Funny, Xei's comment isn't showing up for me on the counter on the main page.

*

I love listening to baseball on the radio. Even when games are on TV, I'll often choose radio (to the extent I make such choices these "my schedule is my childrens' schedule" days). But I almost never meet anyone else who feels the same. And I know why: I grew up with Vin Scully and they didn't.

And it's not just nostalgia -- I've lived in a lot of cities and muddled through with a lot of radio announcers who just can't understandably convey a meaningful picture of the game. Our love of his wonderful language, voice, knowledge, heart is all possible only because Scully has such mastery of the basic job of telling the whole story of a ballgame to folks who can't see it.

Another thought on Scully that really sets him apart:

He calls the game as it is played, as it is. He is not, and never has been, a "homer". If the other teams plays well, he commends them, if the Dodgers play poorly, he criticizes them.

comment counter now working, and I've learned that I'm the sixth slowest commenter on DT.

Jon's post reminded me of a question I wanted to ask a while back. When Jim Murray died, they held a memorial at Dodger Stadium, hosted by Vin Scully. I took my Jim Murray-loving dad. Anyone else in this crowd happen to be there that day? Needless to say, Scully was perfect. Recalled some very funny lines about Murray's near-beatification of Ben Hogan. I recall Ann Drysdale was pretty funny, too, esp. given the occasion.

Where is this comment counter?

*

#8,
I agree. One of the things I always admired about Scully was that he was able to convey his love for the Dodgers in a respectful way, without being a homer. I can't stand listening to some announcers for other teams(anybody seen a recent White Sox telecast on WGN?) because if you don't like the team, they just seem so rude. I'm certain the same can't be said for Scully.

fanerman -- when I call up the main DT page, at the bottom right of each post it says "permalink : comments (#)" with # being the number of comments so far. I use Internet Explorer, your mileage may vary.

Ohh that. But how did you know that you're the 6th slowest commenter?

I'm not a betting man, but I would likely bet large sums of money that Roger Clemens will NOT throw a no-hitter tonight. I don't see any particular reason why he will.

if you don't like homers, try listening to the LA Angels...they might be the worst I've heard in this respect.

If there is a poor call against the other team, they call the other players poor sports, that's the way it is and move forward...if there is a poor call against the Angels, they are robbed, the officiating is poor, that's no way to play a game...

It's really hard to listen to sometimes.

Wasn't on the site much yesterday, whats the scuttlebutt on the Redsox picking up another moneyball/dodgerthougts reject in Alex Cora?

12 -- just a dopey joke. When I went to comment, there was 1 (Xei), by the time I actually spit out my comment, it was 7.

13 - I agree with you, its like when Koufax would face Marichal at the top of their games...invariably, both starters would be lit up early and often.

16,
D'oh. I just wanted to know if they kept stats on our posting habits or something.

More Poetry (particularly appropriate for this injury, I think):

From Bball Almanac:
http://tinyurl.com/b8zbs

Slide, Kelly, Slide!

Your running's a disgrace!

Slide, Kelly, Slide!

Stay there, hold your base!

If some one doesn't steal you,

And your batting doesn't fail you,

They'll take you to Australia!

Slide, Kelly, Slide!

4. The Over/Unders come from a very complex computer program that I have. It takes a special computer called a Giga Ultra External Super System or G.U.E.S.S. I'm the only person I know of with such a system, so leave the Over/Unders to me. :)
vr, Xei

Actually, I'd say the over/under on a double-digit strikeout game is better than a no-hitter.

When I hear Vin Scully broadcasting baseball I really know it's spring.

20 - I guess we will have to...

it would seem to me that it'd be pretty hard to throw a no hitter against a triple A team because you have very little info about who you're pitching to.

What will make the game more enjoyable will be the stylings of Charlie and Psycho.

Ahh, that will be bliss....

18 Probably someone here in Washington on that as we type.

for me, scully's best moment was actually when he told us about drysdale's death. imagine having to go on with the broadcast, without one of your partners whom you have known for 30-something years, without letting anyone know why he is missing because his family had not yet been notified. then, when the time came, breaking the news professionally and personally at the same time. i can still hear him saying "many of you knew don had an angioplasty..."

i was at the 88 ws game, so i missed both his call and jack buck's live (i have since seen/heard both many times). i agree with costas ("kill bob costas", by the way) in that buck's call was better for the moment, but vin's complete call of that inning was just as good.

for the past 8 years i have lived in minneapolis, and have heard scully too few times until this year when i bought the ondemand package. although i fall asleep during too many of the broadcasts, i fall asleep to his voice, just as i did as a kid sitting at the dining room table while my dad finished his paperwork with the transistor radio tuned to vinny, ross, and jerry doggett.
powerful stuff.

Picking out one Vin Scully moment is tough for me because that means there's a particular reason to have a favorite. I can't do it. There's too many to choose from.

My enduring gratitude to Vinny is this: no one keeps me listening like he does. If it's a crucial game, there's no one I'd rather have behind the mike. If it's an August game and the Dodgers are miles out of the race, well, there's no one I'd rather have calling a game. He is to broadcasting what Ellington was to jazz--good luck trying to categorize him because it can't be done.

Oh, and this reminder...

Ladies and Gentlemen,

From July 25 to July 28, Year of our Choi 2005, the Dodgers will be
playing host to the Cincinnatti Reds. I propose that we make one of those
nights a "Dodger Thoughts Adam Dunn Scouting Excursion." Actually, Icaros
proposed this but I'm stealing his idea.

Here's how this is going to work.

1) Starting today (actually it was yesterday), we're going to have a vote on which of the four games
to attend. You can vote via-email at claytonl@ucla.edu. Please enter
"Dodgers vs. Reds vote" in the subject field and in the message, enter
the game you think we should all attend. Jon Weisman's vote, should he
choose to attend, will carry a lot of weight. Voting ends midnight Friday
(tomorrow).

2) Saturday morning, all who responded will get a mass e-mail from me
announcing the winning date with instructions on what you should do next.
Those instructions will read like this:

"Hi. It's me, Suffering Bruin, and by vote we've decided to make the
Dodger Thoughts Adam Dunn Scouting Excursion for (winning date). If
you want to attend this game, you must respond to this e-mail by 12pm
Sunday. That's tomorrow so don't delay! I plan on purchasing Reserved
Level seats for the game on Sunday afternoon; you can reimburse me at the
gate. You'll be responsible for getting to the game though I'll be
borrowing a mini-van and I'm happy to arrange a carpool. Thanks for your
support of the Dodger Thoughts Adam Dunn Scouting Excursion."

3) Those who decide to attend will get a confirmation e-mail from yours
truly that I have purchased a Reserved Level seat for the game.

Icaros and I will most certainly be attending but more are invited. Let
me know folks. Our team needs not just any Dodger fan but the people who
spend way, way, WAY too much time thinking about them. As if we'd have it
any other way, right?

I'll look forward to your e-mails.

Best,

Suffering Bruin

I wonder if anyone was listening to the Oakland radio broadcast in 1988 for Game 1 of the World Series.

I assume Bill King did the call. That could be one of the great "lost" moments. Sort of like Ernie Harwell calling Bobby Thomson's home run in 1951 on TV, but no one remembers it because the only tape made was of Russ Hodges on the radio.

With Ledee getting activated, is there no excitement as to who might get DL'd or sent down or (gasp) DFA'd?

I suppose Wunsch is a prime candidate to be DL'd.

28 - have the night on Tuesday, we will all be there hoping to win a car...

30 - Kent is feeling much better, sounds like a DL candidate to me...

Uh, Howard:
From 2:
my picks are:
...
Runs > 2
...
From 3: - Game pick...we take a 4-2 lead into the 8th

Hard to take a 4-2 lead into the eighth when we score only 2 runs for the game ;)

Anyway, I'll take:

IPs > 7 (I think we'll have the "I'll show you who's a Rule 5 guy!!!" effort)
Runs > 1
Hits > 4
K's < 8

24 - So what is the general concensus on Steiner/Psycho? On MLBEI I either have the other teams FSN announcers or Vin so I have not seen them call a game.

33 -

> means greater than....

Re 28 Needless to say, I'll not be voting or coming to see the Outfielder of the future, but I'm procrastinating an unpleasant phone call and generally a busybody, so -- Do you worry that potentially-interested folks may not be as likely to check and respond to email on a summer weekend as they would during the week? Maybe not an issue with the hardcores here, but often that's the case, I think.

34 - Thanks for pointing out the obvious to the obviously stupid (me)... sorry for the waste of space.

36 - no problem, I often consider my comments in that light

Whenever I listen to Vin, no matter what is happening in the real world, I know that while he is calling a game, life is good and everything is OK.

Is there really any one Vin moment to pick? I'm partial to the Milton ball throwing incident from last year (paraphrased of course) "Like rice at a wedding, balls are flying on to the field".

On a more personal note, my recently departed grandmother (and huge, huge Dodger fan) always loved when Gagne came into the game and the enthusiasm Vin had for calling the 9th when Game Over was out there.

39 - agreed, and in reference to the "Oh My Gosh, what a PITCH!" call that Vin made in the Yankee game, I have never ever heard him make a call with more bewilderment and enthusiasm.

One reason I perceive Eric Gagne to be so good is that Vin Scully, a man that has seen hundreds of thousands of pitches thrown in 50 years by washouts and Hall-of-Famers alike, has never seen anything quite like Gagne. It is apparent in his voice. He was transformed into one of the kids at the ballpark hoping to see "the Great Gagne", as he put it, strike out the side.

For me, Vin represents a connection to my childhood - the one constant year in and year out. If you were to add it up, in terms of the sheer volume of hours, I have undoubtably heard Vin's voice more than anyone else in my life aside from my immediate family.

Somehow, the continuity of Vin wishing us "a very pleasant evening to you wherever you may be" brings perspective to life and captures the beauty of baseball perfectly. It is also largely responsible for why I somehow find myself watching a 7-0 drubbing of the Dodgers in the 8th inning.

Jon, somewhat related to your morbid funeral thoughts, Vin is the only person I have not personally met that I am planning to send a thank-you card to - as some small gesture of thanks for all the good times.

The Vin Scully call of Gibson's homer is superior to Buck's. I don't see how "She is ... gone! ... In a year that was so improbable, the impossible has happened" (I might have the exact syntax wrong) doesn't beat "I don't believe what I just saw." Add in the beauty of Scully's voice over Buck's rasp. I hate when the clip is shown and Buck's call is played.

Also, may I belatedly make the following comment in reference to yesterday's misfortune:

"Looks like the Dodgers are skipping Wunsch today."

42 - maybe I'm misunderstanding your post or I'm confused, but wasn't Buck the one who said, "I don't believe...what I just saw!"

Personally, I prefer Vin's "In a year so improbable..." It's more poetic, and a little more tailored to Dodger fans.

Unless I'm getting owners of the two calls confused?

yes, i was confused. the parenthetical threw me. I apoligize and will stop posting for a while. Well put.

42 i agree with you about vin's call (your syntax is correct) being superior, if you consider the totality of it (beginning with "look who's comin' up...", continuing with silence as gibby rounds the bases, and ending with the improbable/impossible comment), but the "sound bite" element of buck's call is what i appreciate. i like buck's call (actually, just the line "i don't believe what i just saw" because i can relate to the incredulous tone he takes. i don't care for his entire call (with bill white? chiming in). for that matter, i don't care for garagiola butting into vin's call, either.

With respect to Vin Scully, it must be said that one of his greatest, if not his greatest attribute, is that he painted a more complete, more accurate, and more beautiful picture of a baseball game while working alone as any two or three-member broadcast crew I've ever heard. And he did it using far fewer words.

As for memorable moments, I think his Kirk Gibson home run call in the 1988 Series was actually better than Buck's because, as the Dodgers' announcer all year long, he could put it in its proper context: "In a year that has been so improbable, the impossible has happened." Perfectly said.

Finally, Scully's call of Koufax's perfect game on September 9, 1965 is certainly one of his best. I wasn't even alive then, but hearing or reading his call always makes me feel as if I was there.

#43,
Speaking of "Wunsch" time... Is it me or does the posting rate slow down around 11 or so? Seems a little early for lunch, but maybe it's because the people at work that have been slacking for the last couple hours finally decide that they should get some work done before lunch.

47 - you weren't even alive then...omg, do I feel old...

48 - speak for yourself, I slack off all day long

#50,
Haha so do I. Maybe it's the other people, but conversations always seem to die around that time.

51 - because they haven't learned to eat with one hand and type with the other....

Having loved and listened to Vinny for over 40 years, for all the reasons you guys have stated, I'll just ask: When Vinny ends each broadcast with "goodnight, everybody"...am I the only one who answers back?

To Eric Neel c/o Dodger Thoughts

I have never lived in LA or Brooklyn either for that matter, so I can't say what Vin means to the community. As a life long baseball fan I can say that Vin is the voice of reason for a game that too often shows reason the door. Other broadcasters start to shout when the action reaches a critical moment; Vin remains calm and describes what is happening with words that bring the game alive. I have listened to Vin's call of the 9th inning of Sandy's perfect game countless times. Somehow I never grow tired of hearing it. I wince when I imagine some other broadcaster(or myself) behind the microphone for that perfect moment. Vin is the only broadcaster I know who could match Sandy pitch for pitch. Rembrandt describing Piccaso.

I am old now but I remember back to a day when I was young standing near the Dodger dugout at Connie Mack Stadium with autograph book in hand. A bunch of other kids were around me getting autographs too. In the Dodger dugout I spotted a fellow with wavy hair wearing a coat and tie who I asked to sign my book. He graciously complied. The other kids around me after I got the autograph were giving me looks as if asking, "Who's that?" If I had been in Los Angeles instead of Philadelphia I don't think I would have gotten those quizzical looks. Thanks for the autograph and thank you Vin for so much more.

Stan in Tacoma

Don't have anyone particular Vinny moment. My grandparents were the reason I became Dodger fans. They lived in Glendale while my family moved around every year because I was an Army brat. They would visit and always talk about the Dodgers. We finally moved out in 69 to stay and that 1st summer we stayed with my grandparents while my father finished up business at the Pentagon. It was a great time as every evening we'd sit down and listen to Vinny. He really did become part of the family. The whole street was into the Dodgers and listening to Vinny. It was all about Vinny. I'm convinced that if Vinny had not come out with the Dodgers that my grandparents and 1000's of others would never have been turned into Dodgers fans. My biggest regret of going to Dodger stadium these days is that no one has Vinny on the transistor radio's that used to populate the stadium. He's a treasure and I know he's starting to make a lot of mistakes. I don't mind them but I bet he does and I'm sure he'll step down when he feels he can't do the job at the level he expects of himself. I Thank God for Vin Scully and I'm an atheist.

Vin Scully -- Practically Perfect In Every Way

One aspect of Scully's style that I haven't seen mentioned here is the masterful way he weaves stories into the game action. He will pause his story on a perfect beat, pick up the game action for as long as necessary, no matter what happens in the game, then pick up his story exactly where he left off. He may have to pause the story for several batters or several long minutes, and always come back perfectly into it when the game action inevitable lulls. This happens seamlessly and beautifully and creates a wonderful "dual narrative" experience for the radio listener. I've never heard any other announcer come close to replicating this skill.

I'll just ask: When Vinny ends each broadcast with "goodnight, everybody"...am I the only one who answers back?

No Jim, you're not the only one.

I've been listening to Scully since 1974, when my family moved to LA. Same experiences as a lot of you, falling asleep with the transistor radio under the pillow, and so on. I really missed him when I was in Berkeley for college.

I'm pretty sure that my love of baseball is largely attributable to Vin Scully and the Dodgers, but I'm absolutely certain of it in my wife's case. When we met (20 yrs ago), she had no interest in baseball, and would even get upset when I would talk about baseball with friends - like I was purposefully excluding her. Then we moved down to LA, and she had to put up with my watching Dodger games, or listening to them on the radio. And she became a fan. She still can't believe I spend 17 Sundays in the Fall/Winter glued to NFL Sunday Ticket, but she'll drop everything to watch Vinnie call a baseball game. Sure, some of it is how he gushes over the little kids in the crowd, or waxes poetically about the sky, but mostly I think that she's thankful for the gentle, intelligent way that he explains the game to her. After a childhood without sports, she needed to catch up, and now she has, through Vinnie's patient tutoring. Thanks for that, Vin! Baseball's much more fun to watch now.

Great Vin comments! As an homage to his style in a big moment, I will not speak further, but be silent and let you just watch.

Let's put it this way. If Vin Scully was calling a perfect game by Jason Schmidt, you would get caught up in it. You would hate it, but you would get caught up in it.

Listening to Mark Buehrle pitch a perfect game while Ken Harrelson was calling it would be like being eaten to death alive by cannibal IRS agents.

It is Vin's calm manner and always keeping perspective that I appreciate. Its only a game and he never let's us forget that there are more important things. In additon, you get the feeling he is really enjoing himself.
I love the trademark "Duces are wild. 2 on, 2 out, 2 balls and 2 strikes ina 2-2 game."

BTW, seems like there are a few new posters here. Yeaterday's radio spot?

I was lucky enough to meet Vin Scully and spend an afternoon in his home while I was a delivery person. I delivered him a television and did the set up for him. He is a warm friendly person. He was extremely nice to my partner and I, didn't just point and say, "Put it over there," but actually took the time to talk to us and treat us like we were actual human beings, as opposed to the way many in his neighborhood treated delivery people. He was my idol well before this (so much so that I had to pay off another driver to get his delivery on my route) but after actuall meeting the man, his stature grew even more.
Chris

61
agreed.
jon recently mentioned scully's call at the end of fernando's no hitter (throw a sombrero to the sky), and much has been made about his call of sandy's perfect game, but does anyone else remember his call of kevin gross's no hitter? iirc, it was gross's wedding anniversary, and as the game ended, vin's call reflected that, but i don't remember the exact wording. i also seem to recall that someone called gross's wife about halfway through the game and told her to get to dodger stadium because of what was happening.

It's too long to include in the whole piece here, but my father-in-law, a professor at Pepperdine, wrote a piece titled, "Vin Scully, Artist." Here's the opening paragraph, followed by a link to the article:

"When does craft become art? When the craft transcends its simple, practical functions, when it addresses the universals, when it is treasurable beyond its time and place, when it addresses the human condition, and when it is superlatively well done. My simple argument is that baseball broadcaster Vin Scully has raised his craft to an art form, that this needs to be recognized more widely, that, in fact, tapes of his broadcasts should be preserved in such cultural archives as the Smithsonian museum and National Gallery."

http://arachnid.pepperdine.edu/goseweb/GoseWriter/scully.html

61
i am not a new poster, just have more (much) time today, since the great state of minnesota is without a budget and therefore shut down. we don't have the "lights on" bill that exists in california and other places where budget deadlines come and go almost unnoticed.

Way back in my pitching days in Pony League (when my dad would would stand behind the backstop, quietly observing the game until it became time for him to signal to me to pitch out the stretch to correct a bout with wildness), I asked my dad where in the world he had acquired his encyclopaedic knowledge of baseball, he answered, quite simply, "listening to Vin Scully".

Well, I suspected he was being a bit modest, but I always think of that as one of the main reasons I love both the guys so much.

I wonder what Vin Scully would say on learning that a guy paid money to get the job hauling and setting up his TV. (Something good-hearted, no doubt.)

Vin Scully announcing Hank Aaron breaking the career homerun record of Ruth is amazing. "A black man in the South..."

I'm always amazed at Scully's ability to harness his emotions. He has not had the smoothest life. His father died when he was very young. His first wife died unexpectedly and one of his sons died in a helicopter crash in 1994. He has seen coworkers pass away suddenly, such as Don Drysdale. Many of the great stars in Broolkyn died young (Robinson, Hodges, and Gilliam namely). He has seen disastrous finishes to seasons in 1951, 1962 and 1982. Yet he keeps soldiering on, his attitude toward the game unwavering.

Based on the comments here, might we might say the most amazing and rare thing about Vin Scully is that the legend is dwarfed by the man, rather than vice versa.

Well said, Oz!

I grew up listening to Vin in the 70's... during most of the 80's and early 90's alot of personal turmoil tore me away from my roots in regards to growing up with Dodgers baseball among other things.

I remember when the fog lifted during the early 90's and I became interested in following the Dodgers again I subscribed to MLBEI (I lived in the boondocks of NM at the time). Anyway, I was so excited to see them that the realization that I was listening to Vin actually (AND still) announcing the game brought a flood of emotions. I was brought to tears by the soothing sound of HIS voice and the memories of long-ago childhood. The detour of my life that began with tremedous personal loss and that ended with my college graduation and marriage was culminated with Vin taking me back to the good days in way only a man as belovedly described on this site could do.

This may sound completely corny, but it is completely true.

As I live in the Cincinnati area my "Vintage Vin" moments are limited to the one's already mentioned. I do remember clearly trying to get his autograph as he got out of a limo at the team hotel in Cincinnati.
I can't remember his exact words but I'll never forget how good looking his girlfriend was. She was young enough to be his daughter. By the way, he turned down my request for an autograph.

73,
What year was this?

Vin's wife is a bit younger than him. His first wife died when he was in his early 40s and he and his second wife had another child.

73. The last game of the 2003 season in SF-Daughter and I saw Vin getting on the team bus. He was polite but turned her down as well. I understand, of course. If he signed for everyone he would never get where he was going. As with so many requests for autographs its not that the player or celb says "no" but how they say it. Vin, always gracious, was pleasant even in his "sorry can't right now."

(This was also one of the few times Shawn Green turned her down. She will just have to live with one less autograph from him--like she doesn't have enough as it is. geez)

In his novel "Summerland" author Michael Chabon describes baseball this way, "A baseball game is nothing but a great, slow contraption for getting you to pay attention to the cadence of a summer day."
Nobody embodies this like Vin Scully. His voice, rhythm, and style naturally capture what is pure about a baseball game. Every other broadcaster today is announcing a professional sporting event. Vin's calling a game.

The Koufax perfect game is my favorite call. I remember exactly where I was, it was that big a deal to me back then.

We are all members of the Vin Scully Marching and Chowder Society.

77 said: "We are all members of the Vin Scully Marching and Chowder Society."

sounds like a t-shirt...

#77,
I'm definitely in on that!

80 - count me in too!

78: Excellent! We can't use a likeness of him without his permission, so what might substitute? An old-fashioned microphone? The Lakers "retired" Chick Hearn's mic (one of those that looks like a Tylenol caplet tilted in a holder). Perhaps one of those old round microphones? Or something less literal? I'm shocked that the Dodgers don't sell any VS merchandise - perhaps he won't allow it?

Keep talking to yourself, Howard, and people will start to worry . . .

I grew up loving the Dodgers and living in the Bay Area, so for me Vin means waiting until night so I could tweak my radio antenna to pick up the feed from the Las Vegas Dodger affiliate (good old KDWN). What I didn't appreciate then, and increasingly appreciate now, is not only how even-handed he is when he calls a game, but how much credit he gives the Dodger opponent. He assumes that a Dodger fan listening will already know the Dodger players and some of their back-history, and so while he always mixes in a tidbit or two (especially if there's a young Dodger in the lineup -- my, how fond he is of young kids breaking into the bigs!), he always spends a significant amount of time talking about the players on the other team, any local connections they have, and any great stories they offer. What galls me these days is overt homerism, and only now do I realize how common it is and how special Vin is by avoiding it.

When the Twins came to town a few weeks back, I read Batgirl for the first time (from a link here, natch), and on more than a few occasions folks there were commenting that they were learning more about their team from Vinnie than from their own announcers!

Peanuts, that's a wonderful essay.

Speaking of T-shirts ... still planning on doing the Dodger Thoughts shirt. The holdup has been the design. Hope to be moving forward on that soon. I was hoping it would be done by now, but as Vin would no doubt comment, if you want to make God laugh ...

75. One other thing about seeing Vin get on the bus. He had a gaudy Louis Vitton roller suitcase. Can't do it justice, but it was ostentatious and ugly. Just never took him for the type. Of course could have been helping Ricky Henderson with his luggage. (Ricky's was just as bad.)

I wonder if the KC folks got a chance to hear Vin... their announcers are like listening to 2 Ben Steins.

isn't ryan lefebvre (jim's son) one of the kc announcers?

Sweeney...Stairs...Buck...Teahen...Teahen...Teahen...Mr. Teahen...Teahen...

82 - they always wonder about me

Way off topic, and not sure if anyone cares but, it looks like Michelle Wie may make the cut in the men's PGA event this week. She is 4 under with 8 holes to play.

A 15 year old. Just out of the ninth grade. Amazing.

Marty, what an unbelievable swing. Has she driven the ball 300 yds today? Makes me, at 6'5" 230, feel so inadequate.

91 - yes, but can she turn the double play?

I've driven a golf ball 300 yards a couple of times.

Helped that it was downhill.

I think I hit it once about 280 on level ground. That really freaked me out as I kept walking up the fairway looking for my ball.

First of all, the ball was in the fairway.
Second of all, it wasn't in its usual spot, next to the red tees (I play from the whites.)

I'm not watching, so I don't know how she's driving today. It's a great swing isn't it? Her weakness right now is putting. An announcer said, if she starts sinking 6-8 foot putts, she'll be unbeatable.

I used to be able to hit it 280. Nowadays, I'm very happy with 250-260.

Its those straight 300 yrd shots that are the worst thing that can happen to me. Hey, if I can do it once I can do it everytime. Right? You can guess how the round turns out.

Anyone ever played the first hole at Stanford? You're guaranteed about 300 yards (in vertical feet) if you can manage to hit about 10 feet forward.

I'm very happy with shorter, if straighter. I'm suffering from the hooks lately.

98 - Stanford?

they don't allow my type near there

100,
Nor mine. Not that I'd want to go there anyway.

I played a tough course down at La Qunita a few weeks ago. Lost a million strokes around the green, but drove it really well. So last weekend, I'm playing at the easier of the two Brookside courses, looking forward to a fun round. I hit one drive in the fairway. The rest were weak pull-hooks.

I love golf...

Not sure if this is old news here, but mlb.com has HSC in the Home Run derby.

oops. Make that "La Quinta"

sam beat me to it.

http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/news/article.jsp?ymd=20050708&content_id=1120972&vkey=allstar2005&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb

now the whole world will bow down to the great hee

Stanford has its own golf course? UCLA and USC use local Country Club courses as their home course. I figured most schools do the same.

if hee wins, does tracy bench him for 2 straight months?

102 Marty, was that your ball that whistled past the patio of the Brookside Clubhouse while I was there for Mother's Day Brunch a couple of months ago?

I think Vin has another year left on his contract, so in the meantime, we should all enjoy the opportunity to "Pull up a chair" and enjoy the Dodger broadcasts while we can.

LAT,
A few of the Ivy League schools have their own courses. Cornell and Yale do I know.

UCLA and USC benefit from having very nice courses close to campus so there's no point in having one on campus. Stanford has a lot of room. And I don't think there's a really nice course elsewhere in the area. A least not like Riviera.

I hit 320 + drives all the time, no matter what the course.

Well, only on a Tiger Woods computer game, but still...

Not to bring back a discussion from a couple of weeks ago but, when I'm stranded in the desert all I have to do is hit a golf ball. It'll find water.

I haven't done that at Brookside, but a long time ago I nailed the clubhouse window at Santa Anita in Arcadia.

Riv. Talk about a course that eats me alive. I handle the front fine. But the back: forget about it. Come to think of it, I usally blow up on the back of all courses. Maybe, I just can't concentrate that long. Oh look a shinny object, gotta go. . .

Bob, just curious, did you notice how much a round of golf cost in Japan? A lot, I imagine.

109 - The way they've been building up the Stanford campus, don't be surprised to hear the golf course is an endangered species. I don't really play golf - too expensive a sport to be bad at - but it would be a shame.

LAT. You get to play Riviera? I'm really jealous. I've walked it a few times for the L.A. Open. I did get to play Pebble Beach once. That was humbling.

113: It's coming down, since the economy has been in recession for most of the last 15 years. But during the boom in the 1980s, it was cheaper for Japanese to fly to SF, play at Pebble Beach, stay in Monterey, then fly back, than it was to play a round anywhere near Tokyo. Golf club memberships were for millionaires only.

114. Go Bears! S'all I'm sayin'

117,
I second that.

115 - I played Pebble with my father on his 50th birthday. It sounds silly, but the setting is a lot more impressive than most of the course. I putted poorly, but did OK considering I had finished college the week before and hadn't played hardly at all for 4 years.

Spyglass Hill is AMAZING, though. Very tough and impressively designed.

#63, I actually listened to the Kevin Gross no hitter in Tacoma over KNZR, the Dodger radio affiliate in Bakersfield, CA. The signal was not the best, though in those days it was my only way to hear Vin on the air. I made a tape of the 9th inning when I knew a no hitter was possible and I just listened to it again a few minutes ago. Vin's reference was to the fact that it was the birthday of Tamara, Kevin's wife.

Vin is a master at weaving personal detail into his broadcast of a game. Maybe Vin would have developed that skill on his own, but I don't think it hurt his development when he was paired with Red Barber in his early broadcast days. Red was another master at blending personal detail with play by play description. I would love to hear a tape of a Brooklyn game called by Red and Vin. Those two worked together in Brooklyn from 1950 until Red's departure in 1953 or so. Add Mel Allen into the mix and New Yorkers in the 1950s were fortunate indeed to be able to hear the three best broadcasters baseball has produced.

Stan from Tacoma

Yeah, I walked Spyglass last year at the AT&T. Man do I wantto play that course. But I'm still impressed with Pebble. 7,8,9 is a great stretch. #14 the par 5 that Tiger eagled in the 2000 open was into a big wind for me. I played it driver, 3-wood, 3-wood, 3-wood, wedge.

Marty, I have been invited to play in a few corp. tournys out there. Played it about 5 times in my life. It whoops me everytime. I'm a pretty lousy golfer. Never played Pebble. Hope to one day but I have to take up the game more consistently before I shell out that kind of cash. With two daughters, most of the weekend is spent at soccer games and such. I live a 9 iron from Rancho and have only gotten on twice in five years. Nice 6 hour rounds that they were.

hahah, i love that it becomes a berkeley shoutout every time jon brings up stanford. i think we outnumber him like 10-1 on his own site.

. . .and once again, I am the last one out of the pool.

Here's a nice little bow to tie up the two strands of this conversation - Vinnie and golf. I live a block from Rancho, but I couldn't be less interested in golf. To me, the only thing less interesting that playing golf would be watching golf. But when Vinnie called golf tournaments several years ago, I would actually watch a round. Just to hear him. I think I'd listen to him read the phone book.

Have any of you ever seen Montreux, a beautiful course built looking down on Lake Tahoe? My cousin, lucky dawg, got in early and had a house built with his backyard opening onto the course. Hard to imagine amore scenic site.

Hey, both a `Smoke On The Water' and Godfather II' reference all in one post!

120 That is amazing that 63 could post his question and someone else could haul out his homemade tape of the game and check. That is awesome.

122 I grew up in that nape of the way -- Dunleer Drive. My only golf ever has been fooling around on the Rancho pitch and putt as a teenager.

And Wie has four holes to go, still 1 stroke ahead of the projected cut.

as for vin, well...

i think what makes him so special is his ability to humanize the players. and i'm not just talking about the biographical tidbits he always works in. i mean the way he talks about the action on the field. what he says isn't as much a recitation of events as it is telling a story. and the way he really lets the game's inherent beauty shine through also really sets him apart. he really appreciates all the little things. and when he's talking to you, it's just intimate in the way that sportscasting never is. he's talking to you.

and growing up listening to vinny, he's part of the rhythm of the game. he was my introduction to baseball, so the way he says it is the way i understand it. he's woven into the fabric of the dodger experience. my father came to LA from india a few years before the dodgers did in the 50s, and he didn't know a single thing about baseball when they arrived from brooklyn, but he found himself listening to vin scully and he's loved the dodgers ever since. i don't think it would have been nearly the same without vin scully.

#123,
Vishal,
Are you still at Berkeley?

Who else went/goes there? GoBears, obviously.

114 - Stanford golf course is hanging on as for now. They just underwent some renovations to gain campus space on the front nine with #4 becoming a par 3.

The top university owned golf courses are generally thought to be:
Yale
Williams
Mount Holyoke
Oklahoma State
Stanford
Wisconsin
Notre Dame
Texas Tech
Duke
Colgate

Alister MacKenzie designed the courses at Michigan and Ohio State but his work there has basically been renovated out of existence.

Bears you and I must live very close to one another. I live on Bradbury. Sam we used to live near one another.

130. nah, i graduated 2 years ago. i know there were at least a couple of other dodger thoughts regulars that went there too. also, let's not forget tom meagher, R.I.P. :)

I blogged a piece about Vin a couple of years ago. It started off, "Vin Scully is the greatest man alive and I can prove it."

http://tinyurl.com/cxyq5

Great Vin Memory-

Me and my roommate were watching a game against the Brewers in 2002. There was a short delay (I think because of a power problem) and the producers had to fill about 15 minutes of time. Vin weaved together a masterpiece. He does an impromtu monologue about the old County stadium (something I otherwise had no interest in), mixing in facts, stories, and anecdotes into a piece that would make Ken Burns jealous. Unlike a normal documentary though, there were no pictures, videos, or interviews, just Vin talking- making the old stadium come alive just like he makes the game come alive. After it was over me and my roommate turned to each other and pratically didn't have to say a word. We just both smiled and took another sip of beer, happy we were listening to the greatest announcer ever.