HOUSTON –– Over 15 years in professional baseball,Teoscar Hernándezhas built himself quite the collection of bling.
The veteran slugger has two World Series rings from theDodgers’ back-to-back championshipsthe past two years. He has a couple title rings from his early days as a minor-league player. He has another from a winter-league triumph back in his native Dominican Republic.
Then, there is one that carries a slightly more dubious distinction –– received through a technicality tinged with irony now.
In 2017, Hernández was a member of the Houston Astros organization. And though he played just one game for the team that season before being traded to theToronto Blue Jays, he nonetheless received a ring now soiled by the club’s trash-can-banging, sign-stealing scandal.
Hernández had no involvement in that saga, of course.
In his lone appearance for the Astros that season, he didn’t even take an at-bat.
The fact he later received a World Series ring from the team surprised him, unaware that such minor contributions still received full recognition.
That he is now a fan favorite with the Dodgers –– the club most directly impacted, and angered, by the scandal –– has only underscored the peculiar nature of the diamond-studded possession.
“Obviously, it was not the best way to get it,” Hernández told the California Post this week, during his latest trip back to Houston as a member of the Dodgers. “I don’t think it was the best way for them to do everything that they did.”
Yet, when asked what he ever did with his2017 World Seriesring, Hernández said he keeps it included in his primary, treasured, career-long collection.
Source: California Post – Breaking California News, Photos & Videos
