The Dodgers "showed off" the "spiffy remodeling" of their new broadcast booth to viewers yesterday, with new TV play-by-play man Joe Davis and analyst Orel Hershiser calling the team's 14-3 win over the Padres, according to Bill Shaikin of the L.A. TIMES. Until yesterday's game, Davis had "not called a regular-season game from the booth" at Dodger Stadium, previously occupied by longtime broadcaster Vin Scully. Shaikin writes Davis "delivers a clean broadcast," while the production as a whole is "superb." However, there was "something generic about it all." Scully was the "last master of the one-man booth." The Dodgers broadcast "sounded good," and at the same time it "sounded just like that of every other team" (L.A. TIMES, 4/4). In L.A., Bill Plaschke writes it was "strange that Scully was absent from the booth and the media room, his distinctive voice available only through scoreboard video presentations." Scully said of what he was doing yesterday, "I was engaged in that other national pastime, paying bills. Then I went to the post office to mail them, and now I’m just leaving the carwash. ... Some people did stop me and say it was strange to see me. I told them I agree." Scully added that "spending the afternoon living a normal life with his beloved wife Sandi was, for him, the perfect opening day" (L.A. TIMES, 4/4).
JUST BE YOURSELF: ESPN.com's Doug Padilla wrote in "no way is Davis replacing Scully," as that "would be impossible." The Dodgers will now "make full-time use of multiple-man booths, not the solo arrangement that Scully made famous." Dodgers radio play-by-play man Charley Steiner said, "You know, nobody replaces Vin. We're still having a hard time replacing Abraham Lincoln." Steiner's advice to Davis was to "just be himself, advice that Davis has heard many times along the way and has figured out how to embrace" (ESPN.com, 4/3).
