Jaime Jarrin
Jaime Jarrin has been the Dodgers' Spanish-language radio announcer since 1959. He had only one problem when he got the job: He had never seen a baseball game.
But the Ecuadorean-born Jarrin soon picked up knowledge of the game and since has built a wide following.
Adept at filling lulls in a game, Jarrin glances at material written in English and instantly offers tidbits in Spanish. Jarrin's friendly, personal tone is part of the reaon for his popularity.
For many years, Jarrin was the only full-time Spanish-language baseball play-by-play man in the United States and has long advocated for more bilingual programs.
"It is a great shame that we don't study more than one language here," he said.
At 16, Jarrin began reporting senate and congressional affairs for La Voz de Los Andes, a station in Quito, the capital of Ecuador. He knew no English when he came to the U.S. as a 19-year-old.
Jarrin became known to English-speaking fans in the 1980s as interpreter for Dodger great Fernando Valenzuela, recognition that came after 24 years as a radio newscaster and sports commentator.
He was already well known within the Latino community as the Spanish-language counterpart of Vin Scully.
Jarrin became Valenzuela's interpreter because, "In the beginning, (Manny) Mota and (Bobby) Castillo would help translate, but people didn't like troubling them when they had other responsibilities."
Jarrin was inducted into the Broadcaster's Hall of Fame in 2002.
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