LOS ANGELES -- Gerrit Cole is rarely starstruck. He'd only been nervous before meeting two people: Nolan Ryan and Derek Jeter. He added a third name to that list Sunday morning: Vin Scully.
Cole, who grew up watching Dodgers and Angels games in Southern California, stepped into the press-level booth at Dodger Stadium and chatted with Scully, the legendary baseball broadcaster in his 67th and final season on the job.
"I didn't really even know what to say," Cole said. "I had a few questions prepared, but I felt like they were really standard, vanilla questions that everybody asks. Just that voice. You grow up listening to it.
"When you turned to the Dodgers game, it was the big leagues because Vin was doing it. There was just something about it. Nobody talked. Everybody listened when the TV was on and we were watching the Dodgers game."

Cole spoke with reverence about Scully's style and stories. He was dumbfounded when Scully -- a man who narrated Jackie Robinson's story, Kirk Gibson's home run and countless other historical baseball moments -- said he enjoyed watching the "local boy" Cole.
"He was really looking forward to watching me play this series because he remembered me," Cole said. "I was like, 'What the ... come on.'"
They had never met. But Scully had been a part of Cole's life long before Sunday morning.
"I feel like I know him, right?" Cole said.
Even today, the California kid still falls asleep listening to the Hall of Famer's Dodgers broadcasts.
"I told him that," Cole said. "He was like, 'Yeah, I get it all the time; people used to tell me in the '50s they'd put the transistor [radio] underneath their pillow and fall asleep. My contribution to the world is helping cure insomnia.'"
Pirates manager Clint Hurdle also met with Scully on Sunday morning and asked for an autograph. Hurdle placed the signed baseball on his desk, rounding out an exclusive collection: Jeter and Scully.
"He's a national treasure. He's a treasure for America's pastime," Hurdle said. "There's no doubt in my mind about that. People don't live 67 years. He's covered Dodgers baseball for 67 years."
Hurdle talked with Scully about Saturday's game then sat back and listened to Scully's tales about batting in the same game (and going 0-for-3) as George H.W. Bush and mimicking Mel Ott's batting stance.
"Once I said hello and gave him a hug, he started sharing stories," Hurdle said. "He told me three or four stories, which is all I could have ever wanted."
Players, coaches and fans have approached Scully throughout his farewell season to say, as he puts it, hello and goodbye.
"That's what I told him: I'm here to say hello and goodbye. Until we see you in the postseason," Hurdle said. "His eyes just lit up."