A grateful Orel Hershiser inducted into the ‘Legends of Dodger Baseball’

LOS ANGELES — Orel Hershiser knew he would get emotional during his speech on Saturday, and he wasn’t alone. The longtime Dodgers pitcher, Cy Young Award winner, World Series MVP, and now broadcaster was honored as a Legend of Dodger Baseball in a pregame ceremony that hit right in the feels.

First up was an intro video with various highlights, and narrator Rob Lowe adding “from underdog to Bulldog.”

Actually, before the intro video, just before the pregame festivities were getting started, organist Dieter Ruehle played ‘Master of the House,’ which Nancy Bea Hefley used to play during Hershiser starts at home.

That tradition started because of Hershiser’s love of Broadway shows.

“I used to take young players when we’d go to New York and have a Saturday day game, and a Saturday night off. I’d say ‘I’m taking you to dinner,’ but I throw in the Broadway play because they’d never come if I say we’re going to a musical,” Hershiser said Saturday before his speech. “I usually defaulted to Le Mis[erables] or Phantom [of the Opera], because I thought okay, if they don’t like these, they’re never going to.”

Hershiser laughed when asked if any players ever walked out on a Broadway show with him.

“They better not,” he said. “I had the aisle seat!”

Among the dignitaries on hand for Hershiser’s ceremony were Hall of Famers Sandy Koufax and Jaime Jarrín, plus Fernando Valenzuela, Rick Monday, Manny Mota, and Rick Honeycutt. Jarrín and Monday spoke.

Monday’s speech was especially touching, and funny. He brought up Hershiser’s penchant for asking questions, which Hershiser himself mentioned in an interview here earlier this week.

Some players could not make it to the ceremony in person, but sent video messages, including Eric Karros, Steve Garvey, Steve Sax, Mike Scioscia, and Kirk Gibson. Current Red Sox player Justin Turner, who had Hershiser as the officiant at his wedding, got one of the loudest cheers of the night when he appeared on screen.

After the Dodgers-Reds game started, a few more video messages were played between innings. One was by Skip Schumaker, the current Marlins manager who played with the Dodgers as a utility infielder in 2013. Schumaker grew up a fan of Hershiser and even switched to number 55 that year and pitched two games.

Bob Costas had a video tribute as well, and I especially appreciated his mentioning (and the showing of) Hershiser’s dancing in local commercials for the Rotolo car dealership.

Also in attendance were several members of the 1988 Dodgers, including Rick Dempsey, Mickey Hatcher, Tim Belcher, Dave Anderson, Jay Howell, and Tracy Woodson, plus general manager Fred Claire, third base coach Joe Amalfitano, bullpen catcher Mark Cresse. Also there was physical therapist Pat Screnar, who Hershiser thanked specifically for helping him recover from major shoulder surgery in 1990.

Joe Davis, Hershiser’s broadcast partner since 2016, emceed the event, and got choked up a few times. He was able to recover a bit with a moment of levity.

“He taught me that you can make the most out of having a weird name by making the same inappropriate joke over and over and over,” Davis quipped. “Believe me, I’ve heard it a million times.”

Then came Hershiser’s speech.

The kicker was Hershiser recalling the advice of former teammate Burt Hooton on a drive to Dodger Stadium one day early in Hershiser’s career.

“He said, ‘What’s it like to be a big leaguer? How hard was it to get here,’” Hershiser said. “I said, ‘Oh man, it was really hard.’ He said, ‘It’s harder to stay.’ Thank you for letting me stay.”

All week and earlier Saturday, Hershiser was worried that his speech might be too long. He wanted to get it under five minutes, as pregame festivities are a well-oiled machine with a strict schedule, which Saturday included Hershiser throwing a ceremonial first pitch to Dempsey, plus an actual game to start.

Hershiser’s speech came in at right around eight minutes, but all in all, nobody minded. And the game started right on time, at 6:10 p.m.