For this week’s cover story on the remaking of the Los Angeles Dodgers by its new ownership group, The Hollywood Reporter produced a behind-the-scenes video on its exclusive photo shoots and reporting excursions at the team’s iconic 50-year-old stadium.
The seven-minute video includes interviews with star pitcher Clayton Kershaw; current manager Don Mattingly and famed former manager Tommy Lasorda; legendary announcers Vin Scully and Jaime Jarrin; and entertainment industry Dodger fans Larry King and George Lopez, among others.
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For his part, Kershaw tells THR that having new owners has energized the players and the fans.
“There’s a better atmosphere around here, better excitement, more excitement, and it’s more fun to play for sure,” he says.
The new owners include Magic Johnson and Peter Guber, who says he’s been a lifelong baseball fan, starting as a child in Boston.
“I grew up with baseball,” he says. “I was a Fenway Park guy, cut grass. I like real grass, I like the feel of it, the smell of it, I like the outdoors feeling, I like the weather of it. And coming to this [Dodger] stadium brings back all the memories I have of people that I knew when I was a kid, playing baseball.”
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Having grown up in Los Angeles, Lopez says he has special memories of Dodger Stadium.
“I’ve been to Rome, I’ve been to the Vatican — this is the Vatican west,” he says. “This is a destination spot, connected through my whole childhood and my adulthood.”
And for fans disappointed by the Dodgers’ performance over the past few seasons, Lasorda, who serves as special adviser to the chairman of the Dodgers organization, offers some hope.
“I think [the new owners] are going to make every effort to gather a team that could possibly win,” he says. “That’s what our fans deserve. We have the greatest fans in all of baseball. I’ve said this time and time again: The game doesn’t belong to the owners, this game doesn’t belong to the players, it belongs to the fans.”
Video by Chris Gill, Jennifer Laski, Raphael Laski, Daniel Miller, Carrie Smith, Pablo Teyssier-Verger
