Red beard returns: Turner glad to be back with Dodgers

Justin Turner's extended flirtation with free agency ended where it began — with the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Along the way, the third baseman had doubts about whether he would return to his hometown team and wondered if his mask-less appearance on the field to celebrate the Dodgers' World Series championship would hurt him.

Turner got yanked from the clinching Game 6 against the Tampa Bay Rays in the eighth inning last October after testing positive for the coronavirus. He wasn't initially on the field as his teammates celebrated the franchise's first World Series title since 1988.

Instead, Turner was confined to a small room at Globe Life Field in Texas, pained as he watched the hugs and high-fives go on without him. Major League Baseball said he violated COVID-19 protocols by returning to the field, pulling down his mask and posing for photos. After an investigation by MLB, Turner was not disciplined and he issued an apology.

“It was extremely difficult. I experienced just about every range of emotion that you can possibly have,” he said Friday on a virtual call from spring training in Arizona. “For me, sitting back in that room and watching the guys dogpile, personally, it felt like it was the third time I had to sit and watch a team celebrate winning a World Series. That was tough."

Turner and the Dodgers were on the losing end of World Series appearances in 2017 and 2018 — with Houston and Boston, respectively, partying on Los Angeles' home field.

“I still have not been able to be on the field for the last out and celebrate a championship," Turner said, “and that's something I'm determined to show up and work for every day and have that experience at the end of this year."

Turner was initially unsure how his mask-less appearance would affect him in...

source https://www.chron.com/sports/article/Red-beard-returns-Turner-glad-to-be-back-with-15964001.php