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sports Diaranson 29 september 2021

Dodgers Hall of Fame broadcaster Jaime

Jarrín to retire

(AP) — Hall of Fame language radio. 1988 and Dennis Martinez in
broadcaster Jaime Jarrín 1991) and 22 no-hitters, 30
will retire as the Los An- The elder Jarrín began calling World Series and 30 All-Star
geles Dodgers’ Spanish- Dodgers games in 1959 and games during his career.
language announcer fol- was inducted into the Hall of
lowing the 2022 season, Fame in 1998, becoming just “Jaime was integral in in-
ending a 64-year run with the second Spanish-language troducing the Dodgers to
the team. announcer to receive the Los Angeles and in giving a
honor. voice to the franchise’s La-
Jarrín announced his deci- tino stars,” team president
sion on Tuesday, saying he “I’m grateful to the Dodgers, and CEO Stan Kasten said.
wants to spend more time the best organization in base- “We’re going to cherish this
with his two sons and grand- ball, for giving me the oppor- last year with him on the
children as well as travel. He tunity to do what I love most broadcast and wish him the
turns 86 in December. Jar- for 64 years,” Jarrín said. best in retirement.”
rín’s son, Jorge, retired in
February, ending the first He has called three per- Plans to honor Jarrín during
father-son duo to broadcast fect games (Sandy Koufax the 2022 season will be an-
baseball on MLB Spanish- in 1965, Tom Browning in nounced later.

For the Florida Panthers, the time really might be now

(AP) — Losing to Tampa Bay Expectations are sky high in Florida, “We kind of see the light at the end 1, then has a run of nine road con-
was bad enough for the Florida a franchise that is coming off the best of the tunnel,” Huberdeau said. “We tests in a 10-game span from March 7
Panthers in last season’s play- regular-season record in team history know we have a good team. We have through March 27.
offs. Watching the Lightning go and has a core — Aleksander Barkov, a good chance. I think it doesn’t mat-
on to win the Stanley Cup, odd- Jonathan Huberdeau, Aaron Ekblad ter on paper if we look better than last It’s not much of a tradeoff wedged
ly enough, didn’t make things and more — all at the ages that sug- year. We’ve got to do it on the ice.” between those two diabolical stints,
worse. gest the primes of their career are but the post-Olympic schedule calls
here. A look at the Panthers: for the Panthers to open with a four-
It only further convinced the Pan- game homestand.
thers that they can win it all. The rebuild is complete. The Pan- THE OFFENSE
thers say it’s time to win. The bottom line: Florida can’t waste
Florida led the NHL in shots on goal points early in the season, because
and was fifth in scoring last season. making them up in the second half of
the year will be daunting.
There’s no reason to think the offense
won’t be at least as productive this THE BEARD
season, and there are clear areas that
can be improved (15th in the NHL Joe Thornton — the 42-year-old
on the power play, 21st in shootout bearded one who signed with Florida
shot percentage). this summer in his pursuit to finally
win the Stanley Cup — could climb
And while neither Barkov nor Hu- into third on the NHL’s all-time reg-
berdeau has ever shown much of an ular-season games played list.
interest in stat-padding, it’s certainly
not outside the realm that one of He enters this season with 1,680,
them — or another Florida forward which is 51 behind No. 5 Ron Fran-
— could be among the NHL scor- cis, 53 behind No. 4 Jaromir Jagr and
ing leaders this season. The last time 76 behind No. 3 Mark Messier. Out
Florida had a player finish higher than of reach this season: No. 1 Patrick
10th in overall scoring was 2000-01, Marleau (1,779) and No. 2 Gordie
when Pavel Bure led the league in Howe (1,767).
goals and was seventh in points.
Thornton has 1,529 points; he’s two
THE DEFENSE back of No. 12 Paul Coffey and No.
11 Mark Recchi.
Sergei Bobrovsky changed some
things this summer, at the Panthers’ THE DIVISION
request, and the team believes the
goalie who will start the season as Going back to traditional divisions
their No. 1 will play like an ace again. won’t do Florida any favors, and it
looks like five teams — including the
If not, Spencer Knight — the heir ap- Panthers — are realistically in the mix
parent — is waiting, and as he showed for the three automatic berths out of
in the playoffs last spring, he’s also the Atlantic.
ready.
The Lightning and Montreal played
THE SCHEDULE in the Stanley Cup Final; they’re both
in the Atlantic this year, along with
Florida has two brutal stretches that Boston (which has made the playoffs
could prove critical. in 12 of the last 14 seasons) and To-
ronto (which has the sixth-best re-
It plays seven games out of nine on cord in the NHL over the last four
the road from Jan. 18 through Feb. seasons).