Dick Vitale has the spirit of 20 men + 30 oxen + the kids from ‘High School Musical’

December 18th, 2007 | Posted by PostmanR

While not everyone is entirely smitten with the eternal flame that is Dick Vitale, I’d be typing lies if I told you anything other than this: I enjoy Vitale. Most common wisdom on this is as follows: he’s so enthusiastic,  you just can’t help but like the guy. While I do hold his excitement in somewhat high reagrd, it’s his  joie de vivre that seals the deal.

The guy is 68-years-old (68!) and can rally the morale of a group like few can. While the rest of us oftentimes mope to our 9-to-5s day in and and day out and bitch and moan and complain about it while we’re not there, this dude lives and breathes college hoops. (Or, at least, gives off the appearance that he does.) When I’m 68, I hope I’m golfing somewhere warm, far away from the confines of a career. (I’ll also probably be too senile to function at a job by then, anyways.) On top of that, he’s actually good at what he does. He knows the game well and when you couple him with the voice that steals women’s hearts in Dan Shulman, I find it hard to root against the guy.

So yes, when I read today that Dickie V. will be undergoing surgery to remove legions on his left vocal chord and won’t be back till February, I must admit that once college hoops season gets into conference play full swing here after the holidays, I’ll miss the guy calling the big games on the WWL. (Here’s to a speedy recovery.) Feel free to disagree with my fondness for Vitale as an announcer; we all have our personal preferences. But I find it hard to find fault in the way he goes about his life. We should be so lucky as to enjoy our time on this Earth 1/30 as much as Vitale does.