Vin Scully is arguably the most recognizable voice in baseball history. His sweet tone entertained Dodgers fans for well over half a century, producing some memorable sound bytes in the process. But a different voice that's almost as long-lived as Scully's continues to fill the Los Angeles air today, except this voice fills the air not with English, but with Spanish.
This post is devoted to Jaime Jarrin, the Spanish play-by-play broadcaster of the Dodgers since 1959. He was the Ford C. Frick Award winner in 1998, an award given to the broadcaster who has made major contributions to baseball. Since Scully retired in 2016, Jarrin is the longest-serving MLB broadcaster, but Jarrin wasn't always a baseball fan. Most broadcasters grew up listening to ballgames and honing their craft from a young age, but Jarrin came to the US from Ecuador in 1955 without ever watching a single game of baseball. When the Dodgers moved to LA in 1958, he was working at KWKW, the radio station that coincidentally acquired the rights to broadcast the Dodgers in Spanish. The stars aligned and Jarrin became "la voz" of the Dodgers.
Jarrin's contract is up after the 2020 season, so we might be seeing the end of one of the greatest careers in baseball broadcasting. But either way, I love what Jarrin does for the Spanish-speaking community of Los Angeles, allowing them to enjoy baseball as much as any English-speaker. I just wish more people knew of Jarrin before because I only found out about him this year on a random googling spree of broadcasters. But it just goes to show you how the unsung pioneers of baseball are just as revolutionary as the more famous ones. Thank you, Jaime Jarrin, for everything you're doing for Spanish-speaking baseball fans and for baseball fans alike.
Thanks for reading this post and I hope you enjoyed it. Check back soon for more of "all the buzz on what wuzz."
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