Vin Scully to return to Dodgers' broadcast booth in 2013

Vin Scully will return for his 64th season calling Dodgers games. (Getty Images)

As if things couldn't get better in Dodger-land, they have. The team announced Sunday that Vin Scully will return to the broadcast booth next season.

Scully, 84, said he is energized by the team's new ownership group and will return for his 64th season as the voice of the Dodgers. For just the second time in his 63 years of calling games, Scully missed the team's home-opener this season due to an undisclosed illness.

"The new ownership of the Dodgers has revitalized the city, the team, the fans and myself," Scully said in the team's statement. "I am so convinced of their great purpose and leadership that I eagerly look forward to joining them in pursuit of the next Dodgers championship."

In a press conference later in the day, Scully said he has no idea how much longer he'll be calling Dodgers games.

"I don't know. That's in God's hands. It's certainly not in my hands," Scully said (via the Los Angeles Daily News). When I say day to day, I firmly and truly believe that. I thank Him for every day. I know my mom thanked Him for every day that she had ... She was inspirational. I do feel that one of the things that I'm fortunate to have, would be to have her genes. Does that mean I'll live to be 97? I doubt that very much. Our lives have been totally different. But anyway, we'll give it a shot. I'm not even thinking of doing the games when I'm 97."

Even at his age, Scully is still the best play-by-play man in sports, manning the Dodgers booth alone and filling both the radio and TV side with first-hand stories of baseball history, as well as arcane facts and pitch-perfect timing. In a game where hyperbole is thrown around like, well, a baseball, it's not hyperbolic in the least to say that Scully is the best that is, ever was or ever will be at his craft. And another year of Scully is a treat not just for the denizens of Southern California, but with the advent of MLB.tv and MLB At-Bat, all baseball fans are recipients of Scully's great gifts.

And yes, Vin, you're cool, really cool:

Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times first reported the news.

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