Dodgers Broadcaster Offers Compelling Reason for Dodgers' Strong Attendance

"I think the Dodgers crowds are the way they are because we have such a great Latino base of fans because of Fernando Valenzuela," Hershiser said on a recent episode of the Carlos Baerga Show. "We lost Fernando in the last year or so, good friend of mine that I played up through the minor leagues with. Our fan base is so diverse, and our fan base then if we were averaging let’s say 30 thousand a game compared to 45 or 50, I think the extra 15,000 is coming from the Latino fan base that has fallen in love with the Dodgers. When the Dodgers are on, these people are listening.”

What's perhaps most interesting about Hershiser's answer is that this is the Dodgers' first season without Valenzuela in the ballpark in more than 20 years. He stepped away from his Spanish-language broadcasting duties to focus on his health last September, and died a month later at age 63.

Valenzuela was six years removed from his final major league game, and 12 years removed from his time with the Dodgers, when he joined the Dodgers' Spanish-language broadcast team in 2003.

Jaime Jarrin was Valenzuela's mentor as a broadcaster, and his interpreter as a player years earlier. Said Hershiser of the team's Latino fan base: "Jaime talked to more fans, or people, than Vin Scully.”

Hershiser should know. He's seen the Dodger crowds from all angles: for 13 years as a player and 12 as a broadcaster with SportsNet LA. In 2023, he was chosen as a "Legend of Dodger Baseball."

Before joining SportsNet LA, Hershiser was behind the microphone at ESPN from 2006-13 as a color analyst for their Baseball Tonight, Sunday Night Baseball, College World Series and Little League World Series programming.