Seager muscles away Utley’s gray
Corey Seager likely will walk away with the National League’s rookie of the year award and might add the MVP trophy to his collection. Yet the Los Angeles Dodgers shortstop’s proudest moment might be getting Chase Utley, his stoic 37-year-old teammate, to dye his hair.
It took a feat of Ruthian proportions.
“He’s been telling me for the past few months how I should dye my hair,” Utley said. “I told him, ‘Hey, it is what it is. It’s just not something I’m interested in doing.’ He said, ‘OK, how about this? If I hit two home runs tonight, you have to dye your hair.’
“I said, ‘Sure, Corey. Done. Deal.’ ”
Said Seager: “I wanted him to go slick black, dark black, greased up, like the hair he used to have. So finally, the day before the game (Aug. 8 vs. the Philadelphia Phillies), I said, ‘Dude, what is it going to take?’ I’m trying to swing over a guy who has done everything in baseball anyone’s ever wanted. He just kept saying, ‘It’s not going to happen. It’s not going to happen.’ Finally, 10 minutes before game time, I came up with the bet.”
In the first inning, Seager homered off the Phillies’ Zach Eflin deep over the center-field fence.
“Now, I’m a little panicked,” Utley said. “So I went to him the next inning, and I said, ‘Hey, let me get involved in this bet. How about if I hit any home run, it cancels out of one your home runs? He said, ‘Sure, fine.’ ”
In the second inning, Utley homered over the right-field wall.
In the seventh inning, Seager homered again, this time to right field, and he smiled the entire time he circled the bases, barely able to hold his laughter.
“I couldn’t believe how happy he was,” Utley said. “I was trying to figure out where we stood in the bet, but I honored it, because I thought it was the right thing to do.”
And one week later, there was Utley, with his hair dyed brown and Seager taking pictures on his phone.
“I was so geeked up that day,” Seager said. “That was the most important game of my life. Really. Up to this point, it was the biggest.”
Said third baseman Justin Turner, “It was the happiest I’ve ever seen Corey.”