Dodgers Broadcasters

TV

Joe Davis

Joe Davis enters his eighth season as a member of the Dodger broadcast team on SportsNet LA and seventh as the lead play-by-play voice for the club. In 2022, Davis, 35, was named the lead voice for Major League Baseball on Fox, replacing Joe Buck, and one of the network’s lead NFL announcers. He has been calling play-by-play on Fox Sports’ national coverage of pro and college football, Major League Baseball and college basketball since 2014.

Davis attended Beloit (Wis.) College, where he was a four-year letter winner and two-time captain of the school’s football team, as well as earning a bachelor’s degree in communications with a minor in journalism. During the football offseasons, Davis assumed play-by-play duties for the school’s athletic department, announcing baseball and men’s and women’s basketball games on local radio and television and served as the voice of Buccaneer spring sports for his final three years on campus before graduating in 2010.

Prior to his senior year of college, Davis secured a summer job with the Schaumburg Flyers baseball team of the independent Northern League, serving as the team’s play-by-play voice and media relations director. He then moved on to the Montgomery (Ala.) Biscuits, the Double-A affiliate of the Tampa Bay Rays, and was named Southern League Broadcaster of the Year in 2012. While in Montgomery, Davis also worked for the Baylor Independent Sports Properties Network and Comcast Sports Southeast, where he called play-by-play for college football, basketball and baseball.

In July 2012, Davis made the jump to national television at the age of 24, joining ESPN as an announcer for college baseball, basketball, football, hockey and softball and also appeared in spot duty for Major League Baseball on ESPN radio.

Davis resides in South Pasadena with his wife Libby, daughter Charlotte and sons Blake and Theo.

Nomar Garciaparra

Nomar Garciaparra is in his 10th season behind the microphone for the Dodgers, serving as an analyst for SportsNet LA's game broadcast and pre-and-post game telecasts.

A native of Whittier, CA, and a graduate of Bellflower’s St. John Bosco High School, Garciaparra played 14 seasons in the Major Leagues with the Red Sox, Cubs, Dodgers and A’s, posting a .313 batting average with 229 home runs and 936 RBI. He was the AL Rookie of the Year in 1997, American League batting champion in 1999 and 2000, National League Comeback Player of the Year with the Dodgers in 2006, a six-time MLB All-Star, and won a Silver Slugger Award in 1997.

Garciaparra attended Georgia Tech and was a first-round pick of the Red Sox in 1994. He made his MLB debut in 1996 and as a rookie with the Red Sox in 1997, Garciaparra hit 30 home runs and had 98 RBI, setting a MLB record for RBI by a leadoff hitter and most homers by a rookie shortstop.

Garciaparra played three seasons with the Dodgers in 2006-08, earning an All-Star selection at first base and helping the team reach the postseason in 2006. After playing with Oakland in 2009, Garciaparra signed a one-day contract with Boston in 2010 to retire as a member of the Red Sox. In 2014, Garciaparra was inducted into both the Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame and the Latino Baseball Hall of Fame in the Dominican Republic.

Following the end of his playing career, Garciaparra worked at ESPN, appearing on Baseball Tonight, MLB game telecasts as well as the network’s coverage of the College World Series and the Little League World Series from 2011-13.

Garciaparra was a member of the 1992 U.S. Olympic baseball team and his wife, Olympian and World Cup soccer champion Mia Hamm, played on the 1996, 2000 and 2004 women’s Olympic soccer teams. The couple married in 2003, and have twin girls, Grace and Ava, and a son, Garrett. Both Garciaparra and Hamm are among the investors in Major League Soccer's Los Angeles FC.

Orel Hershiser

Dodger great and Emmy Award-winning broadcaster Orel Hershiser enters his 10th season as a color commentator and analyst for the Dodgers on SportsNet LA.

Hershiser is a multi-time Southern California Sports Broadcasters Association award winner for his work as an analyst on both the game broadcast and the Dodgers’ pre- and postgame telecasts. He previously 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.

The three-time All-Star right-hander played 18 seasons in the Majors, including 13 with the Dodgers, who he helped lead to a 1988 World Championship. That year, Hershiser led the National League in wins (23), innings pitched (267), shutouts (8) and complete games (15) en route to a Cy Young Award, and set the all-time Major League record of 59 consecutive scoreless innings (Aug. 30-Sept. 28). He established his place in Dodger lore with a dominant 1988 Postseason, when he earned both NLCS and World Series MVP honors, and became the only player in history to win those honors in addition to the Cy Young Award in the same season. He later received both The Sporting News Pitcher of the Year and Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year awards for his brilliant season.

Hershiser attended and played baseball at Bowling Green (OH) State University and was drafted in the 17th round by the Dodgers in the 1979 Major League First-Year Player Draft. It was during a game in his rookie year of 1984, that Hershiser was nicknamed “Bulldog,” in an effort by Dodgers Hall of Fame manager Tommy Lasorda to get Hershiser to adopt a tougher attitude on the mound.

After finishing his playing career with the Dodgers in 2000 and briefly working for the team, he joined the Rangers as a special assistant to General Manager John Hart in the fall of 2001. He was named the Rangers’ pitching coach in 2002 and after the 2005 season, he became Executive Director of the Rangers.

He has co-authored or authored two books: Out of the Blue and Between the Lines: Nine Things Baseball Taught Me About Life. Hershiser has two sons, Quinton and Jordan, and two stepchildren, Spencer and Sloane. He and his wife Dana reside in Las Vegas.

Kirsten Watson

Kirsten Watson begins her third season with the Dodger broadcast team as a reporter and host, where she contributes to SportsNet LA’s game broadcasts and studio programming as well as pre- and postgame coverage on both television and radio.

During the Dodgers' offseason, Watson is the gameday reporter and host for the Los Angeles Rams.

Watson previously spent two years as a reporter and host with Spectrum SportsNet, appearing on pre-, post- and in-game broadcasts of the Los Angeles Lakers, Los Angeles Sparks and South Bay Lakers while also co-hosting the network’s Lakeshow studio program. She also served as a producer for the National Football League, creating localized content for international markets, hosting its Game Recognize Game series, and organizing international trips for NFL players for content and media opportunities to help grow the game globally. Watson continues to host Monday Night Football on Channel 5 in the UK, an international broadcast in partnership with NFL Network.

Watson is a graduate of Columbia University and was a member of the school's volleyball team. Following the completion of her master’s degree in broadcast from Columbia Journalism School, Watson was awarded the Stuart Scott Internship-Scholarship from the National Association of Black Journalists and ESPN, where she produced video packages for SportsCenter and NFL Live.

Stephen Nelson

Stephen Nelson joins the Dodger broadcast for the first time in 2023 and is slated to call more than 50 home and road games for SportsNet LA this season.

Nelson, 33, is a Southern California native and graduated from Chapman University. He attended Marina High School in Huntington Beach and has worked professionally for MLB Network, NHL Network, NBC Sports, YouTube and Apple-TV+ calling Major League Baseball and National Hockey League games. In 2021, MLB Network tapped him to host its most popular show, “Intentional Talk,” alongside Kevin Millar. In addition to “IT,” Nelson has also hosted programs for the MLB and NHL networks, including MLB Tonight, MLB Now, Hot Stove, and NHL Tonight. Prior to joining MLB Network, he was a host and broadcaster for Bleacher Report.

Nelson is a proud Japanese American and is the only Asian American play-by-play announcer working for a Major League Baseball team. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Cori, who is a news anchor for NBC News and MSNBC, their son, Kai, and dog, Nash.

Jessica Mendoza

Jessica Mendoza is in her second season with the Dodger broadcast team. A groundbreaker in baseball broadcasting, in 2015 with ESPN Mendoza became the first woman to serve as an analyst for nationally-televised MLB games. Also in 2015, Mendoza became the first female analyst for a nationally televised MLB Postseason game, calling the American League Wild Card Game on ESPN. That year, she also became the first female analyst for a Men’s College World Series telecast.

From 2016-2020, Mendoza was a color analyst on the ESPN Sunday Night Baseball team. In 2020, she became the first woman to serve as a solo analyst for a national package of MLB game telecasts including weeknight games and holiday baseball. On Sept. 29, 2021, Mendoza along with Melanie Newman, became the first all-female team to broadcast a game for ESPN when they called the Dodgers vs. Padres game at Dodger Stadium. Mendoza has also provided analysis on ESPN and ABC Little League World Series coverage since 2016.

Mendoza is a two-time Olympic medalist in softball, having won gold in Athens (2004) and silver in Beijing (2008) for Team USA. In 2006, she was named the USA Softball Athlete of the Year and was also recognized in 2008 as the Women’s Sports Foundation Sportswoman of the Year. In 2019, Mendoza was inducted into the National Softball Hall of Fame. Mendoza was a four-time First-Team All-American while playing outfield at Stanford University. She was a three-time Stanford Female Athlete of the Year and a First-Team Academic All-American in 2002. Mendoza earned a bachelor’s degree in American studies in 2002 and a master’s in social sciences in education in 2003.

Eric Karros

Eric Karros enters his second season as part of the Dodger broadcast team. Karros will work as an analyst for game broadcasts as well as pre- and postgame shows. The 2023 season marks Karros’ 20th consecutive year calling games. He began broadcasting in 2004 with the Dodgers’ NL West division-clinching game against the Giants for FOX. He spent two years at ESPN calling MLB, the Little League World Series and College World Series games. In 2007, he returned to Fox. He now enters his 17th year at Fox, where he has worked World Series, League Championship Series, All-Star Games, and regular season games for national broadcast.

Karros was selected by the Dodgers in the sixth round of the 1988 First-Year Player Draft out of UCLA. He won the 1992 NL Rookie of the Year and was the Opening Day first baseman for the club nine of the next 10 years. Karros spent parts of 12 seasons with the Dodgers, winning the Silver Slugger Award in 1995 and finishing his career in LA as the all-time LA Dodgers home run leader with 270. He is one of three Dodgers in franchise history to have five 30 home run/100 RBI seasons, the other two being Hall of Famers Duke Snider and Gil Hodges. He remains the only Dodger in franchise history to hit two homers in one inning (Aug. 22, 2000, sixth inning vs. Montreal). Karros played 14 Major League seasons, including 2003 with the Chicago Cubs and 2004 with the Oakland A’s. Karros earned a degree in economics from UCLA.

Dontrelle Willis

Dontrelle Willis enters his 2nd season with the Dodger broadcast team as an analyst after serving the last few season as an MLB studio analyst for FOX Sports.

The World Champion was selected by the Chicago Cubs during the 2000 June Amateur Draft. In 2002, he was traded to the Florida Marlins where he made his Major League debut against the Colorado Rockies. Known for his unconventional pitching style and crooked baseball cap, "The D-Train" rose quickly. In just 27 starts, Willis went 14-6 and locked in a 3.30 ERA - earning himself the 2003 NL Rookie of the Year Award. He went on to play an instrumental role in the Marlins playoff run that same season, culminating in a World Series Championship. In 2005, he joined an elite group nicknamed "The Black Aces," representing African American pitchers have who won at least 20 games in a single season.

Among the Marlins organization, Willis ranks first in complete games (15); second in wins (68), shutouts (8) and games started (162); and third in total strikeouts (757). After five successful seasons in Florida, Willis was traded to the Detroit Tigers at the start of the 2008 season. He pitched for the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2010 and finished his career as a member of the Cincinnati Reds in 2011. Willis ended his career 72-69 with a 4.17 ERA and 89 outs. Born in Oakland, Calif., Willis attended Encinal High School.

Radio

Charley Steiner

Five-time Emmy Award-winner and National Radio Hall of Famer Charley Steiner in his 19th season with the Dodgers, handling play-by-play duties for the club’s radio broadcast on AM 570.

Before joining the Dodgers, Steiner broadcast three years for the New York Yankees on WCBS Radio and the YES Network. Prior to his seasons with the Yankees, Steiner spent 14 years at ESPN, where his responsibilities ranged from anchoring SportsCenter to working play-by-play for Major League Baseball and Saturday Primetime Football. He served as SportsCenter’s primary boxing reporter/analyst and also contributed to the Emmy and CableACE Award-winning Outside the Lines series. Steiner also called the 2006, 2009 and 2013 World Baseball Classics for XM Radio and MLB International, respectively, and broadcast MLB games live from seven different countries.

Steiner graduated from Bradley University, where its School of Sports Communication was named in his honor in 2015. Steiner, who was inducted into the Bradley’s Sports Hall of Fame in 1995, also established the Charles H. Steiner Endowed Scholarship, which is given annually to Bradley broadcasting majors. In March 2022, Steiner was inducted into the Missouri Valley Conference Hall of Fame. Steiner began his professional broadcasting career in 1969 at WIRL Radio in Peoria, Illinois as a newscaster, and made career stops in Davenport, New Haven, Hartford and Cleveland before returning to his native New York, where he was the morning sportscaster on WOR radio, while serving as sports director for the RKO Radio Network. In addition, Steiner called the play-by-play for the USFL New Jersey Generals and, later, for the New York Jets on WABC radio.

Rick Monday

Former Dodger outfielder and two-time Major League All-Star, Rick Monday is in his 31st season as a Dodger broadcaster and 39th season overall with the organization, including eight as a player.

Monday, who joined the Dodgers’ broadcast team in 1993, began his broadcasting career as a sports anchor on KTTV in Los Angeles in 1985, while also calling play-by-play and hosting the pregame show for Dodger games on DodgerVision and Z Channel. He was nominated for an Emmy as host of the Dodgers’ pregame show on KTTV’s “Dodger Central” in 1988 and he earned an Emmy for Live Sports Coverage in 2001. Monday has also called games for the College World Series and spent four seasons with the Padres.

A star at Arizona State University, Monday led the Sun Devils to the 1965 College World Series Championship and earned All-American and College Player of the Year honors before the Kansas City Athletics made him the first player ever selected in the Major League First-Year Player Draft in 1965. He was inducted into the ASU Hall of Fame in 1975 and the College Baseball Hall of Fame in 2016.

Monday, who spent six years in the Marine Corps Reserves while playing in the big leagues, made his Major League debut in 1966 and, after spending six seasons with the Athletics and five seasons with the Cubs, came to the Dodgers as part of a five-player trade in 1977. He played eight seasons in LA, and propelled the Dodgers to the 1981 World Series with a dramatic, game-winning home run in the winner-take-all Game 5 of the NLCS at Montreal. Overall, Monday compiled a .264 career batting average with 241 home runs and 775 RBI in 19 big-league seasons, while helping the Dodgers win a World Championship in 1981 and three NL pennants (1977, 1978, 1981).

On April 25, 1976 at Dodger Stadium, two protesters attempted to set fire to an American flag in the outfield and Monday, playing for the Chicago Cubs, ran over and grabbed the flag out of their hands and returned it to the Dodger dugout as the crowd erupted in cheers. The scoreboard behind the left-field bleachers in the stadium later flashed the message, "Rick Monday... You Made A Great Play...". He would later receive the Presidential Commendation for “Service To Others” from Gerald Ford.

Monday and his wife, Barbaralee, who make regular visits to various veteran’s hospitals throughout the year, reside in Vero Beach during the offseason.

Tim Neverett

Tim Neverett is in his fifth season as a member of the Dodgers’ broadcast team and will handle the play-by-play on select games on AM 570 while also occasionally anchoring the pre-game and post-game shows on SportsNet LA.

He is the author of the book Covid Curveball on the Dodgers 2020 World Series championship season. During the offseason, Neverett calls college basketball nationally on FS1 and college hockey on the New England Sports Network. He also serves as a professor in communication studies at Emerson College.

Neverett previously served as the radio play-by-play voice of the Boston Red Sox for three seasons (2016-18) following a seven-year stint as the radio and television play-by-play announcer for the Pittsburgh Pirates. Before joining the Pirates, Neverett worked for FSN Rocky Mountain, including as a studio host for Colorado Rockies games during the 2008 season. He also served the network as a play-by-play announcer for Rockies games, college football, basketball, hockey, lacrosse, arena football, and track and field. In addition, Neverett hosted talk shows for both the nationally syndicated Sporting News Radio Network and ESPN 560 in Denver where he was named the 2005 Best Radio Sports-Talk Host by Westword magazine. Neverett also worked in Las Vegas calling games on radio and TV for the Padres’ and Dodgers’ Triple-A teams, as well as Las Vegas’ International Hockey League team and the UNLV baseball and football teams. Neverett, who began his broadcasting career in 1985 with Pittsburgh’s Double-A affiliate Nashua, also called baseball, softball, basketball, and soccer as well as hockey and skiing during four Olympic Games from 2002-2008.

Neverett played college baseball at Emerson College in Boston, and he and his wife Jessica have three sons: Matthew, Kyle and Drew.

Spanish Radio

Pepe Yñiguez

Pepe Yñiguez enters his 27th season as a Dodger broadcaster after joining the club in 1997 and joins Jose Mota and Fernando Valenzuela on the club’s Spanish-language radio broadcast.

Additionally, Yñiguez contributes to the Dodgers’ Latino marketing and radio sales efforts in recording promotional ads for Dodger sponsors that air on Univision America KTNQ 1020 AM. Yñiguez previously hosted the Dodgers’ pre and post-game shows, “Hablando con los Dodgers,” in 1993 and covered select Spanish-language broadcasting assignments for the club in 1997 before joining the team full-time in 1999.

Starting in 1992, Yñiguez broadcasted numerous events for Fox Sports International, including every World Series from 1997-2005. In 1997, he called the All-Star Game at Jacobs Field in Cleveland alongside Tito Fuentes and Dennis Martinez. He has also broadcasted the annual Caribbean Series. From 1993-95, Yñiguez served as the color commentator for Los Angeles Raiders broadcasts. During past offseasons, he also hosted “Central Deportiva,” a weekly sports talk show airing Sunday afternoons, on KWKW in Los Angeles.

Yñiguez resides with his wife Rafaela in La Habra, and has four kids, Edgar, Alenrry, Karissa and Jaquely.

Fernando Valenzuela

Fernando Valenzuela, legendary Dodger and 17-year Major League veteran, marks his 21st season as a Dodger broadcaster and will join Jose Mota and Pepe Yñiguez on the Spanish radio and television simulcast.

In 17 big league seasons, Valenzuela compiled a 173-153 record and a 3.54 ERA with the Dodgers, Angels, Orioles, Phillies, Padres and Cardinals, earning six All-Star selections and tossing a no-hitter on June 29, 1990, against the Cardinals. The Sonora, Mexico native has been inducted to numerous Hall of Fames, including the Hispanic Heritage Baseball Museum and Caribbean Baseball Hall of Fame.

Valenzuela was a late-season call-up in 1980, but his legend grew as the Dodgers’ emergency starter on Opening Day, 1981, when he hurled a 2-0 shutout over the Houston Astros. Valenzuela won his first eight starts that season, including five shutouts and a rookie-record string of 35.0 consecutive scoreless innings, with his improbable success sparking “Fernandomania,” as fans flocked to see him pitch – both home and road – and baffle hitters with his signature screwball. Valenzuela, who started the 1981 All-Star Game, became the first player in MLB history to be named Rookie of the Year and win a Cy Young Award in the same season, while leading the Dodgers to a World Championship.

Valenzuela supports the club's community and Latino initiatives, and as a result of his continued community involvement, the Reviving Baseball in Innercities Program (RBI) honored him with a Lifetime Achievement in 2007. Valenzuela and his wife Linda reside in Los Angeles and have four children, Ricky, Fernando Jr., Linda and Maria Fernanda.

José Mota

José Mota, the son of Dodger legend Manny Mota, is in his second season with the Dodger broadcast team and will primarily call games on the Dodgers’ Spanish language simulcast alongside Pepe Yñiguez and Fernando Valenzuela.

A two-time Emmy Award winner, Mota spent 20 seasons with the Angels’ TV and radio broadcast teams serving in multiple English and Spanish roles. In 2021, he became the first Latin-born former player to be a full-time English TV broadcaster for a Major League team. On Aug. 19-20, 2017, Mota became the first MLB broadcaster to have called play-by-play on a team’s English radio/TV broadcasts and Spanish radio/TV broadcasts, as well as working as a color analyst on both platforms. Mota was Vladimir Guerrero’s translator for the 2018 Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony in Cooperstown, becoming the first translator in the HOF ceremony’s history.

Mota’s first-ever MLB broadcast assignment was for Los Angeles Dodgers Spanish radio in 2001. In the years since, he has been a broadcaster/analyst for Fox (where he broadcasted MLB and NFL games), MLB Network, ESPN, TBS, Bally Sports, MLB Radio, DirecTV Latin America and Yahoo Sports. Mota was a sideline reporter/analyst for ESPN during the inaugural World Baseball Classic in 2006 and has worked on broadcasting teams for every WBC (2009, 2013, 2017).

A former Major League second baseman with the San Diego Padres (1991) and Kansas City Royals (1995), Mota also played in the Dodger organization in 1987-88. Mota was a two-time Collegiate All-American second baseman at Cal State Fullerton, 1984 National Champion and earned a bachelor’s degree in communications from CSUF. Mota made his film debut in Kevin Costner’s “For Love of the Game.”

The Mota family founded the non-profit Mota’s Faces in 2011, which promotes the involvement of American youth in assisting impoverished school children and their families in his native Dominican Republic and Colombia and Venezuela. Mota and his family make their home in the San Gabriel Valley.