And a Very Pleasant Good Evening To You

No, Vin. We miss you. Bad.

I'm watching the Mets play the Yankees on SNY.

That's the Mets' TV channel.

So, yeah.

In a week in which John Sterling has announced that he's taking roughly a week off to rest up -- the first Yankees games he'll miss since 1989 -- we now find out that Michael Kay will miss a month as he has vocal cord surgery.

I've reached a point where I just need to stop myself. I've said way too much about such things, often to my own detriment and it comes off as petty and unprofessional. I have to say that stuff offline, but sometimes I can't help myself.

I'll just say that the YES Network could use Bob Lorenz, John Flaherty, and Ken Singleton while Kay and Sterling are both out. They could pluck someone from their minor league teams. They could go way outside of the box to a halfway-decent New York/Connecticut-based play-by-play voice from WGCH.

But YES will do YES things.

It all reminded me of how much broadcasting misses Vin Scully and Ernie Harwell and Mel Allen and Red Barber and Dick Enberg and Pat Summerall and Ray Scott and Dizzy Dean (if you want personality) and obviously many others.

You know that Vinny, still sharp at 91, could come into a booth right now and be fantastic. He'd say no, of course, because that's him. Always modest.

But I'd say yes. Only on YES.

We miss his grace. His ability to tell a story. His unbiased approach with a zest for the sport and the love of the roar of the crowd. His integrity.

Yes I realize I have waxed poetic about him so many times and you're likely sick of it.

But tonight I found myself missing his brilliance.

I know there are fine broadcasters today. Joe Davis has stepped into Vin's booth seamlessly in LA, for instance.

I know there are young broadcasters coming up who will find a way to honor the profession. I've tried to help mold some. Hopefully, they'll merge the basics of play-by-play with the modern touches.

Old/new. No need to get off my lawn.

Just call the game accurately. Professionally. Energetically.

Tell stories. Stories that will entertain and inform.

Report.

Stop exaggerating. Use your own voice. Be natural.

If you've said "gargantuan," stop. Now. Because it probably wasn't.

Jets/Colts in Super Bowl III was monstrous. Gargantuan? In its impact, I suppose.

But a late touchdown in a high school football game is not gargantuan.

Do as Red Barber told Vin: "Bring the one thing that nobody else brings to the booth. Yourself."

In short, be everything that Scott Pelley said to me yesterday on Doubleheader (and in his book), because not only do we need a new generation of journalists, we need a new generation of sports journalists also.

I'm babbling here, but I needed to talk about it.

The Yankees just beat the Mets.

I watched it on SNY.

Honestly, that should tell you everything.

(Speaking of broadcasting, here's tonights Fairfield American/Monroe Little League baseball game)