Thursday, March 26, which should have been Opening Day at Major League Baseball parks across the country, was a sad day for baseball fans. Los Angeles Times sports columnist Bill Plaschke still went to Dodger Stadium at 1:10 p.m. that day, when the first pitch of the Dodgers’ 2020 season should have been thrown. His video of the scene is a depressing reminder of a postponed season of renewal and rebirth.

All of us have been affected to varying degrees by “Stay Safe at Home” orders, school closures, and either work furloughs or work overload. Nothing is normal right now, and we can’t even turn to sports for distraction. Our souls yearn for something to anchor us to our pre-Coronavirus lives and for assurance that everything’s going to be okay. For baseball fans, hearing legendary Dodgers announcer Vin Scully say “Hi everybody, and a very pleasant good afternoon to you, wherever you may be,” is that something.

In a video posted to the Dodgers’ YouTube channel, Scully, who retired after the 2016 season, shared what he’s missed most since retiring and ended with a message of hope.

Scully said:

I miss the roar of the crowd, and I miss the people, the people that I saw daily in the stadium. The workers, the ushers, the ladies cooking the hot dogs. I miss the ladies running the elevators up and down. Those were the people.  The ladies who worked in the lunch room. And, of course, in the press room, the writers…

“Anyway, these are tough times. Certainly I don’t have to tell you that. But having lived as long as I have lived, I’ve seen this country, the greatest country on earth, get off its knees, literally and figuratively, when they were down and out during the depression, and when they were on their knees after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. And what happened then, they unleashed a tiger. The tiger was the whole country pulling together and getting not only back on its feet, but saving the whole world.

So you and I, yeah, things are tough, but we’ll be up off our knees soon….And in the meantime, spend the precious time at home with your family. Pray a little bit more, like most us will do, and above all, try to smile, because when you smile, that makes everybody else feel better. God bless.”

Thank you, Vin.

BONUS: Hear Vin call Kirk Gibson’s at-bat in the 1988 World Series.