Tagged: Jaime Jarrin
A room full of legends…
Each year, one of the highlights of January is the Southern California Sports Broadcasters awards luncheon. The organization, which recently launched a website, has members that are a who’s who of media members and those in the So Cal world of sports. It was truly a room full of legends.
At today’s luncheon, among the attendees and/or honorees were SCSB Hall of Famers Vin Scully, Jaime Jarrin, Bob Miller, Tom Kelly, Nick Nickson, Mike Walden, Rich Marotta and Ross Porter. Others with incredible backgrounds include Charley Steiner, Steve Lyons, Jim Fox, Luc Robitaille, Ken Levine, Josh Suchon, John Ireland and so many others.
Lifetime achievement awards went to Bill Sharman and Louis Zamperini whose histories will blow your mind. If you don’t know about them, check out the links on each guy. It’s mind boggling. Al Michaels won the President’s Award and told a really funny story about being “groomed to replace Vin Scully” and 40-something years later, the odds are even that he’ll retire before Vinny.
Among the Dodger folks who won awards today were Vin, Fernando Valenzuela, Rick Monday, Eric Karros and the sports crew at KCAL/CBS.
Our sincere congrats go out to everyone involved in putting on this event and hopefully you’ll spend a little time looking through the site of this great organization.
Tough weekend…
Getting swept is never fun, so there’s not much that can be said after a weekend like that. Let’s just hope the team got it out this weekend and will turn it back on this week against the Reds and Red Sox…
On a more gracious note, thanks to everyone who contributed to ThinkCure Weekend…more than $300,000 was raised for cancer research and the online auction is still going through tomorrow.
Among the things that tend to happen on a daily basis if you purchase the Insider Clubhouse Tour are interactions with numerous current and/or future Hall of Famers, access in areas of the stadium where even the most fortunate fans never get to go and a chance to watch the game from the press box.
I believe last year, the person who purchased this item wound up meeting Vin Scully, Jaime Jarrin, Tommy Lasorda, Joe Torre, Ned Colletti, Fernando Valenzuela, Charley Steiner, Rick Monday and several players, among others. Trust me…we make it worth your while because it’s such a great cause so bid now before someone else gets this lifelong memory (have I talked it up enough).
Tomorrow’s an off day and likely no post, but we’ll be back to posting almost daily starting on Tuesday. Hang in there, Dodger fans. It’s been a tough weekend, but the Dodgers still have the third-best record in the NL and there are still several guys waiting to hit their strides.
A memorable luncheon…
Just came from a very cool luncheon which takes place each year and is hosted by the Southern California Sports Broadcasters Association.
Vin Scully was receiving the President’s Award from the organization and Jim Hill was put into the Hall of Fame and both gave very moving speeches but the event turned into an impromptu lovefest for Vin that has rarely been equaled. It seemed that everyone who won an award talked at length about Vin’s role in their career and he was clearly humbled by the whole thing. He really is as classy as any individual I’ve ever been around and we are all very fortunate to have him be the voice of the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Other key Dodger people who won awards were Vin for best TV and radio play by play announcer, Jaime Jarrin for Spanish-language broadcaster, Ken Levine for talk show host (he gave props to Josh Suchon, his partner) and Eric Karros for pre or postgame host. We’re proud of all of them, and a personal shout out goes to Nancy Mazmanian, formerly of the Angels, who won the “High Five” award. And lots of love went out to the memory of Rory Markas, among others who we lost this year.
Meanwhile, at the same time that event was going on, we had the kickoff to the caravan at USC Hospital and tomorrow and Wednesday, we’ll be kicking around town and hope to see you all there.
Day three
Well, anyone who has ever been to Las Vegas knows that once you get to Day Three, you often hit the point of diminishing marginal returns. That’s certainly the case here, as things seem to be slowing down somewhat. As for the returns at the craps and blackjack tables, well, there hasn’t been much in that regard, either.
Mark Loretta is officially official, and when I spoke with him today, he seems very excited to be coming home to play for the Dodgers. He grew up locally and I know he’s wanted to be a Dodger for quite some time so I’m glad we can make that happen. To me, he seems like the perfect utility guy who could also fill in at second base should DeWitt struggle at any point.
We also spent the morning at the WBC news conference where it was announced that Tommy will serve as an official ambassador again, something he did incredibly for the last tournament. No one represents the game of baseball better around the globe and he seems thrilled to do it again.
Ironically, this place is filled with former Dodger managers…Tommy, Davey Johnson (who will managed Team USA at the WBC), Jim Tracy…and former GMs Fred Claire, Paul DePodesta, Dan Evans. All of these are good people that I’ve worked with over the years, so it’s a fun week from that perspective.
I haven’t had time to read comments in a few days, as it’s quite busy. Today we had a luncheon with Joe Torre and all our media members and I’m off to more meetings shortly. Tonight we’ll have a dinner where Gib Bodet, one of our longtime scouts, will be honored with the Scout of the Year Award.
Last but certainly not least – feliz cumpleanos! (that is, happy birthday) to Jaime Jarrin. I just spoke with him to wish him a Happy Birthday and we wish him nothing but the best in 2009.
One last All-Star Game for Jaime Jarrin
The legendary Jaime Jarrin is hangin’ up the headset when it comes to All-Star Games and postseason…unless of course the Dodgers are in the playoffs.
When we were at Shea Stadium earlier this year, Jaime told me that he had made up his mind to make this his final All-Star Game after handling play-by-play for 20 different Midsummer Classics. He also travels to the playoffs each year and he’s decided not to do that, either, as it’s prime time for traveling around the world in the event that the Dodgers aren’t playing in October.
The Daily News’ Tony Jackson caught up with Jaime yesterday, who explained his decision.
Not too much more can be said about Josh Hamilton’s performance last night. The stadium was electric and I can only imagine what it will be like tonight with all the Hall of Famers on hand. While I’m here in NY, Rick Monday and his wife, Barbaralee, are headed to the White House for dinner with the president following a third-base coaching stint on the lawn for a t-ball game.
Otherwise, it’s relatively quiet. The All-Star Red Carpet parade is making its way through Central Park right now which is one reason to get out of the hotel room and wander the streets of Manhattan. I hope to post more tonight at the game, but with the enormous volume of media on hand, there isn’t really a place for me to set up my laptop and I haven’t figure out yet how to post from the blackberry. I’ll keep working on it.
What I do know is that Tommy Lasorda will be reading the lineups on FOX for the NL, which needs a win in a ridiculous way. Even if it weren’t deciding home field advantage, the Senior Circuit needs to snap the streak and hopefully Russell’s game-winning hit will be the difference.
Jaime!
I got tied up in meetings yesterday afternoon and then I was involved in the salute to Jaime Jarrin, who was honored yesterday for 50 years in the Dodger broadcast booth. It’s hard to even fathom that and he quite obviously belongs in any conversation about the most significant people in the history of the Dodgers. He oozes class, he epitomizes dignity and he deserves all the honors that come his way.
In case somehow you missed it, Dylan Hernandez of the L.A. Times wrote a very nice feature about Jaime and for those of you Spanish speakers, Hoy had a great piece, too, that you can see here:
P30_Dodgers.pdf
Needless to say, it was a very special night for Jaime and if you’ve never had a chance to hear him, do yourself a favor and tune into 930 AM during a game sometime when you’re driving. Even if you don’t understand Spanish, you’ll understand why he’s been so successful at his trade. He’s helped me learn the language and he’s truly a legend in Los Angeles.
Of course, by the time there was a chance to post a lineup last night, the game was over. That’s Mark Buehrle, I guess. But, the Snakes lost again so we’re still four games back. Hard to imagine how far ahead we could be if we were playing up to our potential, but the silver lining is that we remain in the race and there’s plenty of room for improvement.
Inside the Dodgers 