Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News writes on possible candidates to fill a giant’s shoes in the Dodgers broadcast booth.

You’d think the Dodgers would have some kind of insurance policy in place. To an extent, they do.

Experienced men like Matt Vasgerian, Dan Shulman, Brian Anderson, Don Orsillo or Rich Waltz could be ready for the dance if called upon. Newcomers who we may not be familiar with now, someone in their 20s or 30s who grew up in Southern California knowing the lay of the land, are ready to be drafted.

But the framework is already erect, thanks to those who’ve built the current SportsNet L.A. roster. And those fortunate enough to have seen the future know that giving Charley Steiner the role of play-by-play/set-up man for Orel Hershiser and Nomar Garciaparra (and maybe someday even Eric Karros), the post-Scully period will take some getting used to, but it’s not a mess.

Later Hoffarth writes:

In light of the latest scare of retirement, we had that “what if?” moment again, recalling how the Lakers once tried to feel their way through the dark hallway 13 years now after Chick Hearn’s passing. They thought, after some trial and error, Spero Dedes was their long-term solution. And that didn’t even happen.

Ask for our personal list, and Vasgersian, who spent quality years calling games for the Milwaukee Brewers and San Diego Padres before moving into a position with the MLB Network where he gets to do a game or two a week and then hop back into the studio work, remains the target for throwing our first dart.

If he’s in the right place at the right time, he’s Robert Redford in “The Candidate.”

Orsillo comes into play only because the Boston Red Sox don’t want him any longer, for no good reason, either. He’s done plenty of national work as well, as has Shulman, the ESPN “Sunday Night Baseball” voice.

Looking for something with legacy value? There’s Daron Sutton, 45, son of former Dodgers Hall of Famer Don Sutton, who once did games for the Arizona Diamondbacks. There’s Ryan Lefebvre, 44, son of former Dodgers second baseman Jim Lefebvre, working with the Kansas City Royals.

If anyone deserves a farewell tour, it is Vin Scully.

Yet it is sad to think that Scully finally has put an expiration date on his great career. In announcing he would return for his 67th year in 2016, he said it would be his final curtain call.

From Steve Dilbeck of the Los Angeles Times:

“I would say realistically — and I don’t want any headlines — but I would say next year would be the last one,” Scully said. “How much longer can you go fooling people? I would be saying, `Dear God, if you give me next year, I’ll hang it up.’ ”

I still cling to the idea that Scully will go on forever. The idea of saying good-bye and hearing his last call will be painful.

Writes Dilbeck:

There aren’t many heroes you get to meet in life who live up to seemingly unrealistic expectations. But Scully is exactly the man you would expect him to me — impervious to his stature, completely down to Earth, caring, humorous, modest, giving.

And now he gets to go out on his terms. And his unexpected announcement will put enormous pressure on the Dodgers to finally solve their TV stalemate, so he could very likely provide one more gift to Los Angeles.

Scully quoted Dylan Thomas’ iconic poem, perfect for his moment.

“He wrote, `Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light.’ I guess in a way, that’s what I’m doing. I’m raging against the dying of my career, which has to be around the corner now. But at least for the God-given time I have left, I’ll be raging.”

Keep on raging, Vin.

I was at the grocery store when I looked at my phone and saw that Jake Arrietta had a no-hitter through six innings. I told my wife to finally make a decision on her gelato because we had to leave right away.

The drive home allowed me to listen to the great Pat Hughes, who will be in Cooperstown one day, call the seventh and eighth innings on Cubs radio, WBBM-AM 780.

Apparently, Hughes subscribes to the superstition that if he mentions “no-hitter” the pitcher’s dream will disappear with the very next pitch. Realizing he had to inform his audience of Arrietta’s bid, Hughes repeatedly said that he hadn’t given up a hit.

After Arrietta got a single in the seventh, Hughes even joked that he “now has more hits than the team he is pitching against.”

However, still no mention of no-hitter until after Chase Utley struck out to end the game.

Hughes did his job to preserve history.

The Tribune’s Paul Sullivan did a nice column about listening to Hughes’ call.

Time is called. Can I get a beer from the fridge? No, better stay here.

“If you feel like you can’t sit still, you are not alone,” Hughes says.

He’s right. I’m standing here for no reason about two feet from the TV. The last time the Cubs threw a no-hitter was at Miller Park in 2008, when Carlos Zambrano no-hit the Astros, who were playing there because of Hurricane Ike. It was much easier sitting in a press box writing on deadline than standing two feet from a TV with the radio broadcast a few seconds ahead of the TV broadcast.

Utley fouls one off, a 96-mph fastball. Arrieta gets a new ball. A breaking ball bounces in to make it 1-2.

“Arrieta tugs at the cap,” Hughes says. “Six-foot-four-inch, bearded right-hander. Again, looks very calm. … And the pitch. A swing and a miss. A no-hitter! Jake Arrieta has just pitched a no-hitter at Dodger Stadium.”

Outside my window I can hear the crowd erupt at the bar next door as Arrieta is mobbed by his teammates. A magical moment a couple thousand miles away feels like it’s being celebrated all over town.

Spanning the globe to bring you the constant variety of sports media:

Why is Jose Bautista feuding with the Blue Jays‘ TV outlet? Brendan Kennedy of the Toronto Star.

Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News talks to Jessica Mendoza, the first female analyst in the baseball booth for ESPN.

Boston is outraged over the Red Sox decision to fire announcer Don Orsillo. Chad Finn of the Boston Globe.

Wright Thompson discusses writing his massive story on Hurricane Katrina for ESPN The Magazine.

Andrew Bucholtz of Awful Announcing examines the issues involved in MMQB’s Robert Klemko not reporting Cris Carter’s “fall guy” comments.

CBS reaps dividends from its deal to air Thursday night NFL games. Richard Sandomir of the New York Times.

Video links to sessions at the SportsMania’s recent digital summit in Miami.

Michael Bradley of the National Sports Journalism Center writes that sports journalism students need to be up to speed about recent trends.

The Sports Book Review Center reviews “The Phanton Punch” about the second Muhammad Ali-Sonny Liston fight.

An excerpt from my latest Chicago Tribune column:

*******

This year’s winner of the good timing award goes to WLS-Ch.7 and WBBM-AM 780.

WLS signed on for a five-year package of Cubs games in December despite the team’s TV ratings sinking to historic lows in 2014. John Idler, WLS’s president and general manager, figured the ratings would rise dramatically at some point during the deal when the Cubs rebuild kicked in. However, he didn’t expect to hit the jackpot this year.

“The timeline has been accelerated,” Idler said. “The (2015) ratings definitely have exceeded our expectations.”

Meanwhile, WBBM says the station is experiencing ratings increases between 30 and 50 percent for its game broadcasts during the first year of its radio deal with the Cubs.

The Cubs turnaround has confirmed what everyone thought: They were a sleeping giant on the ratings front.

Through Wednesday, Comcast SportsNet is averaging a 3.2 rating for Cubs games on its network, up dramatically from 1.50 in 2014; 1 local ratings point is worth an estimated 35,000 homes. WGN-Ch. 9 is averaging a 4.7 for its Cubs telecasts, more than double from last year. WLS is doing a 4.5 rating for the 22 Cubs games that have aired on its station.

Those numbers don’t even tell the complete story. The ratings have exploded with the Cubs’ surge since the All-Star break.

WLS averaged a 7.9 rating between 7-8:15 p.m. for the Cubs-Detroit game on Aug. 18 before a long rain delay halted play. WGN peaked with a 7.3 rating for the Cubs-Milwaukee game on Aug. 12. CSN posted its highest-rated Cubs game in six years with a 5.1 rating for the game against Milwaukee on Aug. 11.

John Ourand of Sports Business Daily reports that my old pal Jason Whitlock is on his way out at ESPN and likely headed back to Fox Sports.

Jason Whitlock is negotiating to leave ESPN before his contract ends officially, possibly as early as the next few weeks, according to several sources. Whitlock has had informal talks with Fox Sports that could see him return to work with former ESPN exec Jamie Horowitz, who currently is Fox Sports National Networks President. Neither ESPN nor Fox Sports would comment. Whitlock’s possible role at Fox Sports is not known, but if he makes the move, it is expected to include both a TV role on FS1 and regular contributions on FoxSports.com.

In the wake of the Undefeated debacle, there’s no reason for ESPN to keep Whitlock. It makes an awkward situation even more awkward.

The last time Whitlock left ESPN, he routinely blasted the network. In fact, in a podcast with the New York Times’ Richard Sandomir, he implored him and the paper to do more digging into ESPN.

However, Whitlock changed his tuned shortly thereafter when ESPN brought him in to oversee Undefeated. He and Bill Simmons even had a ESPN love fest during a podcast.

Now Whitlock is out the door again. It will be interesting to see if he goes out swinging.

Just when it was looking so good for Chicago’s North Side team, this happens.

However, since it is a regional cover, maybe the Cubs only will suffer from a partial jinx.

Robert Klemko attended the session for NFL rookies in which Cris Carter made his foolish comment in 2014. Yet he didn’t write about it in his piece for MMQB.

Yesterday, he explained in a Twitlonger tweet. Here is an excerpt:

When Carter said the words, “have a fall guy” in what was a light-hearted and animated session that at times made league employees in attendance cringe, the NFL’s Kim Fields looked my way and said, “that can’t go in the story.” I was torn. I take pride in reporting every detail, even at the risk of damaging relationships. Earlier in my career I profiled a player who had a string of unreported violence in his life. Knowing these were not details the player or the agent wanted public, I published them anyway, because I judged those facts material to the arc of that player’s journey (the agent hasn’t spoken to me since).

Later, Klemko concluded:

Through the sheer incompetence of the NFL, which posted the video of Carter’s talk online, my decision to withhold that info has now come to light. If faced with the same decision again, I would have to think long and hard about the choice. Bottom line: I need to be tougher.

 

 

Here is an excerpt from my story on Golfdigest.com:

******

Sunday’s final round of the U.S. Amateur saw (Joe) Buck and Fox Sports complete the first year of its 12-year deal with the USGA. Buck insists he already is looking forward to next year’s USGA slate and that viewers can expect to see an improvement in the quality of Fox’s golf presentation.

Buck is well aware of the knocks against Fox’s golf coverage, largely stemming from negative reactions to the U.S. Open. However, he maintains the crew made great strides this year. In an ideal situation, he says Fox would have been better served if the U.S. Open was its last tournament of the year, rather than one of its first.

“Absolutely,” Buck said. “We didn’t have that luxury. Everyone talks about reps. There’s no substitute for reps. Now that we’ve done four or five events, there is more of an ease with the timing. It’s gotten a lot better. I told everyone [before the U.S. Open] that we would be better on Friday than we were on Thursday. I know we will be better next year than we were this year.”

While acknowledging Fox’s coverage of the U.S. Open at Chambers Bay wasn’t perfect, Buck said it was his “proudest moment” during his years with the network, which has featured him calling multiple World Series and Super Bowls.

“I’d put that up against anything we’ve done on Fox,” Buck said. “Technologically, it was a major undertaking at Chambers Bay. It put everyone under the gun. We were picking up sound on the greens, things that carried the story. Everyone was clicking beer bottles when we went off the air. It felt that good.”