Ah, Vinny...

When I was born (during 42 hours of labor), Mom and Dad watched the Dodger game. As they left the hospital, we listened to the Dodger game on the way home. When we got home, the first thing baby Derrill did was finish the Dodger game.

I don't really get the Dodger games out here, though. I decided for a while (while I was single) that I could root for the Mets, since half of their team consisted of aging former Dodger-Rookie-of-the-Years, and I've enjoyed rooting for the Red Sox as the other team whose games I could watch regularly.

Joy and I don't watch television, though, and therefore don't have cable. Most Dodger games are late enough at night that I can't just tune in online and enjoy them in the moment. But tonight we were waiting for Dad to come to town to pick up his wife, who has graciously been visiting us to take the night shift so we can sleep better. And since we are up late, we're watching the second Dodger game of the year.

As long as I can remember, I have loved listening to the game (Dodger Baseball is always The Game) broadcast by Vin Scully. He's been with the Dodgers since they were in Brooklyn, is the longest consecutive broadcaster with any professional sports team ever, and has numerous awards for his true broadcasting excellence. It warms my heart to hear his golden voice. Hyrum is sleeping through his first game - currently tied 2-2 in the 9th, and I'm pre-nostalgic for the fact that Hyrum won't know him as I do.

Now, hopefully someday we'll be back in the west and able to listen to the game regularly. Not that Joy and I will because we do other things, but we could much more often - it could be in the background maybe. And if so he'll be able to get to know someone else's voice, though Rick Monday and sidekick of the year just haven't done for me what Vinny does. But Vin Scully is something special, one of the last broadcasters capable of carrying a show singlehandedly, and doing so while just talking about the game, rather than (as Mom put it) the broadcast being two guys who happen to be at the game, talking about their beer and their work and, oh, by the way, the score changed.

Vinny is a treasure, a treasure that I don't know Hyrum will have the opportunity to prize. And that's sad.

And that's ... Wat's on my mind tonight.

PS - I informed Joy just now that we won. She commented, "I didn't realize you were so close to winning," making clear very delicately how humorous she finds my possessive use of 'we' when speaking of da Bums.