Hanging out in the hardware store doesn’t sound appealing to Dodger Hall of Fame Broadcaster Vin Scully. He recalled the 1994 baseball strike and how bored he was sitting at home. That thought was one of the reasons the Scully decided that he would come back for an unprecedented 62nd season.

“It wasn’t one of those things where you lose sleep at night, but you do think, ‘What do I do if I don’t do this?'” said Scully. “And I remember my mom and dad back in New Jersey, they would look out the window and guess whether they were going to see a Ford or Chevy go by and I used to think, ‘Whoa.’ And during the strike back in ’94, I’d play golf every day and that got old. Then I’d go and have lunch with people and that got old. And then I found myself spending an awful lot of time in the hardware store looking at nuts and bolts and screws and that was on my mind and I thought, ‘Not yet. As long as you feel the way you feel, not yet.'”

He will continue to call all Dodger home games and road games against National League West opponents.  His 61 years of service with the Dodgers is the longest tenure of any broadcaster in sports history. There was speculation, though, that the beloved broadcaster would not return next season.

“There was a story in the paper that said, ‘Only Scully knows,’ but that’s incorrect,” said Scully. “Only God knows just how long I’ll continue to work. But I am very grateful to have the opportunity to be with the Dodgers for all these years. It’s a marvelous organization. The game of baseball I love with all my heart and soul and I found in the deep recesses of my mind that I did not want to sever the relationship.”

Scully began his baseball broadcasting career in 1950, and since then has gone on to call three perfect games, 19 no-hitters, 25 World Series and 12 All-Star Games. He was also at the microphone for Kirk Gibson’s miraculous Game 1 walk-off home run in the 1988 World Series, Hank Aaron’s record-setting 715th home run, Barry Bonds’ record-

breaking 71st, 72nd and 73rd home runs and the record-breaking scoreless-inning streaks of Dodger greats Don Drysdale and Orel Hershiser. In 1982, he was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

“I’ve had a love affair with this game since I was I guess 8 or 9 years old and I tried to play it and I realized how hard it is to play it on the level the Major Leaguers play,” said Scully. “And I’ve been intrigued by their abilities, that plus the love of the game still produces goosebumps and I think that might be my thermometer. Every time there’s a good play — the other night when the kid at second base threw the ball to first behind his back I had goosebumps like it was the first big league game I’d ever seen. And I went home thinking, ‘Holy mackerel, it’s still deep inside of me, this love for the game.'”