Steve Webb
LOS ANGELES — It is hard enough getting access to million-dollar athletes in a normal situation. Imagine throwing a pandemic into the works. That’s exactly the challenge that SportsNet LA’s Elisa Hernandez has to deal with on a daily basis as she works to bring Dodgers’ content to the pre- and post-game shows on that network. She stopped by the Bleed Los podcast to discuss that among other things in a wide-ranging discussion that dropped on Monday.
Starting as a field producer for Alanna Rizzo in 2019, Hernandez got to experience one year of normalcy before Covid hit the world, and sent sports broadcasting into a whole new reality. “I went from having pretty good access to the team in terms of going into the clubhouse and the dugout,” Hernandez recalls, “to basically only being allowed to go to our suite where we filmed our pre- and post-game shows and my car. And that was it.”
It’s been a slow process getting back to normal in 2021, as Hernandez recounted that she hadn’t seen some of the players in person until very recently. “It’s weird to be at game 93 or whatever and just seeing Kenley Jansen face to face for the first time.” She works closely with SportsNet LA’s on-air talent and serves as a go-between for the Network with the players, making sure there are timely interviews and segments for the fans at home.
A local product and graduate of USC, Hernandez has always been drawn to sports journalism and listed Michelle Tafoya and Tracy Wolfson as female journalists that she looked up to as a young person as someone whose career path she admired. “Seeing their longevity and seeing how they cover so many different sports, that let me know not to put myself in a box, and not cover just one sport.”
Hernandez admitted that at their network, they were unabashedly “homers” and try not to show the Dodgers players in a bad light. As an example, she mentioned the now-infamous Darren Ruf check-swing call from a few nights ago, and said that she would never put a Dodger player in a position to criticize a call. “We protect them as much as we can in that way because we want to make sure that we are telling their stories.”
For more on that and other Dodgers-centric storylines, check out the Bleed Los podcast every week!
