Vin Scully Returning In 2012

From @Dodgers Twitter page  - Vin and the leftover cookies

Dodger fans got some great news during last night's game. Vin Scully announced he would be returning to the Dodgers broadcast booth for his 63rd season in 2012. Vinny will call home games and select road games.

From Dodgers.com 

"I don't want to make a big deal out of it, you and I have been friends for a long time," Scully told the audience on PRIME TICKET. "But after a lot of soul searching and a few prayers, we've decided that we will come back with the Dodgers for next year. God's been awfully good to me, allowing me to do the things I love to do. I asked him one more year at least and he said okay."

Scully's 62 years of service constitute the longest tenure of any broadcaster in sports history. While he handles all nine innings of the team's television broadcasts on PRIME TICKET and KCAL 9, the first three innings of each of his games are also simulcast on KABC 790 AM.

He began his professional baseball broadcasting career in 1950 with the Brooklyn Dodgers and was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1982. During his unequaled career, he has gone on to call three perfect games, 19 no-hitters, 25 World Series and 12 All-Star Games. He was also at the microphone for Kirk Gibson's miraculous Game 1 homer in the 1988 World Series, Hank Aaron's record-setting 715th home run, Barry Bonds' record-breaking 71st, 72nd and 73rd home runs and the scoreless-inning streaks' of Dodger greats Don Drysdale and Orel Hershiser. 

When Scully first began broadcasting, the Dodgers had yet to win a single World Series. Three years later, at the age of 25, he became the youngest person to ever broadcast a World Series game and in 1955, he had his most memorable moment behind the microphone, as he called the Dodgers' first and only championship in Brooklyn. 

The following season, Scully once again found himself in the enviable position of calling what he would later say was the greatest individual performance he had seen -- Don Larsen's perfect game in the World Series.

The 2011 Dodger season has been a big disappointment, so it's nice to get some good news. When Vinny made the announcement, I got goosebumps. He means everything to this organization, and things wouldn't be the same without him. 

It's very hard to see the Dodgers contending in 2012, unless some drastic changes are made. But even if the team sucks, Vin can make everything sound right. Thanks for coming back.