Vin Scully: Please take as long as you need to get healthy

By Steve Dilbeck

April 11, 2012 12 AM PT

I’m looking at Vin Scully’s cookies, or at least what’s left of them.

Two large Rubbermaid containers once filled to the brim with oatmeal raisin, chocolate peanut-butter cup and chocolate-chip macadamia nut cookies. Alas, the hit of the press box and not for the intended.

They were supposed to be for Scully, the wife having spent the previous evening baking away in our small kitchen after her 10-hour work shift. Bless her, she didn’t complain, saying, “Anyone who’s put up with you for 30 years deserves a few cookies.”

The promise of cookies goes back to a night in February, when Scully unexpectedly called me at home to say, after reading a post I’d just put up that mentioned disappointment in his not being scheduled to broadcast any spring training games, that he’d decided to do a pair from Camelback Park in Arizona.

Remembering when he had announced on TV last summer that he’d return to broadcast the Dodgers this season while holding one of the cookies sent to him that day from Woodland Hills’ Marti Squyres, I pledged homemade cookies. OK, I actually pledged the wife would make cookies for the home opener. Hey, I taste-test them and stuff.

Of course, Tuesday came and, stunningly, there was no Scully. He was home sick with a bad cold, missing only his second home opener in 63 seasons. Now everyone gets sick, but when it’s Scully, Los Angeles’ heart stops. He is arguably the most beloved figure in city history. You’d have about as much chance of measuring L.A.’s affection for Scully as you would infinity.

He was missing Wednesday’s game too, and isn’t expected Thursday. I know you’re nervous. He’s 84 and every illness is a concern. But he’s recovering at home, and not in a hospital in dire trouble.

Still, here’s to Scully taking off as much time as he could possibly need. Do not rush back to the microphone over any sense of obligation. Take the rest of the home stand off. Get strong. As much as your fans miss you, most of all they want you healthy.

And sorry about the cookies. But when I brought them out after the home opener and explained them to my peers, The Times’ Dylan Hernandez said: “Let’s eat ‘em! You can’t give Vin Scully stale cookies.”

That was all the logic it took. Rest assured, the cookies have been a huge hit in the press box. The wife is now legend, which somehow seems fitting.

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