Vin Scully speaks and the crowd listens

Update 1: Click here for more pictures.
Vin Scully was a delight to listen earlier today. He was a guest speaker at HRTS in Beverly Hills. I arrived at 11:10am at the beautiful Beverly Wilshire Hotel. What an amazing place. It's a classic Hotel.

The whole staff of HRTS were great. They were so wonderful to me. They made me feel special. Most of the staff knew me already and I didn't have to introduce myself. They mentioned that they did sell many tickets because of my blog and told me they were very appreciated by my posts. They were genuinely thankful. Big thanks to them! Readers that came up to me were Tom, Teresa, Ronny, Garrett, Keith, Sandra and John. Those were the ones that thanked me for posting this event and for getting a great deal.

After getting a Press Release, the staff sent me to the press area where Scully was going to speak to the media before the luncheon. I was nervous by entering this room full of t.v. personalities and writers. I only recognized Ben Platt of Dodgers.com, Mario Solis of KNBC (The pix you see above) and Gary Miller of KCAL/CBS. All did interviews with Scully. You can read Platt's article by clicking here. KNBC and KCAL has yet to post their videos but I'm sure they will do it shortly.

While Scully walked around to do interviews, I noticed that Scully makes them feel special and answers questions without any problems and is always smiling. This went on for about an hour. He posed for pictures and did interviews. I bet he was tired before the luncheon started!

They ended this session to go over to the ballroom to start the luncheon. Before the entrance, they gave me a ticket to sit at Table 81. The last row of tables were set up for the media. I didn't have a close up view of Scully since I sat with the media. But they had big screens to view this event. They served Chicken for lunch. Not too bad. At this table I met Jason, a photographer. Really nice guy. It was a packed house. Every table was full.

Scully spoke for about 40 minutes. He shared stories about the Dodgers and told jokes. It was a really good time to listen to this great man. You can tell he wants to share stories that makes fun of himself and wants the crowd to have a good time. He's not there to tell you how great he is.

"When the team takes the field and the crowd roars, it triggers something in me," he told the audience. "Forget about where they are in the standings, I think that's the secret. You just do the game and enjoy the game."

On Manny Ramirez:

"The world knew Manny had a 50-game suspension," he told the audience. "There wasn't any reason for me to talk about they were fertility drugs or whatever. I just felt it was not my role."

On Instant Replay: He likes it except for Balls and Strikes

On the Drama between Frank and Jamie McCourt:

"As someone who holds a great sanctity for marriage, it only breaks my heart," he told the crowd, who saluted him with two standing ovations.

Thanks Mr. Scully for the time!Is there anything that I didn't like? Not really. The only complaint is the presenter Ron Shelton. I found him to be boring. I just didn't feel any joy out of him. Shelton has directed several Baseball movies (Bull Durham and Cobb) and I was surprised that he didn't seem excited at interviewing Scully. He just seemed boring. Maybe they should of brought Jon Weisman of Dodger Thoughts to do it.

That's my only complaint. Everything else was great. Thanks again to HRTS. Thanks for reading.

Look for a future post for a video that I shot of Scully. I will try to do that very soon!