Skip to main content

Spring Is in the Air

The signs are all around you. Leaves on the trees have started to pop. Aqua blue skies form the backdrop over an eye pleasing green diamond, spotted with bases so white they glow against the brown clay of the infield. Listen carefully and you will hear the melancholy sounds of baseball on the radio. . . "Two and two to Harvey Kuenn, one strike away. Sandy into his windup, here's the pitch: Swung on and missed, a perfect game!" 

For millions of fans spring rings in The National Pastime; baseball. A time of renewed hope and fresh starts. The season officially kicked off Sunday, April 5, 2015, 7:05 pm (CST) with the Chicago Cubs battling the St. Louis Cardinals at historic Wrigley Field on ESPN Sunday Night Baseball. Don't be fooled though, it's the magic of radio that still captures the vivid detail and excitement of a game.

 "He has done it four straight years, and now he caps it: On his fourth no-hitter he made it a perfect game." 

Vin Scully 2002 @Dodger Stadium, Photo by; Patrick Ball
With 162 games to play, 30 teams step confidently into opening day with renewed hope.

Is this year "Next Year" for the Cubs?

Yes, every baseball fan has their special team. In California alone we have five teams to choose from: The Los Angeles Dodgers, Angels of Anaheim, San Diego Padres, San Francisco Giants, and Oakland Athletics. Each storied franchise has it’s own spring traditions.

I’ll admit my spring ritual is to begin the season listening to games on the radio with play-by-play announcer Vince (Vin) Scully broadcasting. Now in his 66th season with the Dodgers! The longest tenure of any broadcaster with a single team in professional sports history.

Vin Scully began his career as a student broadcaster and journalist at Fordham University. In 1950, Scully joined Red Barber and Cornelius (Connie) Desmond in the Brooklyn Dodgers radio and television booths at Ebbets Field. When Barber got into a salary dispute with World Series sponsor Gillette in 1953, Scully (along side Mel Allen) took Barber's spot for the World Series. At 25, Scully became the youngest man to broadcast a World Series game (a record that still stands).

Red Barber left the Dodgers after the 1953 season to work for the New York Yankees. Scully became the Dodgers principal announcer. Vin Scully announced Dodger games in Brooklyn until 1957 when the club moved to Los Angeles.

“The rest is history.”

Are you ready for the 2015 season? Today with the magic of the iPhone, Android phone, iPad, computer, or yes an ole’ fashioned transistor radio - fans of the game can experience the melodic cadence of baseball from anywhere. Tune to your favorite local radio station or download MLB.com At Bat® and enjoy.

So, join me if you like. Beginning Opening Day, Monday, 1:10 p.m. (PST), from Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, CA. the magical voice of Vin Scully will once again fill the air waves.

 "Clayton Kershaw has faced nine batters, retired all nine, while striking out five. If he keeps getting outs, that will be the main part of the story, unless somehow the Rockies get off the floor."

 Spring is in the air.
Labels:

Comments

Patrick B. Ball said…
Shocking news Vin Sculley passes away on August 2, 2022. His stories on the radio made baseball live for so many. He will be deeply missed.
August 2, 2022 at 8:45 PM
Post a Comment

Most Popular of All Time

Boy on a Beam

In this special bonus episode, Boy on a Beam. In a world long ago, when the days moved quite slow, Before buzzes and beeps and the fast things we know, A boy sat quite still on a very fine day, Just staring at nothing . . . and thinking away. No tablets! No gadgets! No screens shining bright! No earbuds stuck in from morning till night. No lists, no charts, and no chores to be done. He just sat there thinking—that's quiet-time fun! His name was Young Albert. He sat in his chair, Thinking of things that weren’t really there. “Suppose,” said Young Albert, with eyes open wide, “I ran super fast with my arms by my side! Suppose I ran faster than anyone knew, And caught up to sunshine that zoomed past me—too! If I hopped on its back for a light-speedy ride, What secrets would I find tucked away deep inside?” “Would stars look like sprinkles, all shiny and small? Would UP feel like sideways? Would BIG feel like Tall?” He giggled and wondered and thought, and he dreamed, Till his head fel...
Post a Comment
Read more

Un-Work the Old-Fashioned Way

🎩   In this special episode. How to Un-Work the Old-Fashioned Way It’s 2026! Yes— this is the year! A different kind of start—you feel it right here? No lists! No demands! No fix-all-your-flaws! No “New You by Tuesday!” No rules! No laws! Those resolutions? Bah! Dusty and dry! We’ve tried fixing everything —so let’s ask why. Why rush and correct and improve and compare, When noticing quietly gets you right there ? So here’s a new project—no charts, no clocks, No boxes to check in your mental inbox. It’s bigger than busy and smaller than grand, It’s called Un-Working —now give me your hand! Un-Working’s not quitting or hiding away, It’s setting things down that shout “Hurry! Hey!” The hustle! The bustle! The faster-than-fast! The gotta-win-now or you’re stuck in the past! That’s the work of Un-Working— plop! —set it free! The titles! The labels! The “Look-At-Me!” The crown that kept sliding and pinching your head— You never looked comfy . . . let’s try this instead: Pick up a tel...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Thought Experiment–Revisited

In this episode. The Thought Experiment–Revisited The Boy on a Light Beam In 1895, a sixteen-year-old boy did something we rarely allow ourselves to do anymore. He stared into space and let his mind wander. No phone. No notes. No “Optimization Hacks” for his morning routine. Just a question: What would happen if I chased a beam of light—and actually caught it? That boy was Albert Einstein . And that single act of curiosity—a Gedankenexperiment , a thought experiment—eventually cracked open Newton’s tidy universe and rearranged our understanding of time itself. Not bad for an afternoon of daydreaming. Imagine if Einstein had been “productive” instead. He would have logged the light-beam idea into a Notion database, tagged it #CareerGrowth, and then promptly ignored it to attend a forty-five-minute “Sync” about the color of the departmental logo. He’d have a high Efficiency Score—and we’d still be stuck in a Newtonian universe , wondering why the Wi-Fi is slow. In a post I wrote back in...
2 comments
Read more

Sweden Called . . . They Said No.

Have you ever wondered about  the Nobel Prize? Let's look at Where Genius Meets “Wait—Where’s My Medal?” Every October, the Nobel Prizes are announced, and humanity pauses to celebrate the "greatest benefit to mankind." And every year, like clockwork, a specific type of person appears online to complain—at length—that they were robbed. (Well, maybe this year more than most.) The Origin: A Legacy of Guilt The prize exists because Alfred Nobel, a Swedish inventor, had a crisis of conscience. Nobel held 355 patents, but he was most famous for inventing dynamite. When a French newspaper mistakenly published his obituary, calling him the " Merchant of Death, " he decided to buy a better legacy. In his 1895 will, he left the bulk of his massive fortune to establish five prizes (Physics, Chemistry, Medicine, Literature, and Peace). Because he was Swedish, he entrusted the selection to Swedish institutions, such as the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. The only outlier...
Post a Comment
Read more