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Opinion: Dodger fans make an appeal to their highest power: Vin Scully

Former Dodgers play-by-play announcer Vin Scully is seen on Sept. 24, 2016.
Former Dodgers play-by-play announcer Vin Scully is seen on Sept. 24, 2016.
(Jae C. Hong / AP)
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Vin Scully’s call of Kirk Gibson’s walk-off home run in Game 1 of the 1988 World Series — “High fly ball into right field; she is gone!” — is something many of us long-suffering Dodger fans can recite from memory. It is the soundtrack that played over the last great, franchise-marking moment for the team, and for the 28 late Octobers since then, we’ve been doing something besides watching the Dodgers.

Now, with the Dodgers finally returning to the Fall Classic, perhaps we can be forgiven for not quite knowing how to react to this whole winning thing (never mind not having Scully around to explain it all for us).

Since Thursday night’s victory against the Chicago Cubs, some readers have written letters to the editor begging for Scully to return for one more series. A few even weaved in criticism of (who else?) President Trump.

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Huntington Beach resident Jeff Lebow wants to hear a familiar voice one more time:

I’ve been a Dodger fan ever since, as a 10-year-old, I was pulled out of school to watch the first game at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on an April afternoon in 1958.

If you would do this for us, I promise to find my transistor radio and the single earphone and become that 10-year-old boy again.

— Jeff Lebow, Huntington Beach

Should the 2017 Dodgers find themselves in a seventh game of the World Series at home in Chavez Ravine, I’ve got one small wish: Please bring back Vin Scully to join the Dodger radio announcers.

Mr. Scully, I know you avoid the spotlight, but please do this for me and millions of Dodger fans throughout Southern California and beyond. If you would do this for us, I promise to find my transistor radio and the single earphone and become that 10-year-old boy again.

Jim Vespe of Mamaroneck, N.Y., would settle for something less than Scully calling an entire game:

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I know Scully would rather go shopping for peat moss in El Segundo than broadcast any World Series games, and Fox already has its announcers selected.

In lieu of actually calling a game, perhaps Scully can record an updated version of his 1955 call, “Ladies and gentlemen, the Brooklyn Dodgers are the champions of the world,” to be played if the Dodgers win the World Series.

All he’d have to change would be the name of the city.

Los Angeles resident Chris Warner contrasts the Dodgers’ newest hero with the president:

Thursday night, a 25-year-old Puerto Rican socked three home runs and sent the Dodgers to their first World Series since 1988. More impressively, Kiké Hernandez not only earned instant L.A. folk hero status but spent the past three weeks tirelessly raising money and awareness for his native island devastated by Hurricane Maria.

Meanwhile, in the same time frame, President Trump neglected the humanitarian crisis, flirted with nuclear war, bickered with the NFL and continued to embarrass the nation. To his credit, however, he did manage to squeeze in a few rounds of golf.

It’s also worth noting that the Dodgers — a team that this season featured players from Cuba, Japan, South Korea and Mexico — perfectly reflects the kind of diversity that can make American great again.

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