After 32 Seasons With the Dodgers, Jerry Doggett, 71, Calls It a Career

Jerry Doggett, who has broadcast Dodger games for 32 seasons in Brooklyn and Los Angeles, announced his retirement on Sunday, effective at the end of this season.

Doggett, 71, said he has considered retiring for several years before recently making the decision. The longtime Fullerton resident said he will eventually move to San Jose, where his daughter lives.

“I talked it over with my wife, and we decided that 50 years is enough,” Doggett said after Sunday’s game between the Dodgers and Atlanta Braves. “I’ve (called) more than 5,000 major league games, plus about 2,500 in the minor leagues.”

Doggett began his broadcasting career in 1938 in Longview, Tex., where he announced minor league baseball and high school sports. Doggett said the first baseball game he called was a major league exhibition game in the spring of 1939. Connie Mack managed one of the teams.

His first Dodger game with partner Vin Scully was in September of 1956 at the Polo Grounds. Before this season, when he missed eight games because of a sore throat, Doggett had missed only 1 game in 31 seasons.

“It was for my daughter’s (high school) graduation,” Doggett said.

Said Scully of his association with Doggett: “When you work every day with the same guy, it’s a marriage. The booth is very, very small, and it can stay the way it is or it can become suffocating. I always thought of Jerry as a dear friend, not just a guy I announce with.”

The Dodgers will interview candidates for Doggett’s spot after the season.