Time & Perspective Quote by Vin Scully

Vin Scully’s line lands like a smile that knows better. “It’s a great time of the year...” is the warm, public-facing voice of sports romance: spring evenings, pennant dreams, the reassuring rhythm of a season that seems to promise renewal on schedule. Then he spikes the sentiment with a tiny hedge: “...if you can stand it.” That last clause is doing all the work. It’s comedy, but it’s also a fan’s truth-telling, the kind that only sounds gentle because it’s been earned over decades.

Scully spent a career narrating baseball as both comfort and ordeal. The subtext is that the “great time” is inseparable from the grind that creates it: the cold nights, the slumps, the extra-inning masochism, the anxiety you voluntarily sign up for because you love the story. The joke isn’t mean; it’s empathetic. He’s talking to the people who keep showing up even when the product makes them miserable, which is basically the definition of a devoted fan base.

The intent is also tonal control. Scully refuses pure hype, the kind that treats every season as uncomplicated bliss. He offers a more adult pleasure: joy with eyes open. In a culture that often demands relentless enthusiasm, “if you can stand it” gives permission to admit that anticipation can feel like stress, that nostalgia can coexist with dread. It’s the broadcaster as therapist, letting you laugh at your own investment while quietly validating it.