I’ve always had an affinity for people who are self-made.

My father, Juan, was a self-made man. He left school after the 6th grade and began driving a bus in Jalisco, Mexico when he was 13. When he and my mother came to El Norte and settled in the San Fernando Valley a few months before I was born, he had to reinvent himself. It took a few years of moving through factory jobs, but he eventually landed a job driving for Bonanza, a cement company. That led to him forming his own cement pump business, which he did for more than 30 years before retiring. 

When I look at Polo Ascencio’s career arc, I see similar traits to my father’s. I can’t give someone higher praise. In the 14 years we’ve known each other, I’ve seen Polo’s rise to become La Voz de los Cardenales for that team that I still think cost me a World Series ring in 2013. I’ve somewhat forgiven them for hiring Polo. Somewhat.

Our association started with a fateful phone call before the 2006 Dodger season, which Polo recounted during our sprawling interview (link). I’d only been on the job as the Dodgers’ Publications Director for about a month when I was tasked with helping the organization launch losdodgers.com, the team’s Spanish website. His first name stuck in my head. I didn’t realize that along with being a regular contributor to a Spanish sports talk show and writing for a Mexican sports website, he was also a custodian in Santa Barbara. I didn’t know the latter when he called me.

To say that my head was spinning at that point in my career is an understatement. Every other day a Dodger great would walk by my office, some coming in to introduce themselves when they needed no introduction. I was ramping up the content for my first Dodger publications and I got thrown into my lap a Spanish website. I balanced everything as best as I could, when this guy cold called me to ask if he could write for the site. Feeling rushed because of everything going on at that time, I listened to Polo and encouraged him to send in an article for submission.

He did about a week later. It was about the Dodger Stadium renovation that was winding down. I told him frankly that I didn’t think it was the right type of article to post on the website at that time. In all honesty, I wouldn’t have blamed him if he’d just called it a day and moved on.

But he didn’t. His persistence and ganas are qualities that I’ve come to hold in high regard with Polo. I hadn’t heard from him until close to the season when I got another email from him. In it was an attachment with an article submission on Fernando Valenzuela and the 25th anniversary of Fernandomania in 1981. 

I read it, liked it immediately, but I had to call Polo. There were quotes in there from El Toro, and I’d had a tough time getting even a phone interview with the Dodger icon. And I was inside the organization! Before publishing, I had to make sure that the quotes were authentic, and not lifted from somewhere else.

Polo assured me that he’d gotten a face-to-face interview with Valenzuela during the recent Freeway Series in Anaheim, and offered to play for me the audio tape of the interview. I didn’t have to hear it. I published the article, and gave him the go-ahead to send me more articles. I didn’t have a budget to pay him, but could offer him tickets. He was happy to get those tickets.

Little did I know that this would be the start of something special for Polo. He did continue to write for losdodgers.com for a couple seasons. When he was up for a position with Dodgers on Demand as a Spanish host, I gave him a recommendation to my friend Tony Kinkela.

He continued to show ganas in everything he did. I enjoyed his style, right down to him rolling a baseball in his hands as he spoke on air. When the Dodgers on Demand gig ended, Polo could have folded up his tent and called it a career. He kept stats for the Dodgers’ broadcast teams, both Spanish and English. He was the host for Viva Los Dodgers. He called games during the Mexican Winter League. The dude kept reinventing himself and working. My pride in even having a small part in his rise was immense.

In 2016, when he landed the position as the Spanish play-by-play announcer for the Cardinals, working alongside former Major Leaguer Benjie Molina, I couldn’t help myself. When I called him to congratulate him, he reminded me, “Papi, you gave me my first shot!” Papi is a pet term that Latino ballplayers call one another, and I adopted it for myself. I used it so much, I didn’t realize that Polo and others would call “shots!” for every time I said it. Tequila shots, of course.

Last year, during the playoffs, Polo had one of the most memorable calls of the postseason on a walk-off sacrifice fly by Yadier Molina, Bengie’s brother. To do that impassioned, completely over-the-top call any justice, it must be listened to. When I saw Polo get tons of social media hits in the days that followed that Oct. 7, 2019, game, the prideful grin on my face could be seen all the way to San Luis.

¡¿QUIÉN MÁS?! ??#STLCardenales | #TiempoDeVolar pic.twitter.com/qpv9MYjv1O

— Cardenales (@cardenales) October 7, 2019

Polo is a great example of what a person can do with grit, will and sheer repetition. He made himself a great broadcaster, and when baseball starts again he’ll continue to make himself better. I hadn’t heard the story of how Jaime Jarrin’s text message at a very vulnerable moment led Polo to continue moving on. That’s one of the most gripping parts of our interview.

Whenever Polo tells people how I gave him his first shot in the big leagues, I remind him that I didn’t have to do all the trabajo. El hizo la obra de mano. He kept pushing when many would have stopped. He kept reinventing himself. I’ll forever be proud of how far Polo has gone in his life. And I’ll keep telling people that he’s a prime example of what someone can do when opportunity meets talent and determination. 

Great job, Papi. Keep making me proud. Shots!