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Charley Steiner shares thoughts on the McCourts, Vin Scully and love

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The Dodgers held a luncheon Friday to honor Charley Steiner for his induction into the National Radio Hall of Fame, and if you think he’s quotable during broadcasts, he’s way better with the reins off.

Mostly responding to questions from Larry King, who I guess has done this interview thing before, here are some of the Steiner’s luncheon highlights:

On his professional background: “I’m one of the few people on Earth, who on his resume has worked for Donald Trump, George Steinbrenner and the McCourts. Can anybody top that?”

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Favorite baseball city: “Chicago and San Francisco.”

Worst city: “The National League Central, outside of Chicago, is a marginally depressing place. I hope nobody tweets that. ‘Hey, we get to go to Pittsburgh and then Milwaukee! Oh, great.’ Chicago is one of those towns, that if there were no such thing as winter, the world lives there.”

On what producers said to him when starting a baseball radio show: “What do you want to do? I said, ‘Let me tell you what I don’t want to do. I don’t want to talk to players, coaches, managers, general managers, owners, agents or listeners.’

“‘Why don’t you want to talk to listeners?’

“‘Because it’s their job description.’”

What it was like working through the McCourts’ turmoil: “I think of that as ‘Shawshank Redemption.’”

On being in the kitchen, where he grew up listening to Vin Scully, to tell his recently widowed mom he had had taken the job with the Dodgers and was moving to Los Angeles (her too, it turns out): “Everyone should have a moment once in their life, like the one I’m going to tell you.

“The phone rings. It was a 323 number, and I wasn’t quite sure what a 323 number was at the time. I said, hello. ‘Charley, it’s Vin.’ I said mom, ‘I’ve got to take this.’ So in the house where I grew up listening to Vin, in the kitchen where I used to listen to him, where I wanted to be like him, I hear, ‘I want to welcome you to the family.’ Life, occupation and dreams all came together in that one shining moment that I’ll never forget.”

On traveling to college towns, like Mississippi State, to cover football: “Starkville is the most aptly named city in the United States.”

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And the final question from King, do you think you’ll ever marry: “As often as you?”

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