Jaime Jarrín has been the Spanish language voice for the Dodgers over the last 64 years. He joined the team the year after it moved from Brooklyn to Los Angeles. To date, he’s called thousands of games.
Jarrín will retire at the end of the 2022 season, leaving behind a decades-long legacy that’s landed him in the Baseball Hall of Fame and the Dodgers Ring of Honor. The Dodgers will honor Jarrín at a celebration hosted at Chavez Ravine on October 1.
“I feel overwhelmed about all the attention and all the love that people have shown to me,” he says. “I have to thank so many people. But I think I will mention first the Dodgers because they are the ones that give me the opportunity to be on the air. … They were the first Major League Baseball club to give the fans bilingual coverage of the games because so many Spanish-speaking people [are] here in Southern California.”
He says the past 64 years have been a dream and great ride, but it’s time to change priorities.
He wants to spend more time with his son and daughter-in-law, and work on the foundation they have on behalf of his wife. He says the foundation will give 15 college scholarships in the next two weeks, each worth $5000. The California State Universities also match that amount of money.
Jarrín’s wife and son came to the U.S. from Ecuador in December 1955 — months after he arrived alone as a 19-year-old.
“At the beginning, I was thinking of going to New York or probably Chicago, but then I started reading about how huge the Spanish-speaking people currently [are] here in Southern California. So I thought that's the place where I should go. And that's a great, great decision that I took coming to Southern California.”
At the time, he knew nothing about baseball because people in Ecuador didn’t play it (instead, they played soccer), but he started watching local teams play to understand the game.
Flash forward decades later, Jarrín says he’ll be nervous during this weekend’s ceremony. “I don't know if I will be able to avoid crying.”