Jaime is an institution to the Mexican Dodgers fans and also to Dodger fans in general. While I do not speak Spanish I can and do respect and understand the love that this man receives and earns from everyone. He has been announcing Dodger games in Spanish since the Dodgers moved here from Brooklyn in 1958. In 1998 he became only the second Spanish announcer to be inducted the Baseball Hall of Fame. He joined Vin Scully in having the Dodgers become the only team in baseball to have two Hall of Fame announcers.
Though the majority of his announcing is Dodger related he has been around and broadcasted for major events such as the Pope visit to Los Angeles, JFK's assassination and visits by various Presidents of the U.S.
He was always on my list to acquire for my collection as he is part of the Dodger family but always lower on the totem pole as he wasn't a priority for me. I have seen him at the stadium a few times and most occurrences he is being talked to by Spanish speaking people which give them an edge or he is doing his job and I still find it rude to talk to someone who is clearly working. That is bad juju people. He has done a few public appearances at Frank and Sons promoted by Hall of Fame Sports but either it was too high for my taste ( $50 + ) or their were other Dodgers I wanted more. The price though always has been a main deterrent in acquiring his autograph in person.
So when I was trying to figure out which balls to bid on I started to concentrate on 10 ( only won 6 ) and Jaime happened to be one. I knew this one though out of the batch was going to be most expensive and probably a slight bidding war on it but again I was hedging my bets on 2 things. One, again outside of Los Angeles I didn't think people were going to pay the shipping for a non player and two since I already had the "discount" of no shipping I could bid a bit higher than I normally would. As expected this one had the most bids on it but the price were going up minimally. Towards the end of the auction it sat at $12 and some change. A great deal already but I expected it would still go up. I thought I would bid over $25 just to make sure I would win but for some reason I still didn't really want to spend that much on it so I put my bid in under $20 and I still actually won. The winning bid came in a little over $17. So with that addition to the other 5 balls it was little over $60 for 6 balls. A great buy. I now own one half of the Hall of Fame broadcasting duel of the Dodgers and couldn't be happier.
Do I own Vin Scully....? That's another post for another day.
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