Herausforderungen » didnt understand Hamlins lack

LOS ANGELES -- The three-ring binder chock full of tidbits Vin Scully wants to talk about on the air will soon be flipped shut for the last time.After Saturday night, the Hall of Fame broadcaster is down to calling four Los Angeles Dodgers games before concluding his 67-year career on Oct. 2 in San Francisco.Im trying very hard not to think about me, he said Saturday during a 50-minute session with the media. I want to think about the game and the importance of the game.The game has always been the thing for Scully, starting in 1950 when he joined Red Barber and Connie Desmond in the Brooklyn Dodgers radio and television booth. Barber was the father figure, Desmond was the big brother and Scully was the 22-year-old kid.Early on, Scully declared on the air that Willie Mays was the best player hed ever seen.An irritated Barber pulled him aside afterward, lecturing, You havent been around long enough to talk about the best player youve ever seen.Connie would put his arm around me, Scully recalled, and say, `Its OK, kid. Lets go get a beer.Scullys broadcasts focus on stories involving the people on the field rather than baseball statistics. He admits having no idea about newer stats like WAR (wins above replacement) or OPS (on base plus slugging percentages).Im not smart enough to keep all those numbers in my head, he said. I got to know the players. I started to treat them like human beings. I would be by the batting cage. A player might come over and say, `You know what happened to the shortstop yesterday? and I would have a story.As the longest tenured broadcaster with a single team in any professional sport, Scully has plenty of stories and an amazing recall of names, dates and occasions that would put most 88-year-olds to shame.Hes used his encyclopedic knowledge working games alone for much of his career, making him an anomaly in todays world of booths jammed with play-by-play, color commentators and analysts talking over each other.Thats not an ego trip on my part, Scully said. Red had the theory: one voice, one man. The one-on-one is really effective.Scullys esteem and influence earned him an offer from Eugene Wyman to run for office in 1964. Wymans wife, Roz, was influential in helping bring the Dodgers west in 1958. Wyman told Scully the Democrats were looking for a candidate to fill the U.S. Senate seat from California. Scully listened politely and asked Wyman for 48 hours to mull it over.I called him and said, `Ive given it a lot of thought, which was not true, I just dont think Im qualified and I think Id be happier doing my baseball games, Scully said.His first Brooklyn Dodgers game on April 18, 1950, was in Philadelphia, having cracked jokes on the way to the ballpark in the back of the bus with Jackie Robinson, Gil Hodges, Duke Snider, Pee Wee Reese, Roy Campanella and Don Newcombe, whose friendship with Scully extends to this day.They didnt trust me more than one inning, Scully said, recalling Barber assigned him to call the fourth. I was terrified.Even today, he says, Theres a sense of complete relief when its over with.Eventually, Scully grew as comfortable behind the mic as Dodgers fans did listening to his dulcet voice that has informed and educated generations of Angelenos.Im a very happy person. I love people, he said. When I go on the air, Im happy. The people, thats what I will miss. The people have made me feel so much at home and I think Ive carried that onto the air.The fans paid him back with multiple ovations Friday night during an emotional pre-game ceremony on his appreciation night.I started to cry at the beginning, he said. Ive never heard the noise that we heard. It kept building and staying there. There was love coming out of those stands.Youve heard about being on Mount Olympus. I think I was 5 feet above that.When Scully awakes in his own bed on Oct. 3, hell be unemployed for the first time since 1950.Maybe the first thing Ill do is take my watch off and put it in the drawer and just think I can do anything I want, he said. Ill have breakfast, read the papers, go for a walk and get a book.It wont be painful at all, he said, assuredly.Not for him, but for the rest of us.Willie Calhoun Rangers Jersey . 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Breaking three of his own world records on his way to winning in Paris, Chan silenced the critics and left the audiences standing in appreciation and awe.MARTINSVILLE, Va. -- There was a time this summer when a seventh championship seemed out of reach for Jimmie Johnson.Hendrick Motorsports was struggling and Johnson wasnt at the top of many lists to contend for the title.Then the Hendrick organization flipped a switch, built better, faster cars, and Johnson turned it up a notch. Now, that slot in NASCARs record books is absolutely within reach.Johnson earned one of four spots in next months title-deciding season finale Sunday with his ninth career victory at Martinsville Speedway . The six-time NASCAR champion will race for his seventh championship, which would tie him for the record with Hall of Famers Richard Petty and the late Dale Earnhardt.Ive been trying to ignore this conversation about seven, and now I cant, said Johnson, who doesnt particularly want to start thinking about the stakes just yet.Ill probably lie to all of you guys and say Im not going to think about it at all. But its inevitable. Fortunately, I dont have to think about it for three weeks. But were going to enjoy this and savor it. Were going to get our ducks in a row for Homestead.The victory blocked Joe Gibbs Racing from placing all four of Toyota drivers in the final round of the Chase for the Sprint Cup title . There are only three spots still open in the Nov. 20 finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway, and JGRs hope of sweeping the final four ended Sunday.Most likely to miss the final? Carl Edwards, who had a tire problem and finished 36th at Martinsville -- lowest of the eight Chase drivers. Also in trouble: Stewart-Haas Racing teammates Kevin Harvick and Kurt Busch, who finished 20th and 22nd.Brad Keselowski, eliminated from the Chase last week , finished second and was irritated by a lengthy caution earlier in the race when NASCAR struggled to figure out the running order. Had those laps not been wasted under yellow, Keselowski absolutely believed he could have beat Johnson.We dont need to run 100 laps under yellow with the field, not trying to figure out where theyre at, and it probably cost us the race, Keselowski said.The caution took 29 laps, and left some grumbling the order still wasnt correct when the race restarted.I think the stakes are so high, I really wish we would have red flagged the race, gone, reviewed it and gotten it right, said third-place finisher Denny Hamlin. Theres a 100 percent chance it was not right at the end. It changed the running order.Hopefully, that doesnt change what happens going into Homestead. I know that NASCAR is doing everything they can with the scoring they have and things like that. But you have to get it right. It definitely was not right.JGR finished third, fourth and fifth ass Hamlin, Matt Kenseth and Kyle Busch are inside the top-four as the series heads to Texas Motor Speedway.dddddddddddd But all was not well in the Gibbs camp after the race.Busch felt Hamlin -- finished the highest by holding up Kenseth and Busch in the waning laps. Although the teammates worked well together on restarts, Busch felt that Hamlin not getting out of the way allowed Johnson to win and Keselowski to finish second.We work so good together that we just gave the win to (Johnson). So, JGR all the way, Busch said. At the end, you had the slowest Gibbs car holding up the rest of the line, and all we did was let somebody else from another organization pass us and go up there and chase down (Johnson).Hamlin disputed Buschs view.I may have held those guys up for a little bit of that final run, but definitely dont think I was holding anyone up at the end, for sure, Hamlin said.Jeff Gordon finished sixth in his final scheduled race as the replacement driver for Dale Earnhardt Jr. It is presumably the final race of Gordons career. He retired last season, but was pressed into eight races when Earnhardt suffered a concussion.Martin Truex Jr. finished seventh and was followed by Jamie McMurray and Joey Logano, winner last week at Talladega but now the first driver below the cutline in the Chase.It was an unusually fast race for Martinsville standards, and the five cautions were the fewest since April of 1989.SCARY SCENE: A vehicle struck at least 10 pedestrians in a parking lot outside the speedway after the race.A track official said there were no life-threatening injuries, although some pedestrians had been transported to Memorial Hospital in Martinsville, Virginia.One person was taken into custody after the incident.JOHNSON VS. HAMLIN: There was mid-race aggression between Johnson and Hamlin , as Hamlin moved Johnson out of his way for a pass for position.He thinks hes a (expletive) king, doesnt do anything wrong, Hamlin radioed.Johnson didnt understand Hamlins lack of patience, and Hamlin said it stems from incidents in the first two rounds of the Chase.DEHYDRATED DRIVERS: It was the warmest fall race at Martinsville since 1999 and temperatures in the mid-80s caused overheating for at least two drivers.AJ Allmendinger and Michael McDowell had to be treated for dehydration after the race, and both were released from the care center.Michael Annett also was treated after the race, but NASCAR did not disclose his symptoms.UP NEXT: A Sunday stop at Texas Motor Speedway, where Johnson has won the last four November races. ' ' '