Stephen Nelson on sharing views from the broadcast booth

[ASFN Admin]

You must be registered for see images attach

Los Angeles, CA - January 31: Freddie Freeman #5 of the Los Angeles Dodgers shows off his repaired foot with commentator Stephen Nelson during a stage show during the annual DodgerFest at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles on Saturday, January 31, 2026. (Photo by Keith Birmingham/MediaNews Group/Pasadena Star-News via Getty Images) | MediaNews Group via Getty Images

LOS ANGELES — I interviewed Stephen Nelson last week on a variety of topics, including calling the wildness of Game 7 of the 2025 World Series, what goes into his daily routine on the job, and many more things. You can listen to this interview in audio form on the Three-Inning Save podcast.


Nelson has been very open in sharing behind-the-scenes views from the broadcast booth, like the call below from the SportsNet LA call of Dodgers vs. Colorado Rockies alongside Eric Karros on May 16 at Dodger Stadium.

Nelson said the impetus of his current sharing of Dodgers behind-the-scenes minutiae came from his wife, news anchor Cori Coffin.

“When I was at MLB Network and NHL Network, I started doing play-by-play consistently, really during the pandemic, or after the pandemic. I started doing them as a way to show how we were calling games during COVID — in a studio, off a tiny TV monitor. We weren’t there. It was just a unique experience, and it was a way to showcase that.


“Going to school for broadcast journalism, you’re taught that you’re not the story. The story is the story, so don’t make it about you. It felt really self-important and cringy, so I stopped doing it. It still feels that way, but my wife last year, she really encouraged me, that ‘People are really fascinated to see behind-the-scenes stuff. I just think you should show that more often.’

“When I get home from a game, she wants to know — my wife really couldn’t care less about sports, but she lives and dies with me through them. So she wants to know what happened here, or with this moment. So we’re talking about the process of calling a game, or calling a moment and I’d say, ‘I wish I would have called it this way’ or ‘I wish I would have done it that way,’ or ‘I really liked that call,’ so on and so forth. She said I should film this, so I did, and I did again, and started doing it consistently. And I’m blown away by how many people engage with it.”

Continue reading...