A shortened offseason for the Los Angeles Dodgers was further compressed by six members of the team getting married. A whirlwind of three months saw, in order, Ross Stripling, Alex Wood, Justin Turner, Hyun-Jin Ryu, Joc Pederson and Austin Barnes all become newlyweds.
Weddings spanned from Texas to Atlanta to Mexico to South Korea to California. Remarkably, none of the dates conflicted, which allowed several of the Dodgers to attend one another’s big day.
Even if it meant returning to the Houston area after losing Game 7 of the World Series. “Had to get on a plane and fly right back to Houston a week later. That was bad planning by him,” Turner quipped at Dodgers FanFest.
“They were all good, all done really nicely. I enjoyed every single one of them. Very appreciative of my teammates allowing me to be a part of their special day.”
Said Stripling: “It was kind of cool to go to five weddings, and they’re all totally different.” He added there was some remorse over not saying vows at the alter like some of his teammates.
While Stripling and his fellow offseason grooms and teammates were traveling as a musician would on a world tour, the group still found time to keep their attention on the 2018 season and redeeming their loss in the World Series.
“The morning of Joc’s wedding, Joc included, we went to like a team workout at Gold’s Gym in Santa Barbara,” Stripling said. “Kershaw, JT, Kiké, myself, Alex Wood, everyone was there. I’m not sure other teams would do that. “I think that kind of shows you that we’re motivated, we’re hungry.”
Pederson, like Turner, was humbled and appreciative for those who made the trip for his wedding. “I think that’s super special that my teammates came out during a short offseason. It was an awesome time,” Pederson said.
The foundation for a full slate of offseason weddings was put into place last spring when players made their respective proposals. With that, Turner seized an opportunity to play a joke on Barnes.
“When I got engaged in Spring Training and Dave was going around asking the room what the wedding days were, I sneakily found out that Austin Barnes was January 20th,” Turner said. “So when [Dave] asked me, ‘When are you going to get married?’ I said, ‘Oh January 20th.’ That didn’t go over too well.
“It worked out perfect. They were all kind of spaced out pretty well and everyone was able to go to all of them.”
