Career
Born in Cayambe, Ecuador, Jarrin began work as a broadcaster in his home country when he was just 16 years old. He went on to become the announcer for the National Congress of Ecuador. He came to the United States on June 24, 1955. At the time, he had never seen a baseball game.
When the Dodgers moved to Los Angeles in 1958, KWKW, where Jarrin was the news and sports director, picked up the Spanish language rights for the games. For the first six-plus years, the Spanish language announcers did not travel with the team, and would recreate the games on radio while listening to the English-language broadcast in a studio. In 1973, after 14 years with the Dodgers, Jarrín became the club's No. 1 Spanish-language broadcaster.
From 1962 to 1984, Jarrín never missed a game, calling close to 4,000 games over 22 seasons. The streak was broken only when he took charge of all the Spanish-language radio coverage and production for the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.
During 1980-81, Jarrín served as interpreter for Fernando Valenzuela. Valenzuela now works as color commentator alongside Jarrín and Pepe Yñiguez.
He has called more than 30 world championship boxing title bouts throughout the world for radio and television stations in Latin America, including the Thrilla in Manila between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier. He has called 19 All-Star Games and 25 World Series, including the 2005 Fall Classic in which he served as the emcee for MLB's Latin Legends ceremony. His broadcasts of the All-Star Game, League Championship Series and World Series on CBS, the Latina Broadcasting Network, Cadena Latina and Caracol and 1989 to 1999 were carried on more than 300 stations. In March 2006, Jarrín served as a play-by-play announcer for the inaugural World Baseball Classic.
In addition to his work calling Dodger games, Jarrín found himself at the center of many international news broadcasts, including the funeral of President John F. Kennedy, Pope John Paul II's visit to America, and several important meetings between foreign leaders and Presidents Richard Nixon and Lyndon B. Johnson.
Read more about this topic: Jaime Jarrin
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