If Dodgers fans don't have much optimism that their team will reach the postseason this year, there is hope for next year, even if the club fades from the pennant race again.

The team announced Sunday that Dodgers broadcaster Vin Scully will return to the booth for a 62nd season in 2011. According to the Dodgers, Scully's 61-year tenure, which began in 1950 when the Dodgers still played in Brooklyn, already represents the longest of any broadcaster in sports history.

According to the Associated Press, Scully said he made the decision with the blessing of his wife, Sandy, and his five children.

"My wife understood, God bless her," said Scully, 82. "She said, 'You love it, do it,' and so I love it and I'm going to do it."

Scully, who works all Dodgers home games as well as road games against National League West and American League West opponents, calls the entire game on the team's television broadcasts, the first three innings of which are simulcast over radio.

Scully was honored with the Baseball Hall of Fame's Ford C. Frick award for broadcasting excellence in 1982. He has called three perfect games (including Don Larsen's in the 1956 World Seres), 19 no-hitters, 25 World Series and 12 All-Star Games.

Fans nationally know him for his call of hobbled Kirk Gibson's two-out, two-strike, two-run homer off Dennis Eckersley to give the Dodgers a comeback win in Game 1 of the 1988 World Series against the heavily favored A's.

"In a year that has been so improbable, the impossible has happened," Scully said over the air just after the homer.

Dodgers fans know him for the dozens of baseball yarns he might spin during a full broadcast.

"I'm as thrilled as our fans that Vin will be returning," Dodgers owner Frank McCourt said. "He is not only the greatest broadcaster of all time, but also a wonderful friend."

Scully said he's in good health, according to the AP.

"I'm just going to try to do the best I can, certainly for next year," he said. "Please don't ask me anything about after next year. I'm lucky to look for tomorrow morning.

"The love of the game still produces goose bumps. That might be my thermometer. Every time there's a good play, the other night when the kid at second base threw the ball to first behind his back, I had goose bumps like it was the first big league game I'd ever seen.

"I went home thinking, 'Holy mackerel, it's still deep inside of me, this love for the game.' I'm so blessed."

By Stephen Borelli