Courtesy Los Angeles Daily News

(August 7, 2009) In all the misconstrued jibber-jabber of late about how much longer Vin Scully might stick around as the Dodgers' Hall of Fame broadcaster, Jake Reiner someday would like to keep it all in the family.

There's no punchline in the fact the 18-year-old son of famed Hollywood actor/writer/director Rob Reiner and grandson of legendary comic Carl Reiner heads off to renowned broadcasting training facilities at Syracuse University later this month to embark on a dream of someday becoming a Dodgers broadcaster himself.

Scully - who else? - provides the inspiration.

"This has been something I'm passionate and really care about ever since I was maybe 9 or 10, watching games with my dad and listening to Vin, just hearing him tell stories during the games ... I wanted to be like him," said Jake, who has begun his pursuit this season by helping to launch a Jr. Dodgers broadcasting initiative that includes a live Internet broadcast of every Sunday home game dedicated to the younger demographic.

For Sunday's Dodgers-Braves game, Reiner will do play-by-play in Booth 7 of the Vin Scully Press Box with Jason Saba, a 12-year-old Northridge resident who will go into the seventh grade at Lawrence Middle School in Chatsworth this fall. He was picked to be the analyst based on an online application.

Reiner, a recent graduate of L.A.'s Wildwood High, has been sharing play-by-play duties with Nick Berman, who just graduated from Harvard-Westlake High and is headed to USC's Annenberg School for Communications.

Reiner and Berman had been interns in the Dodgers' organization in communications, public relations and fan services, designated as a "team diplomat" under a program established by director of marketing and promotions Charles Steinberg.

They now head to college with real on-air work and reels of audio to have professors critique.

"Both of them take criticism and suggestions and are so professional at such a young age," said Lauryn Lukin, the Dodgers' vice president of broadcasting. "I was blown away at some of they work they've done in high school with the resources they've had.

"With the time they put into studying and practicing broadcasting, you forget they were just in high school. I can't wait to see where they end up."

Lukin, a Syracuse grad with a degree in TV, radio and film, also started a Dodgers Sports Lab that involves developing new video, print and Internet communications. The Jr. Dodgers' broadcasting program is another inroad into developing an in-house farm system, so to speak, for those media-savvy enough to show interest in behind-the-scenes production, motion graphics, writing and camera work.

"There is so much content we want to now produce, we can have a go-to pool of talent for all these niches," Lukin said. "An on-air job can be very specific and a tough career path, but there are so many other aspects that didn't exist in the past, such as video blogging, where younger students can move right into."

More than 100 applications have come into Lukin's office from kids as young as 10 who want to go on the air with the Jr. Dodgers' broadcasting program, which seems to be the only one of its kind in major-league sports. Lukin sees it as something that could expand to road games, featuring kids in other cities, and more home games as the word gets out about the available opportunities.

With the OK from Steinberg, Reiner seized the opportunity last season to call three games - with his dad as the analyst - before this Jr. Dodger program was launched.

"He thinks I'm decent and it's something I could pursue if I really worked at it," Reiner said of his dad's response to their demo tapes. "We've shared a passion for baseball my whole life and we can talk about it on the same level. All my family has been supportive of this, but most of them aren't as interested in the Dodgers as me and my dad."

Eventually replacing Scully in the booth named after him is too daunting for Reiner to even think about, but "I could die happily" if he ever was hired someday to call Dodger games.

As for actually having an opportunity to learn more from Scully's tutelage while he's still on the job, Reiner said, "I've met him once, but I doubt he remembers me."

Pull up a chair, Jake. There's still plenty of time.

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