Dodgers icon Jaime Jarrín excited for World Series in Los Angeles

LOS ANGELES – As countless baseball luminaries and media reporters angled for a piece of his time during the first two games of the World Series at Fenway Park, it was difficult to imagine just how raw legendary broadcaster Jaime Jarrín was the first time he called the Fall Classic.

Now that he’s the longest tenured active broadcaster in Major League Baseball, it seems impossible to fathom that Jarrín had never even seen a baseball game until he arrived in the United States from his native Quito, Ecuador in 1955.

That 19-year-old kid who landed in the U.S. in the mid-1950s never could have envisioned the career that would earn him a spot among the immortal voices in baseball history in the National Baseball Hall of Fame.  When the Hall awarded him the 1988 Ford Frick Award for excellence in broadcasting, he was only the second of three Spanish-language broadcaster to have received it.

Considering the Dodgers were still in Brooklyn during his early days, nobody could have foreseen a place for him among the franchise’s legends at Dodger Stadium’s Ring of Honor.

Moving In

Chavez Ravine in Los Angeles was still a modest Latino enclave when Jarrín emigrated there from Ecuador. (The heartache many Chicano families felt when they were displaced by Los Angeles officials to build Dodger Stadium will be a story for another time.)

With Jarrín’s help and Fernando Valenzuela’s brilliance, the Dodgers captured the affection and loyalty of Los Angeles’ vibrant Latino community.

For Jarrín it all started in 1959, a year after the Dodgers played their first season in Los Angeles. That’s when the team began Spanish broadcasts on AM station KWKW La Mexicana, becoming the first team to broadcast the entire schedule in Spanish.

That season ended with the Dodgers winning the World Series over the Chicago White Sox, 4-2.

Jarrín’s 60th season is ending with the Dodgers facing the Red Sox in the World Series, which resumes with Game 3 on Friday night at Dodger Stadium.

“I was very green, just starting my first year with the Dodgers,” Jarrín told La Vida Baseball this week. “And to win the World Series [when we] defeated the White Sox really would be my No. 1 World Series.”

This Fall Classic is the 11th Dodgers World Series Jarrín has called and his second in a row.

Dodger Blue

Jarrín has become one of the foremost authorities on Dodgers history. Los Angeles fans are fortunate to have had two icons broadcast their games: Vin Scully in English and Jarrín in Spanish.

Jarrín joined Scully on the team’s Ring of Honor last September, taking his place alongside Dodgers legends Jackie Robinson, Sandy Koufax, Duke Snider, Pee Wee Reese, Tommy Lasorda, Jim Gilliam, Don Sutton, Walter Alston, Roy Campanella and Don Drysdale.

He worked closely with and befriended most of the men in the Dodgers’ Ring of Honor and was especially close with Scully.

For him, the 1963 team stands out even though he says the 2017 club that lost a seven-game classic to the Astros may have been the most talented overall.

“Well, I will say that the No. 1 Dodger team would have to be the 1963 team,” he said. “Because you know (how) the Dodgers treat the games against the Yankees. The Yankees had the big names even including Mickey Mantle there.”

The 1963 Dodgers swept Mickey Mantle’s Yankees in the World Series with Koufax beating fellow Hall of Famer Whitey Ford in Games 1 and 4. Johnny Podres won Game 2. Drysdale, another Hall of Famer, won Game 3 for the Dodgers.

“But it was Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale, Johnny Podres. … That was a great, great team, probably the best. Then we had two great teams, 1977, 1978. They should have won those World Series. It was against the Yankees. But they couldn’t win even though they had great teams.”

Great Memories

Over his 60 years behind the mic, Jarrín has actually broadcast more than two dozen World Series for American Spanish-language broadcasts and for international telecasts. So many, that he’s lost count, saying he’d need to double check if he has called 26 or 27 World Series.

Whatever the case, he has been at almost half of the World Series since his debut broadcast season in 1959.

The 1997 World Series between Liván Hernández’s Florida Marlins and the Cleveland Indians holds a special place in Jarrín’s heart. It may very well be his favorite among the Fall Classics that didn’t include the Dodgers.

“That was really special because I was with the … Caracol Network and they had something like 780 radio stations covering the games,” he said. “It was huge. Even we had one station in France, in Paris, because the Caracol station there played Colombian music with the French announcers.”

“So they were covering the games because of … Edgar Rentería, a Colombian player. That one was very special because of that.”

Still a Fan

Jarrín doesn’t broadcast the full season anymore. Just as his friend Scully did late in his career, Jarrín has taken select trips off.  He spends much of his time with his wife of 64 years, Blanca.

Hardly a day goes by when a fan doesn’t approach Jarrín and tell him that he grew up listening to his Dodger broadcasts with his grandfather or father.

For many Dodgers fans, he remains the voice of baseball.

“Well, I have to thank the Dodgers because they gave me the opportunity to be in contact with the community,” Jarrín said. “And knowing that the Latinos are very sports minded people we did our part covering the games and teaching baseball to many, many people.

“Because before Fernando Valenzuela – before Fernandomania 1981 – many, many South Americans, Central Americans and even [people] from Mexico didn’t care much about baseball. They care about soccer and boxing. But thanks to Fernando and because we had a huge network in Mexico we were able to teach them the game. And we were able to create many, many, many new baseball followers. That pleases me a lot. And I have to say that it was because of Fernando.”

Valenzuela definitely played a huge part in drawing Mexican, Mexican American and Latino fans to Dodger Stadium. Jarrín was right there with him as his interpreter as the portly left-hander from Mexico helped the Dodgers win the 1981 World Series.

When Jarrín wasn’t calling that 1981 Fall Classic on KWKW, he was seen by many mainstream outlets as Valenzuela’s interpreter.

There’s another young, Mexican left-hander on the Dodgers’ World Series roster this year, but Jarrín no longer needs to serve as an interpreter for Julio Urías.

He’s focused on his broadcast duties. That’s more than enough for his devoted listeners.

“The thing that really fills my spirit so much is walking the streets, going to a restaurant, going to a store,” he said. “Many people approach me and they say, ‘Mr. Jarrín, my grandfather used to hear you. My father used to follow you. My mother fell in love with baseball thanks to you.’ So that really, really fills me a lot. That really pleases me like nothing else.”

Featured Image: Jayne Kamin-Oncea / Getty Images Sport