Plaschke: When radio reporter crashed on Brewers' slide, Dodgers were there to choose him up

He is component of the staff, but he is not component of the staff.

In his 11 years as the Dodgers’ radio reporter and the host of the well-liked “Dodger Talk,” David Vassegh has by no means forgotten this contradictory truth of the matter.

He flies with the staff but sits with colleagues in a independent segment. He stays in the group hotel but his area is on a separate ground. Ahead of games, he waits outside the clubhouse till the typical media are authorized obtain and, at the time inside of, he stays in the same boundaries governing all reporters. When the match commences, except if he is working tv, he retires to a seat in the push box.

As an worker of KLAC-AM (570) radio, Vassegh, 45, has often stayed in his lane.

Which manufactured it so awkward in advance of a recent match in Milwaukee when that lane snaked down a big slide and into a wall in which he broke numerous bones in his ideal wrist and fractured 6 ribs.

Odds are, you have noticed it. Prospects are, you laughed, then felt terrible for laughing. It was a person of the most brutal nearby baseball injuries this summer season. It was also undoubtedly the most seen.

In a stunt performed for the cameras of SportsNet LA, Vassegh traveled down the still left-area slide at American Family Industry, imitating the journey taken by the team’s mascot Bernie Brewer just after just about every Brewers residence run. Sporting a costume shirt and tie even though lying on his back on a potato sack, Vassegh sailed down the slide shouting, “Holy crap!” five moments before traveling into a retaining wall at the bottom, finishing with a sickening thud as he rolls over in searing ache and while not able to breathe.

The beginning was humorous. The ending was horrible. The video went viral.

“I was making an attempt to place on a clearly show, trying to be a tiny silly,” Vassegh recalled with a sigh. “It did not work out so very well.”

Humiliated and damage, Vassegh was taken by Dodgers director of participant relations Juan Dorado to the Dodgers’ schooling personnel, who arranged for him to go to a close by urgent-treatment centre since the stadium X-ray technician experienced not but arrived. Recognizing the media regulations, Vassegh retreated to a seat exterior the Dodgers clubhouse while ready for a co-worker to give him a trip.

“There’s still that line in which I’m not a player, and there’s no way I was heading to wait around in that clubhouse,” Vassegh said.

Radio reporter David Vassegh, left, and Dodgers third baseman Justin Turner.

(Jon SooHoo / Los Angeles Dodgers)

At which issue, Justin Turner, David Selling price, Cody Bellinger and Austin Barnes showed up and erased that line. They dragged him into the clubhouse. They cared for him right up until his experience arrived. They seemed at him in his moment of crisis and saw additional than just a microphone.

“He was just sitting there wanting like he was heading to go out,” Barnes explained. “We weren’t just heading to go away him there. He’s like a person of us.”

Price grabbed a towel and wiped the sweat from Vassegh’s apprehensive confront. Turner gave him a rooster sandwich so he wouldn’t have to be medicated on an vacant belly. Barnes and Alex Torres, the Dodgers’ clubhouse supervisor, aided him acquire off his shirt and tie and fitted him with a Dodgers T-shirt so medical professionals would have simpler access to his torso.

It was the commencing of an outpouring of affection that turned 1 of the most embarrassing times of Vassegh’s everyday living into a person of the most revealing.

“I will often respect that line,” Vassegh said. “But when I desired them most, there was no line. I wasn’t a media member. I was just a person, and they ended up people today encouraging me, and that says a great deal about them as a workforce.”

Soon after cameraman Mick Larson drove him 20 minutes to the urgent-treatment facility, a familiar facial area popped up on Vassegh’s phone. It was Mookie Betts, FaceTiming Vassegh from the Dodgers clubhouse.

“Man, what did you do?” Betts requested.

The cellphone buzzed again. It was Orel Hershiser from the SportsNet LA studios, calling to offer you help. Vassegh finally returned to the stadium and was surrounded by additional affection. Whilst walking in front of the dugout in the major of the fifth inning, he was greeted by Freddie Freeman, Trea Turner and Betts, with Betts insisting that Vassegh give him a hug. Afterward in the Dodgers clubhouse, he was hugged by Craig Kimbrel, then returned to his lodge to learn that even previous Dodgers experienced blown up his cellphone.

Kenley Jansen FaceTimed him. Enrique Hernandez texted him. Shawn Green texted him. Mike Scioscia termed him. Even Mickey Hatcher’s wife, Patty, referred to as him.

Through it all, Vassegh owned his steps with his trademark self-deprecating perception of humor.

“I’m the just one who went down that silly slide, it’s my duty, I just had to showboat,” he claimed. “I’m glad every person experienced entertaining with it.”

Then there was the a person-word text from Clayton Kershaw.

“Grinder.”

This referred not to Vassegh’s slide, but what occurred afterward. In trying to keep with a reputation for in no way lacking a day of function, Vassegh stored grinding.

“There was no way I was likely out like that, I did not want the players’ previous graphic to be of me likely to urgent treatment,” he said. “I necessary to clearly show them I’m harder than that.”

He conducted a pregame interview with Justin Turner even although he was even now in shock and experienced but to be driven to the urgent-care facility.

“I’ve received to say, you’re seriously chiefing this out due to the fact you should really be heading to get a photo on that issue ideal now, and you insisted on accomplishing this job interview initial,” Turner explained to him on camera.

Immediately after a Dodgers victory, he done a postgame interview with longball-hitting Barnes even nevertheless his busted and braced ribs had been pounding and his casted wrist was throbbing.

“Yeah, that home run was for you,” Barnes informed him. “I know you had a small incident right now on the slide so we all rallied currently for you.”

The Dodgers rally close to Vassegh exactly simply because he is a grinder. He shows up every single working day, he absorbs continual teasing, he teases again, he chases them down for interviews, then he procedures it all during his rollicking postgame “Dodger Talk” clearly show. With a pleasing manner that works for each sides, he’s turn into a valued link between the gamers and the followers, even if some have cringed at his past stunts, these as the time he dropped a footrace with the lumbering Adrian Gonzalez.

“I just attempt to humanize the players for the enthusiasts,” Vassegh explained. “There’s a heartbeat within of them that I test to get rid of gentle on.”

This incident illustrated that heartbeat. As shortly as the players knew he would be Okay, the razzing began anew, with Justin Turner going for walks out to that retaining wall and making use of tape like it was a criminal offense scene. A several days later on gamers showed up sporting a blue T-shirt that includes a photograph of Vassegh holding up his broken wrist next to the terms, “Sliding Ain’t Simple.”

“Vassegh is the only guy in the planet that could go down that slide and crack as considerably stuff as he broke and nonetheless chuckle and explain to a good tale about it,” said Max Muncy, who wore the shirt on the day the Dodgers announced his deal extension. “Every solitary guy in this clubhouse would go out on a limb for him in a heartbeat.”

Don’t look now, but the Dodgers could return to Milwaukee for the playoffs. They will engage in there next season. Some players have already suggested that the radio reporter stage a swooshing comeback in a compelling rematch that would …

Not a probability. Even with the heartening victories squeezed out of the most noteworthy duel of his career, David Vassegh is entirely conscious of the final rating.

“No, I’m by no means carrying out that again,” he claimed. “I’m comfy recognizing the slide received.”