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“Credibility–Dodgers Victory–Baseball’s Loss”

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Joy one minute.
Controversy the next.

The World Series champions hope to travel back to LA today, after being put into isolation pending followup Covid tests, following the final win..

This in the aftermath of the Justin Turner positive drug test during the game with Tampa Bay.

There won’t be a parade, nothing in Hollywood, no gathering at Dodgers Stadium, not yet at least.

There won’t be any resolution about the Turner positive trust, what the player did after the game, who approved it, and what the fallout should be, immediately.

Turner was ushered off the bench in the 7th inning, after results of a second test of the day came back positive for Covid symptoms.  He wasn’t ill.  Felt nothing.  Played well.

Turner is facing a major fine, maybe as much as 100,000 because MLB and the Union agreed on sanctions against any player who violated Covid rules.  Turner surely did.

Now there are problems, in that the baseball season was officially over after the final called third strike .  The Union may say the baseball season was over  and MLB had no jurisdiction to sanction the 3rd baseman.

The player stayed in the clubhouse when the game was over.  They urged him not to go back on the field.  He refused to listen and the Dodgers may have allowed him to walk around MLB officials into the dugout, and then on the field.

He wore a mask.  He hugged his wife in the dugout, as well as female Dodgers employees.  He went on the field and hugged pitching ace Clayton Kershaw, though no one else.

He went and sat next to Manager Dave Roberts for a team photo, both pulling their masks down, despite Roberts being a cancer survivor.

Now facing an investigation, teammates are coming to Turner’s defense.  The quotes are strong:

..He earned the right to be there.
..We would not be here without him this year
..He is part of this team and had a right to be there.

Many are saying what Turner did was selfish.  Some believe the Dodgers should have stopped it from happening.

A passionate  player, who reinvented himself with the Dodgers after the Mets-Orioles-Indians never gave him time to develop.

His numbers are impressive.    He used to be a (.260) hitter with no power.  Since he put on the Dodgers Blue, he has a (.292) career mark with 124-homers.

And when it really counted, the postseason, he is hitting (.276) with 12-bombs, at the most important part of the season, the playoffs.

Snapshots for a scrapbook:  Turner’s home run swing.  Turner hugging Kershaw.  Turner sitting with the World Series Trophy with his wife in a private picture moment.

An innocent act of team camaraderie from one of its leaders..

You hope the lasting memory won’t be a Covid outbreak in the aftermath of that Dodgers celebration.

You also hope baseball doesn’t use him as some type of an example, with heavy handed discipline, against a guy who is the epitome of a pro’s pro.

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