I apologize for the watermark on the above photo. It's obviously not my pic. It is an 1953 Unit D Press Photo that I just ran into on eBay (link here), and I found it fascinating enough to share here. As you can see, it features Carl Furillo wearing an unusual looking headpiece. Per the descriptor on the reverse:Carl Furillo's head got plenty sore after being hit by pitched balls six times, so the Dodger outfielder's sporting this "Martian-Looking" headgear these days. The plastic gadget fits into Furillo's cap, and saved him from serious injury, July 29, when still another pitched ball made contact during the Dodgers-Cubs game. Furillo says he's quit baseball if he couldn't wear it!As you'll recall, this isn't the first time a Dodger had sought to protect their head during at-bats. In 1948 Jackie Robinson had done the same -- he had a fiberglass-and-cloth composite sewn into his cap. You can check out a little story where I wrote about it here.
For awhile there I was getting worried. The Dodgers were down by a run going into the sixth inning and ended up taking a one run lead following a clutch two-run single by David Freese. But it wasn't until Manny Machado walloped a three-run dinger the following inning did I start to feel comfortable. Per Rowan Kavner at Dodger Insider:“Can’t say enough about him,” said manager Dave Roberts. “Obviously with Manny and a player of his caliber, there are so many expectations put on him. And we said it from the beginning that it’s going to take all of us to win a championship, and he understands that. For him to put together some at-bats tonight, really quality at-bats, and obviously a game-changing home run…you look back at this series, his two homers essentially led us to two wins.”
"Tonight was actually pretty cool, to see a lot of those guys we've acquired over the last few months of the season come through," said general manager Farhan Zaidi.
...Photo above via Jon SooHoo/LA Dodgers 2018 at Dodger Insider. Below are more links to check out:
"It's more special than I can even honestly say, because I didn't expect this," said Freese, who was acquired from the Pirates on Aug. 31. "I expected to finish in fifth and ride out this year, but to end up with not only a playoff contender but an organization like this is incredible. You get to be around these beasts in an organization that wants to go after it. It's a lot of fun."
“It’s on me,” Buehler said. “I’ll fix it, and we’ll be better, and that’s it.”
...Today's game starts at 1:30 PM and Rich Hill will face off against Game 1 starter Mike Foltynewicz.
“It takes a lot of maturity and focus,” manager Dave Roberts said of Buehler’s recovery. “So he did lose his focus, I think, in that point in time, but again, for him in a big game like this to go back out there and throw up a couple more zeroes, that was huge for us, and we had a chance to win the baseball game. So Walker’s coming back and giving us five innings right there, it was big.”
