Hearn’s Admirers Extend to His Broadcasting Peers

Los Angeles is blessed with three broadcasting icons, Chick Hearn, Vin Scully and Bob Miller.

Hearn is in his 38th year with the Lakers, Scully has been with the Dodgers for 48, and Miller, the babe of the group, will be honored by the Kings on Jan. 31 for his 25 years with the club.

Hearn is being honored by the Lakers today for his 3,000th consecutive broadcast.

“What Chick has accomplished is truly remarkable,” Scully said. “I’m not really a fan so I don’t listen to him that often but when I do, I just marvel at how phenomenal he is. For him to have the stamina to keep up in such a high-powered sport is truly amazing.”

Scully had some pretty good streaks of his own in the ‘60s and again in the ‘70s when he and Jerry Doggett were the only Dodger announcers.

“I remember missing a game in 1968 when my daughter Erin was born and I don’t think I missed another until I went to work for CBS [in 1975], but I have no idea how many games in a row I worked,” Scully said. “Besides, I wouldn’t want to do anything to detract from Chick’s great accomplishment.”

Also, as Hearn points out, a consecutive-games streak in baseball is easier to accomplish than in basketball.

“They play 162 regular-season games, we play 82, so you can get there a lot faster in baseball,” Hearn said.

The second-longest consecutive-games streak in the NBA belongs to Bill Schonley, the voice of the Portland Trail Blazers for 27 years. He’ll hit No. 2,500 March 17.

Miller says he owes a lot to Hearn. Like his job, for starters.

“He recommended me to Jack Kent Cooke,” Miller said. “He actually recommended me twice. The first time I didn’t get the job.”

Miller said he drove from his home in Madison, Wis., to a Laker-Bull game in Chicago in May, 1973, so he could meet Hearn.

“He was very gracious,” Miller said.

Miller was hired that summer by Cooke, who then owned the Lakers and Kings.

“I learned a lot from Chick right away,” Miller said. “He told me, ‘We are not homers on the air to the same extent as other announcers around the country. There are people here from everywhere and they root for the teams from their hometowns.’

“I know Chick wants the Lakers to win, just like I want the Kings to win, but we try to do an honest job of reporting.”

Miller is fully aware of just how difficult it would be to announce 3,000 consecutive games. He has missed 15 games in 25 years, with seven of those absences because of a throat infection in 1976. He has missed games in recent years because of his mother’s death and his son’s college graduation.

Dick Enberg probably would have ranked with Hearn, Scully and Miller had he not left as the voice of the Angels, UCLA basketball and the Rams in 1977 for a job with NBC.

Enberg says fans feel more passion for a local announcer than one for a network.

“Network announcers are liked,” he said. “Local announcers are loved.”