Orel Hershiser will be inducted into the Legends of Dodger Baseball Saturday, honored for his 13 seasons pitching for the team, especially his memorable 1988 season when he became the first pitcher to be the National League Cy Young Award winner, World Series MVP and National League Championship Series MVP.
The ceremony will be hosted by Hershiser’s broadcast partner Joe Davis. Guests will include retired Dodger broadcaster Jaime JarrÃn, fellow broadcaster Rick Monday, and several members of the 1988 World Series championship team, as well as other former teammates and what the team described as “surprise guests.”
The ceremony set to begin at approximately 5:20 p.m. and will be televised by SportsNet LA. It will also include video tributes.
“I am humbled to be inducted into the Legends of Dodger Baseball,” Hershiser said. “This is the part of life that you never imagined. To think I was drafted in the 17th round in 1979 and here now I am still representing this great organization.
“The Dodgers have been one of the most important parts of my life. I love my teammates, I love this organization and I love you fans. The experiences that I’ve had in uniform on and off the field have taken my life to places I never thought I could go.”
Hershiser will throw the ceremonial first pitch and members of his family will say,”It’s time for Dodger baseball,” just before the 6:10 p.m. first pitch for the game against the Cincinnati Reds.
The first 40,000 fans in attendance will receive a Hershiser bobblehead.
Hershiser made his major league debut with the Dodgers on Sept. 1, 1983, and remained with the team through 1994.
During a 1984 game Hershiser was nicknamed “Bulldog,” in an effort by then-Dodger manager Tommy Lasorda to get him to adopt a tougher attitude on the mound. 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 while helping lead the team to the National League West championship.
Hershiser had his best season in 1988, concluding the regular season with a major league-record 59 consecutive scoreless innings, winning a career-high 23 games, pitching a major league-leading 15 complete games and eight shutouts, including five in a row, and being selected unanimously as the National League Cy Young Award winner.
Hershiser was selected as 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. Hershiser was selected as the 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.
Hershiser played with the Cleveland Indians from 1995-97, posting a 45-21 record and being selected as the MVP of the 1995 American League Championship Series. After pitching for the San Francisco Giants in 1998 and New York Mets in 1999, Hershiser completed his playing career in 2000 with the Dodgers.
Hershiser is seventh in Dodger history with 1,456 strikeouts, ninth in shutouts with 24 and 10th in games started with 309.
Hershiser was the Texas Rangers’ pitching coach from 2002 through 2005, an ESPN broadcaster from 2006-13 and a Dodger broadcaster on SportsNet LA since 2014.
The Legends of Dodger Baseball was established in 2018 to recognize Dodger greats and their impact on the franchise, both on and off the field. Inductees receive a plaque honoring their Dodger achievements, which will be on permanent display at Dodger Stadium.
Hershiser will be the seventh inductee. Don Newcombe, Steve Garvey and Fernando Valenzuela were inducted in 2019. Maury Wills and Kirk Gibson were inducted in 2022. Manny Mota was inducted April 29.