Vin Scully plans to return next season for his 67th season as the voice of the Dodgers.

Hurrah!

The club made the announcement late last week, and then a few days ago Vinny, who will be 88 in November, talked to reporters about his decision.

His planned return is great news for everyone who loves Vinny, which is just about everyone.

(I mean, really; who hates Vinny? Is that the definition of “someone too mean to live”?

(“Well, yeah, the guy robbed widows and beat up children and kicked dogs … and he hates Vin Scully.”)

The only fly in the ointment?

Vinny suggested 2016 would be his last season.

Certainly, we can’t begrudge Vinny thinking of stepping away. He has made the lives of Dodgers fans so much nicer since before most of us were born. Only a churl would demand he come back in 2017, if he is able.

Scully is aware of time marching on. He already has circumscribed his schedule to Dodgers home games and their games in Anaheim and San Francisco.

Steve Dilbeck, our former colleague in Southern California, was at the press event, and we pass on these quotes from Vin:

“I would say realistically — and I don’t want any headlines — but I would say next year would be the last one. How much longer can you go fooling people? I would be saying, ‘Dear God, if you give me next year, I’ll hang it up.'”

He added: “I do feel in my bones that will be enough, for sure. I’m sure the people say that will be enough too.”

Well, that is unlikely. We will never tire of Vin.

He went on to say something interesting, about aging, and carrying on with your life’s work.

“My doctor said to me, ‘Do you enjoy doing what you’re doing?’ I said, ‘I love it.’

“‘Do you still do it reasonably well?’

“‘I love it.’

“‘Then why would you give it up?’

“I said, ‘Well, because I know I’m coming …’

“‘No,’ he said. ‘You retire and a year from now you’ll be an old man.’

“And that kind of scared me a little bit.”

Having been seen by an 85-year-old doctor recently, and seeing more and more people in their 70s and 80s continue with their work routines is, I think, a healthy development. For the individual but also everyone around them.

Some of us will be more than happy to retire, and probably will love it, but others of us will never find the same enjoyment and satisfaction from carrying on with our vocations, which often are our avocations, too.

Vin hedged his announcement, of course, as he always does. He is a religious man, and he doesn’t like to sound presumptuous. He told me, a decade ago, when I asked him how long he might carry on: “If you want to make God smile, tell him your plans.”