Dodgers Team News

Dodgers: Kiké Hernández Details First Road Trip With the Strange Coronavirus Guidelines in Place

Baseball in 2020 is unlike anything we have ever seen before. But with the Dodgers’ first road trip of the season, we now know what to expect. 

Kiké Hernández caught up with Jorge Castillo of The LA Times after returning from the road trip. Hernandez detailed to Castillo what every day was like, and how the Dodgers players adjusted to the new normal.



In terms of flights and travel, not a whole lot has changed according to Hernández. Dodgers players are required to wear masks for the flights, and a few other small details have changed. But aside from that, it’s mostly business as usual.

The flights are basically the same as before. The only difference is we wear masks for the entire flight. They give us hand sanitizer, gloves and masks. The gloves aren’t mandatory, but I’ve put them on. The only thing I don’t like is if the flight is long it looks like I’m 100 years old when I take my gloves off because my hands get sweaty and wrinkled. But I don’t think taking that extra precaution hurts anyone. I just put them on.

With MLB protocols in place, Dodgers players were strongly discouraged to leave their hotels. Hernández said that most days he spent his free time studying video of opposing pitchers. MLB is not allowing the use of the video room for players to see their at-bats in the wake of the Astros’ cheating scandal. 

I spent the days flipping through channels and studying videos of opposing pitchers. Since we can’t use the video room at stadiums this year, everyone is watching more film on their own. I have a hard drive and a Surface I bought to watch videos of pitchers. After each series, I give [Jonathan] Rhymes, the video coordinator, the hard drive and he adds my at-bats from that day and any pitchers I want. I spent my days like that — and playing a lot of Candy Crush on my phone.

In the visiting clubhouses, it seems as though the visiting teams are trying to accommodate as best as possible. The Padres gave the Dodgers several options to maintain distancing while they were there for three games.

They gave us five clubhouses in San Diego: the normal clubhouse where we always stay, the coaches’ locker room for some players, a food room, the manager’s office, and an auxiliary locker room for the coaches in the tunnel outside the main clubhouse.

It’s certainly not the game that we all know, but it is encouraging to see Dodgers players taking this so seriously. Other teams in baseball have not been so lucky, as COVID-19 cases have stopped games for many organizations. Keep up the good work fellas. 

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One Comment

  1. kike, the laberdoodle lady in bakersfield says remove the hair on your upper lip.the lady is my grandaughter she hope you and pretty wife of yours injoy your dog.

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