Some things never get old, like baseball's purity, and Vin Scully SAN DIEGO - Every so often I get an email suggesting Vin Scully has lost it, and I smile. I wish I had just what he's lost. There is no accounting for some people in this world. The same miserable cusses who might respond "Sam Gilbert" when John Wooden's 99-year span of life is mentioned probably would have been the first to say that Chick Hearn was too old to close the refrigerator door anymore. I've never been able to get enough of these old men, their talent and wisdom allowing them to survive for so long while so many others did not. I used to sit with Hearn before Lakers games with the hope of learning his secret, knowing full well as I was walking up the stairs he was telling his usher pal, "Oh no, here he comes." With Wooden it was, "Oh no, you" - just loud enough so he knew I would hear as he threw both hands up in front of his face. Now with Scully it's a rousing welcome, his producer explaining later that Scully never lets on whether he's talking to someone he likes or doesn't. I remember now how jolly he seemed when Frank McCourt joined him on the air. I feel better now. When I arrived here for the start of the season, my first stop was Scully's booth; if you had the chance, wouldn't you do the same? Day 2 here I was back like a stalker. But a young woman was already there asking to have her picture taken with Scully, telling him, "You probably don't remember my name, it's Donita." Without hesitation, Scully says, "Let's see if we can find a tattoo parlor," so he might carry her name with him forever. I know what she's probably thinking: If only he was 50 years younger. Don't we all wish it could be so? I'd just come from a thrilling Lakers-Clippers game to a sluggish-moving baseball game. "That's like trying to compare blackjack and bridge," Scully says, and how many baseball games has he sat through while never once taking a bathroom break? With blackjack it is bam, bam, while the other one is slow, deliberate. But people playing bridge love it as much as the people playing blackjack. But isn't baseball boring? "No, no, no," Scully says, and for the next 20 minutes he explains his "love affair" with baseball.