Jaime Jarrin ~ LA Dodgers

Tomorrow, before the game, the LA Dodgers will honor Jaime Jarrin for his 50th anniversary as a Dodger broadcaster.

From the team's site:

Jaime Jarrín, among the most recognizable voices in Hispanic broadcasting and one of two current Dodger Hall of Fame announcers, begins his 49th season in the radio booth as "the Spanish Voice of the Dodgers." His smooth melodic voice is also heard on FSN Prime Ticket's SAP channel. The Dodgers, with Jarrin and longtime English-language broadcaster Vin Scully, are the only Major League club to feature a pair of Hall of Fame announcers.

In the 2005 book "Voices of Summer," Jarrín was named as baseball's all-time best Spanish-language broadcaster based on "longevity, continuity, network coverage, kudos, language, popularity, persona, voice knowledge and miscellany." He was rated 28th overall among all broadcasters.

Jarrín became the club's No. 1 Spanish-language broadcaster in 1973, 14 years after he first joined the Dodgers. He was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame on July 26, 1998 in Cooperstown, NY as the recipient of the Ford C. Frick Award. Named in honor of the former broadcaster and Commissioner of Baseball, the Frick Award has been given annually since 1978 to a broadcaster "for major contributions to the game of baseball."

Jarrín became only the second Spanish-language announcer to be inducted into the Hall of Fame, joining Buck Canel. Jarrín was also the first recipient of the Southern California Broadcaster Association's President's Award in February 1998. He was given the highest award by the National Association of Hispanic Journalists in June 1998 and received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in September 1998. On June 21, 2002 Jarrin was inducted into the California Broadcasters Association Hall of Fame and on Aug. 23, 2003, he was inducted into the Hispanic Heritage Baseball Museum during pregame ceremonies at Dodger Stadium. In early 2004, he was honored by the Southern California Sports Broadcasters with the 2003 Foreign Language Sports Broadcaster Award and inducted into the Southern California Sports Broadcaster's Hall of Fame.

In 2005 and 2006, Jarrín was honored by the SCSB with the foreign-language broadcaster of the year award.

His other honors included being awarded La Gran Cruz al Merito en El Grado de Comendador (the highest medal awarded to non-military personnel) in his native Ecuador in January 1992, named as one of the top 100 Influential Hispanics in the United States by Hispanic Business Magazine in 1990 and the first Latin American to win the Golden Mike Award in 1970 and 1971. In 2000, he spoke at the MLB Rookie Development seminar, which is designed to prepare top minor league prospects for the Major Leagues.

During the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, Jarrín was in charge of all Spanish radio coverage and production. He has called more than 30 world championship boxing title bouts throughout the world for radio and television stations in Latin America. He has called 19 All-Star Games and 25 World Series, including the 2005 Fall Classic in which he served as the emcee for MLB's Latin Legends ceremony. His broadcasts of the All- Star Game, League Championship Series and World Series on CBS, the Latina Broadcasting Network, Cadena Latina and Caracol from 1989 to 1999 were carried on more than 300 stations. In March 2006, Jarrin served as a play-by-play announcer for the inaugural World Baseball Classic.

Jarrín studied philosophy, letters, journalism and broadcasting at Central University of Ecuador in Quito. His son, Jorge - "The Captain" - covers traffic for English and Spanish radio stations in Los Angeles and works for the Dodgers in the sales and marketing department.

Jarrín and his wife, Blanca, reside in Los Angeles.

Read an interview with Jarrin at DodgerThoughts