JAMIE JARRIN

Sports broadcasters, “The Spanish Voice of the Dodgers”

Jaime Jarrín, “the Spanish voice of the Dodgers,” and one of the most recognizable voices in all of sports broadcasting, has been calling Dodger games since 1959. Jarrín enters his 64th and final season with the club in 2022. Jarrín, the longest-tenured broadcaster in Major League Baseball, announced his retirement on Sept. 28, 2021.

In 1998, he was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., as the recipient of the Ford C. Frick Award, becoming the second Spanish-language announcer to achieve the honor after Buck Canel.

In 2018, the Hall of Famer became just the 12th Dodger to be added to the club’s Ring of Honor, joining other franchise icons in having his name permanently affixed to Dodger Stadium. Jarrín has called three perfect games (Sandy Koufax in 1965, Tom Browning in 1988 and Dennis Martinez in 1991) and 22 no-hitters, 30 World Series and 30 All-Star games during his decorated career.

The Quito, Ecuador, native began working for HCJB in his home country when he was 16 years old and went on to become the announcer for the National Congress of Ecuador, while studying philosophy, letters, journalism and broadcasting at Central University of Ecuador in Quito.

Following his graduation, Jarrín hoped to continue his broadcasting career in the United States, arriving on June 24, 1955. At the time, he had never seen a baseball game. His first experience with baseball was watching the Dodgers on a televised broadcast of the 1955 World Series against the Yankees, and he soon began attending minor league games in Los Angeles at Gilmore Field and Wrigley Field to learn the game.

Jarrín was hired as an announcer at KWKW and soon after, the Dodgers moved to Los Angeles.

Jarrín was given one year to prepare to become a baseball broadcaster by William Beaton, the station manager at KWKW. During his first six years with the Dodgers, Jarrín and his partner would recreate games in the studio while listening to the English radio broadcast.

Starting in 1965, Jarrín took the Dodgers’ Spanish-language radio broadcast on the road, making every stop with the Dodgers. He rose to become the club’s primary Spanish-language broadcaster in 1973. From 1962-84, Jarrín called nearly 4,000 games – spanning 22 seasons – without missing a contest, before the streak was broken in 1984 when he took charge of all the Spanish-language radio coverage and production for the Los Angeles Olympic Games.

On August 23, 2009, Jarrín once again made history and served as the play-by-play announcer in the first-ever regular-season-dedicated Spanish-language telecast of a Dodger game. From 2015-2020, Jarrín called games alongside his son, Jorge, with the duo forming the only father-son broadcasting team in MLB Spanish-language radio.

Jarrín also worked on international news broadcasts, including the funeral of President John F. Kennedy, Pope John Paul II’s visit to the U.S. and several meetings between foreign leaders and Presidents Richard Nixon and Lyndon B. Johnson. He has called more than 30 world championship boxing title bouts for radio and TV stations in Latin America, including the legendary “Thrilla in Manila” between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier in 1975.

In the 2005 book “Voices of Summer,” Jarrín was named as baseball’s all-time best Spanish-language broadcaster. Jarrín received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame – dedicated in September 1998 – and is a member of both the California Broadcasters Association Hall of Fame and Southern California Sports Broadcasters Association (SCSBA) Hall of Fame.

The SCSBA awarded him the organization’s Vin Scully Lifetime Achievement Award in 2019. His other major honors include: La Gran Cruz al Merito en El Grado de Comendador received in Ecuador in January 1992, being honored by the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) Foundation with an AFTRA Media and Entertainment Excellence Award in 2011 and earning Hall of Fame recognition by the Associated Press Television-Radio Association (APTRA) in 2011. Jarrín was featured in the 2020 Rose Parade as an honored guest of the Pasadena Tournament of Roses, embodying the theme of “The Power of Hope.”

Jarrín resides in San Marino and has two sons, Mauricio and Jorge. In memory of his late wife, Blanca, who passed away in 2019, the Jarrín Family launched The Jaime and Blanca Jarrín Foundation, which serves and supports charitable, educational and athletic programs in the Los Angeles area as well as internationally.