Dodgers Spanish broadcaster Jamie Jarrin explains the privileges of being a sports announcer and looks back at what his career would be if it weren't for Kirk Gibson's famous home run during the 1988 World Series. (0:59)

"How he did it, to me, is truly remarkable. To be listening in one language and then speaking it in the other, immediately, while doing the play-by-play. He has to be truly acknowledged as the fine broadcaster that he is."

-- Vin Scully on his friend Jaime Jarrin

***

MORE BEISBOL EXPERIENCE Béisbol Experience is ESPN's season-long look at how the game and Latino culture intersect. More from Béisbol Experience:

• Introducing Béisbol Experience / Bienvenidos a Béisbol Experience

• Manny Machado is the face of baseball's new identity / En Contra de la Rutina

• Béisbol Experience 50-man interview

In June 1955, a young Ecuadorian with dreams of expanding his broadcasting career arrived in the United States. Only a few months later, he was entranced as the country watched the Brooklyn Dodgers win their first -- and only -- World Series title.

"I saw so many people watching TV and listening to this game," said Jaime Jarrin, now 81. "I said, 'What's that?' I got interested in baseball."

On the television call for that series was Vin Scully, well on his way to becoming a broadcasting legend.

Scully, 89, grew up playing baseball, deciding at the age of 8 on a career announcing the game. Jarrin played soccer and had to be convinced to even try to become a Spanish-language broadcaster for baseball. The duo are broadcasting brothers, transcending the different languages in which they called the games.

"Both the voices of Jaime and Vin Scully represent the Dodgers," attested Dr. Adrian Burgos Jr., a University of Illinois history professor and academic adviser to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

With Scully's retirement last season, for the first time in nearly 60 years, Jarrin is at the ballpark without his old friend.

"I miss him a lot," Jarrin acknowledged.

***

Legendary Dodgers broadcasters Vin Scully and Jaime Jarrin have spent nearly six decades at the ballpark together. 710 ESPN Radio

The duo got along well from the start of their extended history.

"I found him very personable, and we became very dear friends," Scully said of first meeting Jarrin in 1959.

At that point, Scully had already been mentored by the legendary Red Barber and had, at 25, become the youngest broadcaster to call baseball's championship series.

In contrast, once the Dodgers arrived in Los Angeles in 1958, Jarrin had to be convinced by his KWKW station manager, William Beaton, to take on the task of calling Dodgers games. He tried to defer the assignment, but Jarrin finally accepted the challenge, taking a year to study the game and prepare.

Nothing taught Jarrin more than observing Scully at his craft.

"He's been a great example for me," Jarrin, who is bilingual, stated. "We got along very well. He was an incredible person."

Jarrin absorbed Scully's wisdom partly from two key pieces of advice passed on by Scully: to prepare rigorously for every game and not to get too close to players (a nugget passed on to Scully from Barber himself).

"They're both extremely important for accuracy," Scully explained. "The one thing that you must convince the listener, the fan, is that you're accurate."

***

Jarrin also learned Scully's style through the intimacy of immediate translation. In the early years of his Dodgers broadcasts, Jarrin didn't travel for away games, listening instead to Scully's game call and recreating a Spanish version.

Los Angeles sports fans might be a bit spoiled, given that they've been blessed with top sports broadcasting talent across a range of teams for many years with the Lakers, Kings and Dodgers.

"There are so many Spanish-speaking fans and they would always bring up Jaime Jarrin and I'd say, 'That's my man,'" Vin Scully, retired Dodgers broadcasting great

"For me, it's been great to share this era of broadcasting," Jarrin noted. "Chick [Hearn] with the Lakers, Bob Miller with the Kings and Vin at the head of everything. I'm the only one who is still active. I have to keep the quality that they all established. It's an honor and a responsibility."

Jorge Jarrin, who grew up listening to all those broadcasters and now shares a booth with Jaime, understands his father's role in that pantheon as a unique one, not only for how long he has endured, but also that his audience has been the Spanish speakers of L.A.

"The last of the Mohicans -- he very much fills that scenario presently," Jorge Jarrin said, adding that his father has taught him to consider their broadcast as a public service for the Latino community. "I'm thankful that my father is still very sharp and youthful and has such a passion for what he does."

As Jaime Jarrin stated, "Radio was the only medium for our community for a long time, until television channels started in Spanish. It was my obligation to keep our people informed."

***

Spanish language broadcaster Jaime Jarrin waves during a 2008 ceremony at Dodger Stadium honoring his 50 years with the Dodgers. Stephen Dunn/Getty Images

Responsibility didn't mean the job couldn't sometimes be fun. Scully purchased a book sold as a traveler's bible and used the restaurant recommendations inside it to visit new places with Jarrin in every city the Dodgers visited.

"We spent a lot of time on the road having dinner together," Scully recalled. "I just thought of him as one of my closest friends and still do, even though life has separated us a great deal. He's a wonderful human being."

Both also shared tragedy. Scully's firstborn, Michael, died in a 1994 helicopter accident, while Jimmy Jarrin, Jaime Jarrin’s second son, suffered a sudden brain aneurysm in 1988 that ended his life at 29.

Fans listening to Dodgers broadcasts were mostly unaware of what the soothing voices on the radio were going through. Year after year, in both English and Spanish, the dulcet tones of Scully and Jarrin became a constant associated with the Southern California team.

"Guys like Jaime were not just voices, but they were community connections for many," Burgos explained. "His role has been connecting generations of fans. He's been such a consistent voice for the team."

Though announcers in soccer, the sport he loved as a child, are known to be excitable, Jaime Jarrin draws a clear distinction in his approach.

"I am not a screamer," Jarrin specified. "It's more in the style of Vin Scully. I do get emotional, but it's different."

Scully praised his longtime counterpart.

"Some might say, 'Well, you don't speak it, so how do you know that he's a good announcer?' But there are so many Spanish-speaking fans, and they would always bring up Jaime Jarrin, and I'd say, 'That's my man,'" Scully said.

***

Jarrin is especially proud of the growth of Hispanic Dodgers fans, pointing out that when he started with the team, they numbered only around 6 percent of the fan base. Now Latino fans make up 46 percent.

Though Scully had little to regret in his career, he did wish to be able to communicate more directly, as Jarrin does, with those fans.

"If you live in Los Angeles for any length of time, you immediately realize your shortcomings as far as [Spanish] is concerned," Scully said. "It would be wonderful to know more than I do know, which is virtually none."

Jorge Jarrin explained how his father instilled in him the importance of the Spanish broadcast.

"You're giving [the game] to them in their native language," he said. "They have so much going on in their lives, and these are the three or four hours that they have to forget about all that and to enjoy the game. You're a part of that family for that time."

Favorite Dodgers moments for Jaime Jarrin during his tenure include: Opening Day in 1981 with Fernando Valenzuela; the four no-hitters from Sandy Koufax; the perfect game from Dennis Martinez; the scoreless innings streak of Orel Hershiser; and a crazy 2006 Dodgers comeback with four consecutive home runs (each featuring Jarrin's signature, 'Se va, se va, se va' call), capped by a Nomar Garciaparra homer to win the game in the 10th inning.

For his son, a moment to remember was the day his father joined Scully as a broadcaster in Cooperstown, getting inducted in 1988.

"My sons can take their grandchildren someday and say, 'There's your great-great-grandfather. He's in the Baseball Hall of Fame,'" Jorge Jarrin said. "That to me is something so special."

***

Listeners know well when a Dodgers game is close to an end, Jaime Jarrin has a classic line he started using around a decade ago that evokes a weary worker returning home at the end of the day: "Ya estoy viendo las casitas de mi pueblo. Se acerca a su fin esta jornada."

Likewise, his own career is winding down, though Jarrin is determined to make it to an even 60 years of broadcasting, which he will reach next season, then take it year by year. How well the Dodgers have always treated him is an incentive to continue.

"I love what I'm doing," Jarrin stated. "It's a great organization that respects the Latino community. When Vin was with us, if they gave something to Vin, they would do the same to me. There wasn't any second class with the Dodgers."

It's no less than Jarrin deserves, as Scully himself would attest, having watched his friend come so far in covering a sport he once knew nothing about.

"I was happy to give Jaime whatever little bit of knowledge he didn't yet have," Scully said. "I might have had a small measure to his success, but only a small measure. He really did it all himself."

As Jarrin stated, "Vin will be with me forever. Physically, he won't be there, but spiritually, he will be there at every game I do."