Dodgers Kik Hernndez back where he belongs: Clown in the clubhouse

Kiké Hernández was still in an anesthetic haze when he woke up from the elbow operation he underwent in the offseason, so forgive him if the details of this story aren’t entirely accurate.But as far as he could recall, when he came to, his surgeon told him his injury was the worst of its kind that he’d ever seen.“I don’t know how you played,” Dr.Neal ElAttrache told him.Hernández quickly thought of how he could leverage the compliment.He made a video-call to Andrew Friedman, the Dodgers’ president of baseball operations, and asked ElAttrache to repeat what he just told him.“I did this for you,” Hernández recalled telling Freidman, “so you better bring me back.”Not as if Friedman had to be pushed into doing so.The now-34-year-old former class clown is one of the most emblematic players of the golden era of Dodgers baseball.

Activated from the injured list on Monday, Hernández started his ninth season with the franchise in the opening contest of a three-game series against the Colorado Rockies at Uniqlo Field.“I’m still the clown in the clubhouse,” Hernández said.Except when he first joined the Dodgers, he was thought of as that and little else.He was a part-time player who knew how to attract eyeballs, once popping up in the dugout in a full-body banana costume in hopes of inspiring a comeback.But Hernández didn’t work his way into the position he is now just by thrusting his pelvis whenever he heard reggaeton playing in Dodger Stadium.If his playful antics granted him entry into the hearts of fans, his on-field performances kept him there.More specifically, his performances in October.

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