Wedding vows keep Dodgers together
It doesn’t make sense now, none of it does really, where a journeyman infielder can impersonate Kirk Gibson, a failed catcher can pitch like Dennis Eckersley, and a wedding, 3,436 miles away on a tiny island in the Caribbean Sea, can change the fate of an entire baseball season.
Why, if Los Angeles Dodgers closer Kenley Jansen doesn’t
get married over the winter, or teammate Justin Turner doesn’t attend, the Dodgers might not be sitting today with a 2-0 lead over the Chicago Cubs in the National League Championship Series.
If not for their friendship and the nuptials that brought them together when both faced the most critical decisions of their career, Jansen might be in a Washington Nationals uniform and the Dodgers would not be playing Game 3 of the NLCS on Tuesday night, two wins from trying to end a 29year World Series drought.
If not for the wedding, Turner might have been playing third base all season for the St. Louis Cardinals, preventing the Cubs from even winning the NL Central Division.
And if not for the wedding, Turner doesn’t hit the greatest walk-off home run at Dodger Stadium in 29 years Sunday in their 4-1 victory, re-creating Gibson’s magical moment in the 1988 World Series, only without the exaggerated fist pump.
“I’m saving that,” Turner says, “for the World Series.”
If Jansen doesn’t marry Gianni on a gorgeous Dec. 10, 2016, evening at Santa Barbara Beach & Golf Resort in Curacao and Turner doesn’t interrupt them on the dance floor, is it possible this entire baseball season is turned upside down?
“That’s a crazy question, and to be honest,” Jansen says, “I just don’t know. It’s scary to think what might have happened. Thank God it happened this way. Thank God.”
Jansen remembers waking up believing he was going to sign a free agent contract with the Nationals. He had just spent an afternoon that week having lunch with Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo, meeting their owners, and getting a formal five-year, $85 million offer. He would be their missing link, they told him, winning the first World Series title in Washington, D.C., since 1924.
“I really liked Rizzo and those people,” Jansen said. “They made me feel good. They were making it a very tough decision. My wife didn’t want me to leave L.A. But to be honest with you, I was shifting toward Washington.”
Jansen, who invited a barber to his hotel suite the afternoon of the wedding, brought along several of his groomsmen for free haircuts. The dude with the long flowing red hair, the one who needed a trim the most, was the most adamant questioning him, telling him to be sure this was the right decision.
“I wasn’t really trying to recruit him or anything like that,” said Turner, who has played in four organizations. “I mean, I was in the same position as he was. I was really just letting him know my different feelings I had on going somewhere else or staying here.
“I just said something along the lines of, ‘You don’t know what you’re going to get if you go somewhere else. You don’t know if you’re going to like the guys. You don’t know if you’re going to like the manager. You don’t know if you’re going to have the same relationship with the strength coach as you have here.
“‘It might be more money, but it doesn’t necessarily equate to being happy. I have played for some other organizations, and this by far is the best one I’ve been part of.’ ”
It was the first time they had even discussed baseball since Turner and his fiancée, Kourtney, arrived a few days earlier on the island, spending time sightseeing together, with Jansen proudly showing off his homeland.
The next time was moments after Jansen and his newlywed, Gianni, unwrapped their arms around each other, finishing their first dance.
Turner walked over, leaned in and whispered into Jansen’s ear.
“I’m going to sign back with the Dodgers,” said Turner, who received a four-year, $64 million deal. “I want you to be there, too.”
Jansen hugged Turner, retreated to the dance floor, and they don’t remember talking again the rest of the night. Turner and Kourtney departed the following morning for Aruba.
“Here I am, I just got married to the most beautiful person in my life,” Jansen says, “and J.T. says that to me. It was sweet. It meant a lot to me. It showed these guys are like family to me. And this is one of my good friends wanting me to be with him.
“That kind of shifted things back to the L.A. side.”
A couple of days later, Turner and Kourtney are sunning on an Aruba beach, sipping on mai tais, when Kourtney looked at her cellphone. There was breaking news. Jansen was returning to the Dodgers, signing a five-year, $80 million contract.
“That shocked me,” Turner said, “that actually blew me away.”
It stunned the Nationals, too, with ownership revealing it was willing to break the bank for Jansen, but no one else.
“Kenley actually called me himself,” Rizzo said, “to break the news. We really believed it was a perfect fit. It was just too tough for him to leave L.A.”
Said Jansen: “I just couldn’t go. It would have been like breaking up with family. I realized how much they meant to me at my wedding.”
Now, here they are 10 months later, halfway to their first World Series since 1988, grinning at each other on the Dodger Stadium dais Sunday night.
Jansen, 6-5, 260 pounds, who was nearly out of baseball as a light-hitting catcher only to become the game’s most dominant closer, pitching in all five of the Dodgers’ postseason games without giving up an earned run, was sitting on the left. Turner, dumped by three organizations and taking seven years to establish himself as an everyday player only to emerge as one of the game’s most feared hitters with a career. 377 postseason batting average, was on the right.
Their appearances are the soundtrack of the Dodgers’ season, and their intro music portends excellence. Turner, with his flowing locks and overwhelming beard, walks up to Ed Sheeran’s Shape of You, a nod to the budding friendship between the ginger craftsmen of Top 40 hits and killer launch angles.
The song had barely stopped playing before Turner crushed a three-run homer in his first at-bat of the NL Division Series, launching a three-game sweep of the Arizona Diamondbacks.
He has nine hits in 21 postseason at-bats, with a team-high 10 RBI.
Jansen’s California Love entrance has been a glorious staple for years in Chavez Ravine, with even a mariachi band playing the Dr. Dre-Tupac collaboration in pregame performances.
Jansen has retired 22 of 25 batters faced in these playoffs, 10 by strikeout.
Together, their mission is to end the Cubs’ reign as World Series champions, a vow renewed when forced to watch the team’s ring ceremony in April.
“To be honest, that’s why I wanted to play the Cubs,” Jansen said. “They are the world champs. So you want to beat on them. It all started my wedding night.”
It’s the perfect script, a love story, really.
“I don’t know about a movie,” Jansen says, “but I plan on being at Justin and Kourtney’s wedding in Cabo this winter. It would be an awesome story this time, if we could talk about winning a championship together.”
It certainly wouldn’t be their last waltz.
“If we win the World Series,” Turner said, “he asked me, ‘ Are you going to let me have the first dance instead of Kourtney?’ ”