Scully on mend, will miss playoffs
Hall of Fame broadcaster Vin Scully won’t be calling any games in the baseball playoffs after undergoing a medical procedure.
The Los Angeles Dodgers said Thursday that Scully was resting comfortably after a recommended procedure earlier in the day. The team didn’t specify what the procedure was.
Doctors advised Scully to skip the playoffs in order to rest up. Scully, who turns 88 in November, said in August he expects next season will be his last in the booth. His 66 years with the Dodgers are a broadcasting record for the same big league franchise.
Scully missed the team’s final series of the regular season because of a cold, and he wasn’t in San Francisco for a four-game trip earlier last week because of a scheduled absence.
Cubs-Pirates sets viewership record: The Chicago Cubs’ return to the playoffs drew the largest television audience in the short history of baseball’s wild-card game.
The Cubs’ 4-0 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates on Wednesday night in the NL wild-card game on TBS averaged 8.3 million viewers, topping the previous high of 7.6 million set a night earlier for the Astros’ win over the Yankees in the AL game on ESPN.
The viewership is up 48 percent from the 5.6 million for last year’s NL game between the Giants and Pirates on ESPN and 60 percent from the 5.2 million for the AL game on TBS between Kansas City and Oakland.
Pirates: It’s all good between infielder Sean Rodriguez and the water cooler he TKO’d in the dugout during Pittsburgh’s wild-card loss. Rodriguez was ejected in the seventh inning when the benches cleared and decided to take out his frustrations on an unsuspecting water cooler. He took to Twitter to apologize “for allowing my emotions to control my actions in a negative manner.” Rodriguez added he “spoke to the cooler, apologized personally, and he’s forgiven me as Christ forgives all.”