Who is the funniest player on the Dodgers?
The clubhouse consensus: Kiké Hernández. Also getting votes: Miguel Rojas.
“You know what the funny thing is?” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said.
Funny, ha. Go on.
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“Dalton [Rushing] is one of the funnier guys,” Roberts said, “but not trying to be funny.”
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Youthful exuberance on a veteran team is not such a bad thing. Keeps everyone loose.
That leads to a related question: If you had to pick one player to host a comedy show, who would it be?
“Kiké would be the one I would choose,” Freddie Freeman said. “Will Smith is the complete opposite of who I would think, but it kind of fits perfectly.”
On May 7, Smith hosts his third annual Dodgers Comedy Night, part of the Netflix is a Joke comedy festival. It’s a fundraiser for the Catching Hope foundation, launched by Smith and his wife to equip at-risk youth with skills in leadership and self-sufficiency.
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It’s also a night that forces Smith, the Dodgers’ stoic All-Star catcher, to take the stage, thank everyone for coming, and smile and laugh before the professional comedians take the stage.
“I was definitely a little anxious because you have to get up there and give a little speech, which I enjoy now,” he said. “It kind of took me back to my high school days, where you have to give a speech in front of the whole school.
“It was a little worrisome, but it was fine. It was fun once I got up there.”
Said Rojas: “The first time, it was just a welcome. Last year, he told a couple jokes.”
Smith insists he writes his own jokes.
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“I’m not saying too many jokes,” he said. “Maybe one.”
The Smith we all see is the one Buster Posey — the soon-to-be Hall of Famer and now the San Francisco Giants’ president of baseball operations — described to me last year: “He wasn’t looking to be your best friend when you came to the plate. I kind of appreciated that about him. He was always very business.”
The Dodgers’ social media team nudged Smith out of that public shell a bit this spring, in a spot promoting his bobblehead night, in which Smith nailed a deadpan delivery and a range of facial gestures.
Roberts said he had noticed that in the two previous comedy shows Smith has hosted.
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“Jon Lovitz is a comedian, and he has that dry humor, so there you go,” Roberts said. “Will has that dry humor.”
When I asked Smith which players might be the funniest on the team, he also went with Hernández and Rojas.
“I’m not one of the jokesters,” Smith said. “With my closest friends away from baseball, yeah, we joke around. I like to keep it light, and very sarcastic.
“The funny guys are the louder ones, usually Miggy and Kiké. Everyone is funny in their own way.”
Rojas said he sees Smith less in terms of the annual joke or two on stage and more in terms of the game night he and his wife recently hosted for teammates and their families.
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“I’m a little more vocal,” Rojas said. “If he has to say something, he will say it, but in a different way.
“He is a great leader that cares. He’s not the outgoing guy, but he’s always aware of, ‘OK, this is what I want to do to connect with my guys.’”
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Freeman has seen Smith on stage. The comedy show casting works, somehow.
“It’s not his personality,” Freeman said, “which I think makes it that much better.”
Freeman suspected I might be skeptical.
“It’s fun,” he said. “You should go.”
For more details on Dodgers Comedy Night, including ticket information, click here.
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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