Will The Voice Of The Dodgers Return For 67th Year?

Vin Scully will again announce Los Angeles Dodgers games in 2016, which will be his unprecedented 67th season with the team, it was announced tonight.

“I talked it over with my wife, Sandi, and my family and we’ve decided to do it again in 2016,” the 87-year-old Scully said in a statement released by the team. “There’s no place like home and Dodger Stadium and we look forward to being a part of it with all of our friends.”

The announcement was made on a video played on Dodger Stadium’s Dodger Vision board before the start of the bottom of the second inning of the 4-1 victory over the Chicago Cubs.

The video began with Magic Johnson, the Basketball Hall of Fame member who is a part-owner of the Dodgers, promising “big breaking news” with “Dodger correspondent” Jimmy Kimmel sharing the details.

The ABC late-night talk show host then revealed a series of 10 cards announcing Scully’s return for the 2016, prompting fans to burst into cheers.

Scully acknowledged the crowd from his broadcast booth in the press box that is named for him as the 1964 song first recorded by Martha and the Vandellas “Dancing in the Street” played in the background.

“Vin is a national treasure and the Dodgers couldn’t be happier to have him back at the microphone in 2016,” Dodger President and CEO Stan Kasten said in a statement released by the team.

“Vin makes every broadcast special and generation after generation of Dodger fans have been blessed to be able to listen to him create his poetic magic since 1950.”

The announcement that Scully would be returning came nearly a month later in the season than last year, when it was made on July 29 and coincided with a giveaway of microphones to fans to mark Scully’s 65th year with the franchise.

In each of the previous four seasons, the announcement that Scully would be returning came between Aug. 22 and Aug. 26.

Scully’s many honors include being selected by the American Sportscasters Association as the greatest sportscaster of the 20th century and the Ford C. Frick Award, presented annually by the Baseball Hall of Fame to a broadcaster for “major contributions to baseball.”

Either on the team or NBC broadcasts, Scully has called such memorable moments by the Dodgers -- or their opponents -- as Kirk Gibson’s pinch-hit home run in the bottom of the ninth inning of Game 1 of the 1988 World Series, Sandy Koufax’s perfect game in 1965, New York Yankee pitcher Don Larsen’s perfect game against the Dodgers in the 1956 World Series and Hank Aaron’s record- setting 715th home run.

--City News Service