No, Women Of San Francisco, Vin Scully Does Not Want A Free Hug

Vin Scully, the figuratively and literally immortal Dodgers announcer, came out Tuesday night as an amiable hug Grinch as he described an encounter he had — or, more precisely, avoided — with a platoon of comely young women who were offering to wrap their arms around his torso and apply gently compressive force.

The video, on MLB's site, isn't so much video as audio, unless you're more interested in reliving Juan Uribe's second-inning infield single than imagining Scully Froggering across traffic to dodge a pack of latter-day Free Love types. He relays the story:

There was a group of ladies, from — I say, high school, college, maybe a little older. Maybe 50, 75 of them, walking down the street, beautifully dressed, lovely people, carrying big signs saying 'Free Hugs.' ... They were parading all around the square and downtown, and there were a couple of men with them. And the men would holler FREE and the girls would all holler HUGS. And they had free hugs. And they were stopping people. It was really kind of nice, hugging them. No, no, no, no. No, I crossed the street. No, no. But it was really charming, and I thought where else but in San Francisco would you see a group of ladies marching down, singing 'Free Hugs.'

The Giants moved to San Francisco in 1957, seven years after Scully began calling Dodgers games. Fair to say Scully, d.o.b. Nov. 29, 1927, has seen his share in that city. Had he run across the same scene as far back as 1967's Summer of Love, in fact, he would've been twice the age of the girls in question. You're wondering what the heck would possess him to duck free hugs, but Vin, he's been too old for these monkeyshines for quite some time.

MLB.com