Record-setting Dodger pitcher-turned-broadcaster Orel Hershiser will receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame Thursday in the sports entertainment category.
Retired Dodger pitcher Clayton Kershaw, Dodger manager Dave Roberts, Hershiser’s broadcast partner Joe Davis and retired Dodger broadcaster Jaime Jarrin are set to join Hershiser in speaking at the 11:30 a.m. ceremony at 6755 Hollywood Blvd., about a block east of Highland Avenue.
Bob Costas will be the master of ceremonies.
The location was chosen because Hershiser wore 55 when he pitched for the Dodgers “while the 67 is a number that carries its own legendary story,” Ana Martinez, producer of the Hollywood Walk of Fame, said in a statement, referring to the internet meme, slang term and gesture that has no fixed meaning.
The star is the 2,853rd since the completion of the Walk of Fame in 1961 with the initial 1,558 stars.
Hershiser will become the third former major leaguer with a star on Hollywood Walk of Fame, joining the late actors Chuck Connors and John Beradino.
Hershiser has been a Dodger broadcaster since 2014 after being an ESPN broadcaster from 2006-13.
Hershiser pitched 13 seasons for the Dodgers after they selected him in the 17th round of the 1979 Major League Baseball draft out of Bowling Green University, the 440th selection overall.
“I was a suspect, not a prospect,” Hershiser said in 2023 when he was inducted into the Legends of Dodger Baseball. “I am truly an organizational player because what this organization did was it gave me people around me that were trying to achieve excellence every single day.
“I’m an accumulation of great examples, great people and great expectations.”
Then-Dodger manager Tommy Lasorda gave Hershiser the nickname “Bulldog” in 1984 in an effort to get him to adopt a tougher attitude on the mound.
Lasorda’s words paid a quick dividend. After going 11-8 with a 2.66 ERA in 1984, his first full major league season, Hershiser was 19-3 for a major league-leading .864 winning percentage and a 2.03 ERA in 1985, helping lead the Dodgers to the National League West championship.
Hershiser had his best season in 1988, when he became the first pitcher to win a Cy Young Award, League Championship Series MVP and World Series MVP in the same season. No one has accomplished the feat since then.
Hershiser concluded that regular season with a major league-record 59 consecutive scoreless innings, breaking Hall of Famer Don Drysdale’s previous record of 58 2/3 innings set in 1968 with the Dodgers.
Hershiser won a career-high 23 games, pitched a major league-leading 15 complete games and eight shutouts — including five in a row — and was selected the National League Cy Young Award winner by a unanimous vote.
Hershiser was selected the National League Championship Series MVP for pitching a five-hit shutout in Game 7 as the Dodgers completed an upset of the heavily favored New York Mets. He was selected World Series MVP for shutting out the highly favored Oakland Athletics in Game 2 and recording a complete-game victory in the series-clinching victory in Game 5.
The sports entertainment category was announced in 2021 by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, which administers the Walk of Fame. It honors individuals — not teams or sports affiliated groups — who have made significant contributions to the world of entertainment and demonstrated “longevity of excellence.”
New York Giants Hall of Fame defensive end turned “Good Morning America” anchor Michael Strahan was the first recipient in the sports entertainment category, in 2023.
The second recipient was the late Carl Weathers, honored in 2024 for a nearly 50-year acting career after playing for the Oakland Raiders, best remembered for his portrayal of Sylvester Stallone’s boxing nemesis-turned-friend and mentor Apollo Creed in the first four “Rocky” movies.
Tennis legend and feminist pioneer Billie Jean King became the third recipient last year and retired British soccer star David Beckham the fourth in June.