Justin Turner: Another Human
Justin Turner is a Dodger-Legend to many, but to some he is a selfish, derelict murderer and baby-killer because after his positive COVID-19 test he was removed from the final game of the World Series in the seventh inning only to come back on the field with and without a mask during the Championship Celebration. First of all, what he did was wrong! Let s get that out of the way!
Justin Turner is a Dodger-Legend to many, but to some he is a selfish, derelict murderer and baby-killer because after his positive COVID-19 test he was removed from the final game of the World Series in the seventh inning… only to come back on the field with and without a mask during the Championship Celebration.
First of all, what he did was wrong! Let’s get that out of the way! But, I am guessing he is not the first person to get “carried away at the moment.” Justin Turner… along with Clayton Kershaw, Kenley Jansen, and Pedro Baez are the only players who have appeared in every postseason series since 2014. After seven long years of frustration and then finally winning the elusive World Championship could cause a person to take leave of their senses to some degree.
Justin Turner was wrong! He should be punished. He should get a suspension next season for whatever number of games is deemed appropriate (5 to 10 games) for violating MLB’s edict not to go onto the field. The Dodgers should also get fined. They could have stopped it! I am sure Andrew Friedman will pay for it himself! It doesn’t make any difference whether the next test is negative or positive. Rob Manfred said that MLB is “investigating” this case. I will suggest there is nothing to investigate: He’s guilty. He’s human and he’s still the Heart and Soul of the 2020 Dodgers. Nobody can take that away.
He was wrong, but there are several mitigating facts that have to be considered:
- He was around his wife and teammates before and during the game, with and without a mask. The odds are, there was much more contact before and during the game than there was after the game.
- He was in the “bubble” and had been for a month with all of his teammates and their families. How was he exposed? I am sure contact tracing will reveal who spread it to him.
- While technically not an “outdoor” venue (transmission of the virus is greatly reduced in the great outdoors), the stadium may have been even better than the great outdoors, due to the flow of air through the HVAC system which continually moves the virus away from others. The level of infection is dramatically lower outdoors than indoors.
Still, he was wrong and he will pay a price. He is human and he screwed-up! Justin and Courtney will have to quarantine for two weeks and I suspect the entire team would have to as well. I think they should do that regardless. The fact of the matter is that 80% of people infected with COVID-19 have few or very light symptoms. Many have none. It depends upon the level (the sheer volume of the virus) that is inhaled. My wife and I both tested positive, but she had no symptoms while I ended up in the hospital. I understand the seriousness of it. The more COVID-19 Virus you inhale, the greater the chance of infection AND generally it is more severe with greater amounts of virus inhaled.
JT is human and he made a mistake. I am certain he will issue an apology, and at that moment, it is over for me. I would like to see JT come back and finish his career as a Dodger. He’s not a Hall-of-Famer, but to me, he is in the Dodger Hall of Fame. I love Justin Turner! Not everyone feels this way. One fan wrote this:
JT is getting everything he deserves and more. He tarnished his reputation with that selfish act and I lost tons of respect for him. I hope he retires.
There is an old saying “He that is without sin should cast the first stone.” In some countries, if you steal something, they cut your arm off. If you are gay they throw you off of a high building and of course, there is beheading. I guess anyone is free to think what they want. Bill Plunkett wrote this in the OCRegister:
Friedman defended Turner, saying he wore a mask and was “socially distancing” from teammates most of that time. But there are photos clearly showing Turner without a mask – including sitting on the pitcher’s mound next to the trophy flanked by Friedman and Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, both maskless.
“I think the people who were around him would be in the contact tracing web anyway – which is how close a lot of us have been around each other,” Friedman said Tuesday night. “The subsequent tests that we’re going to take are really important to figure out what we’re doing to do to make sure that any of us who are potentially positive do not spread it to other people.”
Turner posted on Twitter on Tuesday night that he is asymptomatic. But COVID-19 can spread from asymptomatic people. It is not clear how long an asymptomatic person can spread the virus.
“I think Justin wanted to come out and take a picture with the trophy and he did,” Friedman said.
“We did (follow protocol). When he came out of the game he went and was quarantined in a doctor’s office off to the side. … We’ve all been in a bubble and so I think the amount of contact and interaction between us that have been in that bubble is pretty high. So now it’s important to make sure that the people who are infected are subsequently quarantined. I think, by and large, it’s to make sure that we don’t spread it outside of this bubble because from a contact tracing standpoint we’re all kind of in that web.”
The fact of the matter is that the was more chance of exposure during the several hours of the game than for the few minutes after the game. Still, Justin Turner was wrong. Let’s get that apology and move on. There’s nothing to see here folks!
Here’s another look at this issue, which is very thought provoking.
Stephen A. Smith’s latest take:
Photo Credit: Eric Gay/Associated Press
More from Dodger Talk
Dodgers Food Trailer
I did this interview a couple of weeks ago with Chef Mike, who runs the Dodgers Food Trailer for the Great Lakes Loons. They are there for every home and road regular season and playoff game. They prepare three meals a day for approximately 50 people (players and coaches). Since games end late most evenings, they do not prepare breakfast. Many of their hotels have a complimentary breakfast anyway. However,…
Meet LAD 2026 Draft Picks 1-12
3 picks were High School players (2 SS and 1 OF). There was a college OF, college catcher, college SS, and 10 college pitchers. Of all the talk for a need for a catcher, the only catcher the Dodgers selected was Luke Bard, son of LAD bullpen coach Josh Bard. Bard was a 4th year senior from Houston Christian University. He is not a prospect, so the Dodgers are still…
Interview with Paul Beachy – Team Bus Driver For The Great Lakes Loons (LA Dodgers Minor League Team)
It’s been a few days since I did this interview. We have evidently been working my son-in-law (the video guy) like a rented mule at US Water Systems. However, I am taking him to London with me in a few days, so maybe Watford will buy him a pint as a tip, but he’s a dang Red Sox fan, so there is that! I thought that it would be interesting…
Thanks for Your Service: Chris Taylor
I was going to do this post when Chris announced he was retiring, then he changed his mind, but since the chances of him ever playing for the Dodgers again are slim and non-existent, I will go ahead with this post. He unretired, went on the IL, then decided to call it quits on May 24th. Taylor was born in Virginia Beach VA on August 29th, 1990. He attended Great…
Discussion (96)
Disagree, not disagreeable
I think this is stupid. Justin Turner was with the team all day and 7 innings into the game. He could of effected everyone by then. If I was his teammate, I would of personally gone to the office and brought him out. Put the mask on and social distance and celebrate with us. He deserved it. This is more BS then I care to comment on. What about all the other MLB players that broke protocol this season. Did anything happen to them? Manfred is an idiot. Now I said what I think.
I honestly didn’t think it was that big of a deal. He played seven innings, was in the clubhouse and in the dugout before and during the game. I don’t think he should have hugged anyone and with the exception of taking pictures should have kept the mask on. But the entire team was exposed earlier. I believe Dave Roberts because of his prior health issues should have distanced himself a little more.
I’m guessing MLB will impose some type of penalty, but their goal was to get in a season and they did that. Once the season ends so does the protocols. Was it bad judgement, probably, but we’ll see if anybody else gets infected. But as I recall Manfred didn’t have his mask on during the ceremonies. Speaking, I get removing the mask, but he never put it back on. Dodger management did wear masks during the ceremonies.
So what should the Dodgers do moving forward. I would re-sign Turner to a short term deal. What about the trade for Lindor, move Cory Seager to third murmurs that persist even though Seager was the MVP of both the NL championship series and the World Series.
Did anybody actually consider that Seager may want to remain at shortstop. Why would he want to move? He probably wants to stay with the Dodgers — as a shortstop. There is a human element to all this. People aren’t chess pieces.
But we should also look at the financial side. It has been reported that baseball will lose three billion in 2020, not hard to believe since there were no fans. Stan Kasten said the Dodgers will lose $100 million in revenue this year and it will take years to recover.
It could be a bleak winter for free agents. The Dodgers need to sign Seager long term, Cody Bellinger and Walker Buehler too. Unless they’ve got a money printing press in the stadium, it’s difficult to see how they could do all that and afford Lindor long term. This is already an incredible team and everybody seems to agree they are built well for the future. Not to mention the massive contract they’ve already given Mookie Betts.
Will fans be back in the stands come spring. I would hope so. A new Orange County study by UC Irvine and OC public health found that the county’s infection rate was eight times higher than what is being reported. It is also far less deadly than was originally reported last spring. If you can pack mask people in an airplane, why can’t they attend a game outdoors?
With the vaccine and all the new treatments they have, time to move forward, not backward in dealing with this issue.
The Dodgers have depth, quality players throughout the line-up, excellent bench, bullpen, up and coming young players, the starters, with the exception of Turner, are all under 30. They have young starting pitching. Several baseball pundits, including Jayson Stark, have said the Dodgers may have the best minor league system in the game.
Smart leadership is the icing on the cake.
One more thought, we should give some credit to Ned Colletti, who had a hand in creating this championship team.
Darn shame we didn,t trade Lux for Mookie instead of Verdugo.
B&P,
Regarding JT and MLB,
Here here.
I think the most egregious part of the Turner incident is the fact that he was pulled in the 7th inning of a deciding WS game! How the hell does this happen? How does this make any sense whatsoever? What about the integrity of the game? This could have had a really bad look with an error at 3B leading to an upset win by the Rays. What a total failure. You mean to tell me that they didn’t make sure testing was in place to have everyone take tests at the hotel with results in before they reached the stadium? And then to make a big fuss when he joined his teammates on the field for the celebration AFTER THE SEASON WAS OVER!!!??? What a joke that everyone is talking about JT’s irresponsible behavior and not talking about MLB’s irresponsible behavior. Then they’ll have another phony “investigation” like the one where Joe Kelly got a 8 game suspension for being wild and not hitting someone. Hell, he could have gotten a suspension every time he pitched this year following that logic. Or, the “investigation” that yielded a month for Julio’s girlfriend tripping over herself when the police didn’t even charge him. Or, the “investigation” that yielded no suspensions for the Astros cheating their way to a World Series title? What a joke!
Move on from JT. Any player that wasn’t comfortable being near JT had the personal choice to walk away from him. The season was over, there were no games in jeopardy.
Trade for Merrifield and sign Bauer! There’s so many relievers available. Hendricks, Colome, Rosenthol, Hand. Grab a couple and go for the repeat, with of course, bringing back JT on a two year, team friendly deal.
I was looking at the list of Free Agents and hadn’t realised that JDL was available.
What do you think AC, has that ship sailed?
There’s some interesting names on there.
I would say ,yes he violated a MLB rule, but I wouldn’t say he was wrong. Do the crime and pay the time but hug your teammates and be in the picture! I’ll bet not one person gets ill from what he did, we’ll see. He was only with people he had already been around, and it was a super special moment.
I’m sure he would do the same thing today.
I agree with you entirely, Mark. Who among us hasn’t made mistakes, including ones that may have (inadvertently) put other people at risk? We have some neighbors whom we invited over recently to celebrate our daughter’s birthday. We kept social distance in our livingroom, but didn’t wear masks. The next day, we learned that the husband hadn’t been feeling well for a couple of days, but they didn’t tell us. Then the day after the visit, he tested positive for Covid. Who was at fault? Yes, he should have told us he wasn’t feeling well. Yes, we should have worn masks. We let our guard down in a situation where we were celebrating. Fortunately, we didn’t develop symptoms, but just in case, we self-quarantined for 10 days. Moral of the story: We are human. We make mistakes.
I have always respected Justin for his leadership, talent, turning around his career, and work in the community. When you are a public figure, you have special responsibity, and are open to scrutiny. He should be punished. And he should say and do some things to try to undo any harm he has done. A simple admission that he was wrong is a good place to start. Not a Houston Astericks apology, but a genuine one.
I still have a lot of respect for Justin, and want him back on the team. Making a mistake is human, how you handle it shows your character. Let’s give him the chance to show his character.
OK, so what discipline should be meted out to all of the MLB players who broke protocol, infected other teammates, coaches, etc. resulting in illnesses, postponed or canceled games? By no means am I trying to defend Turner’s selfish actions, but I believe MLB has set a precedent by not taking any (reported) discipline against players who put a lot more people at risk than did Turner.
Hard for me to listen to Stephen A.. I respect his point of view, I just don’t like being yelled at.
You are right Mark, what Turner did was wrong. They all agreed to protocols set forth and Turner violated them. There will be punishment, but if baseball follows its own stare decicis it will be a slap on the wrist.
When do you think this country will begin to take this crisis seriously?
In response to Bums post on the previous thread regarding what every team should do to improve:
“The Dodgers make their second huge trade of 2020 and acquire Francisco Lindor, shifting Corey Seager to third base.“
What a great idea.
Where have I heard that before?