Dodgers broadcaster Vin Scully downplayed rumors that the '14 season could be his last, saying that he will "do his annual evaluation next summer and determine if he wants to come back for another year," according to Steve Dilbeck of the L.A. TIMES. Scully said, “I look at each year as possibly my last. Next year will be no different. It all boils down to come July or August, how I feel physically. I’ll look at how many mistakes I’ve made and if they’re coming for me yet, and how I feel.” Dilbeck noted the 85-year-old Scully has "already agreed to return for a record 65th season next spring," but in a recent interview with L.A-based KPCC-FM, he "sounded like next year could be his last." Scully: “I wasn’t making a declaration. I guess it was misconstrued. Each year is my last, until the next one. I never say yes or no" (L.A. TIMES, 10/3). Scully in the KPCC interview said, "I'm pretty well sure, and I don’t want to go back-and-forth with it, but I'm looking to next year and figuring that should be about it." Scully will only be heard on the radio during the playoffs, and he said, "I've had plenty of experience on the network and as far as now, trying to get to guested back in, I don't want any part of that. I don't belong there, I don’t deserve to be there and I'm very happy doing the game on radio" (KPCC-AM, 10/2).
THE END IS NEAR: VARIETY's Jon Weisman noted Scully's recent comments are "as close to a retirement warning as he has ever really come." The Dodgers opening the NLDS tonight in Atlanta means Scully is "making a rare journey to the east, but only" for the Dodgers' broadcast radio on KLAC-AM. With the Dodgers "moving to their own television network in 2014 via their multi-billion deal with Time Warner Cable, Scully has likely already broadcast his last over-the-air televised game." His commitment to the launch of the new network next year "obviously had to have come as a massive relief to the parties involved, but the reality of going without Scully might be coming sooner than they like" (VARIETY.com, 10/2).
