Los Angeles Dodgers broadcaster Stephen Nelson is calling history on the field and making history in the broadcast booth as the first Asian American play-by-play announcer in Major League Baseball.
The 34-year-old Southern California native is stepping into the big role after paying his dues in local sports, then hosting and announcing games for the MLB and NHL networks, Bleacher Report, NBC Sports, YouTube and Apple TV +.
“The first Major League stadium I ever stepped on was (Dodger Stadium). I would have been 8 years old, and it was a celebration of Japanese community night,” Nelson told KTLA’s Frank Buckley. “Cut to two and a half decades later, this is home.”
The broadcast booth made famous by the late Vin Scully is now hosting a new generation of broadcasters led by Joe Davis. Davis and the Dodgers think highly of Stephen Nelson, who will announce 55 Dodgers games this season.
“It’s silly to think about … because you know the history that comes with Dodger Stadium, and Los Angeles, and that broadcast booth specifically,” he said.
Nelson is grateful to everyone who has been in his corner, whether it was when he was an intern at KTLA, a student at Chapman University or, before that, at Marina High School.
He is joining a ballclub already steeped in the history of Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier. Now Nelson, whose mother Flo is a third-generation Japanese American, is the one breaking barriers.
“It’s the greatest honor of my life professionally to have done that,” he shared. “(But) it means less to me that I’m first if I’m the last. This isn’t about me, it’s about who’s next.”