LOS ANGELES — What better way to close out a home season at Chavez Ravine than by saluting two people who have spent their lives telling the Dodgers’ story? Before today’s home finale, the club presented the Tommy Lasorda “I Bleed Dodger Blue” Award to longtime Dodgers publicist Steve Brener and Hall of Fame broadcaster Jaime Jarrín—a perfectly paired set of honorees whose careers bookend the team’s public voice in English and Spanish for generations.
Tommy’s name on this honor isn’t decoration; it’s the essence. “Cut me and I’ll bleed Dodger blue” was Lasorda’s calling card, a line that became synonymous with the franchise and the culture he helped build. The Dodgers created the award in 2022 to recognize members of the broader Dodger community who embody that passion, enthusiasm, and love of the team. The inaugural recipient was former L.A. City Councilmember Rosalind “Roz” Wyman, whose political will helped bring the Dodgers to Los Angeles; she received the honor on Sept. 22, 2022, a date chosen to coincide with Tommy’s birthday. The torch then passed to two organizational lifers: John Shoemaker in 2023 and Steve Yeager in 2024. (MLB.com)
Brener’s selection shines a light on the craft of shaping a franchise’s public identity. He joined the Dodgers’ front office in 1970 and became publicity director in 1975, a role he held through 1987—covering an era that included Fernandomania, the ’81 title, and the run-up to 1988. The Los Angeles Times profiled his relentless work ethic during that stretch, noting how deeply he threw himself into stewarding the team’s relationship with the media and fans. After leaving the club, Brener built one of the country’s most respected sports communications firms, Brener Zwikel & Associates, where he continues to serve as president. In a sport where players and managers rotate, the institutional memory often lives with the people behind the microphones and press notes; Brener helped set the professional standard for the Dodgers’ voice off the field.
If Brener crafted the message, Jarrín gave it music. The “Spanish Voice of the Dodgers” began broadcasting L.A. games in 1959 and became the club’s lead Spanish-language play-by-play announcer in 1973. In those first years, Spanish-language broadcasters didn’t travel; Jarrín re-created road games from a studio, listening to Vin Scully and painting the action in Spanish with his own lyrical cadence—work that demanded both precision and poetry. His excellence was recognized with the Ford C. Frick Award from the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1998, and his microphone now stands in the Dodger Stadium Ring of Honor. Jarrín retired after the 2022 season, closing a 64-year run that connected multiple generations of Latino fans to Dodger baseball and helped knit the team into the fabric of Los Angeles.
The symbolism of honoring Brener and Jarrín together is spot-on. Lasorda was a master evangelist for the brand; he understood that Dodger Blue is as much a feeling as a color, a belief that binds a city as diverse as L.A. The modern reach of that message—press box to press row, postgame show to morning drive—was made possible by professionals like Brener and Jarrín. Brener’s stewardship during the O’Malley years helped frame how the Dodgers spoke to the world; Jarrín’s voice turned those messages into ritual for millions of households, ballpark listeners, and fans following along on Spanish radio or SAP.
It’s also fitting to place today’s honors alongside the short, meaningful history of the Lasorda award. Wyman’s pioneering civic work (and Dodger fandom) gave Los Angeles its team; Shoemaker’s decades developing players in the minors underscores how deeply the Dodgers invest in people; Yeager’s 14 seasons behind the plate and his mentorship afterward reflect blue-collar grit and continuity. Now, the award recognizes two legends of communication—one whose office was the press level, the other whose office was the airwaves. Different jobs, same result: they made the Dodgers feel personal.
For fans, Jarrín’s legacy is easy to measure: the sound of an “¡Se va, se va… y despídala con un beso!” punctuating a summer night, the comfort of his voice stitching innings together during pennant races and lazy Sundays alike. For Brener, the impact is quieter but no less enduring: media relationships tended, storylines elevated, charitable initiatives and community moments amplified—work that keeps a franchise aligned with its city and true to its best self.
Lasorda used to say that Dodger Blue wasn’t just a color; it was a commitment. With today’s ceremony, the Dodgers honored two men who have kept that commitment for decades—one sentence at a time, one call at a time. If you measure baseball by the connections it forges between a team and its people, Steve Brener and Jaime Jarrín are as decorated as any champions. Their names now join a young but meaningful roll of honorees that captures exactly what Tommy meant: love the Dodgers loudly, love them daily, and make sure the whole city can hear it.
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