Coinciding with the joint announcement from Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association for Players Weekend was the revealing of several Los Angeles Dodgers who are going to participate during the Aug. 25-27 weekend by donning a nickname on the back of their jerseys.
In addition to being permitted to wear the unique jersey, players have the option of wearing and using various colored and specially-designed spikes, batting gloves, wristbands, compression sleeves, catcher’s masks and bats.
Kenley Jansen was named among the Dodgers who are expected to ditch his last name in favor of a nickname. Per the release, the right-hander closer was to wear “MA’MONTRO” on the back of his jersey. However, Jansen indicated he was going to pursue a change.
A Twitter post late Thursday evening suggested Jansen was successful in switching his desired nickname to “Kenleyfornia”:
Kenleyfornia 😛 #PlayersWeekend pic.twitter.com/5RBPJvXEcj
— Kenley Jansen (@kenleyjansen74) August 11, 2017
The change is play on Jansen’s entrance song, “California Love” by 2Pac and Dr. Dre. Further embracing the wordplay was evidenced by Jansen recently hanging a “Kenleyfornia Republic” flag at his locker.
Along with Jansen, Cody Bellinger (“Codylove”), Kiké Hernandez (“Kiké”), Joc Pederson (“Dizzy”), Yasiel Puig (“Wild Horse”) and Justin Turner (“RedTurn2”) will also wear their respective nicknames.
Players Weekend authentic jerseys, t-shirts, caps and more are currently available for purchase at MLB.com/shop.
