When Your Fiance Buys you an Alex Verdugo Jersey for Christmas
By: Gianni Villalobos
Tags: Dodgers, Los Angeles, MLB, Mookie Betts, Alex Verdugo

The year was 2019. It was just after midnight early Christmas morning. My newly ringed-up fiance warned me that she, after years of getting me gifts comprised of assortments of socks, wallets, body spray, chocolate and such finally went all-out this year. Oh boy! I was not disappointed. As I opened the box, I read the striking blue cursive against the majestic Majestic home white jersey; it read Dodgers. My hints over the course of our five years together had finally paid off.

After the initial jubilation and while holding this bad-boy up to my face comes the instant analysis. Yes, this will indeed fit me. Nice. No, it is not a knock-off. There is no number on the front, okay. Then comes the flip. This will determine whether or not this will be worn with an outer layer only or if we can just let it rip. Okay, as we have already learned there isn’t a number on the front but this doesn’t mean there won't be a name on the back. I see blue, okay there's definitely a name here. At the very least be a current player. Aha! I underestimate my other half. VERDUGO 27.

Reminder, this is December 2019. Just two months from the Mookie Betts trade. No clear indication at this point that this trade will even happen, or that Verdugo will be a part of it. Back to Christmas.

What a solid choice! Ha! Alex Verdugo, someone she has heard me talk about for years before he made his MLB debut. Someone she enjoyed watching as well. A fan favorite with infectious charm. I would later find out that she chose Verdugo over Kershaw because of my attitude after the Dodgers were eliminated from the 2019 playoffs. I suppose I was mad at Kershaw. This was before the news of the sign-stealing scandal broke. This knowledge as well as reflection of the ’19 NLDS loss and having won the ’20 World Series have given me perspective on the Dodger playoff run. But at the time, I was emotional and probably said some dumb stuff. She made the right choice. I threw that bad boy on and wore it the rest of the night.

Fast forward to February 4, 2020. I was enjoying a lazy Tuesday off work when rumors began to digitally swirl. Then…

This was the most joy I’ve experienced as a Dodger fan since attending game three of the ’04 NLDS. Holy smokes. Mookie Betts a Dodger. Wow. As time when on, more details emerged…

This was the state of the trade as I went to Disneyland with my fiance and family the next day. This was the first big outing we went on since Christmas and since Verdugo was technically still a Dodger I wore the jersey. I also wore it to hopefully spark conversation with other Dodger fans in the park since Vergudo’s name was in the news. Didn’t happen.

I spent the day refreshing Twitter hoping for positive news regarding the trade because well…

Reliving those stressful few days in February 2020 has me taking a deep breath of appreciation for the chaos of life. I, along with the rest of the world had no clue what 2020 would bring. January was rough for me, as my brother relapsed once again with leukemia. Kobe died. The good news February brought was desperately needed. The best news of the last normal month of 2020 was a sigh of relief. But as Vin Scully says, nothing ever comes easy for the Dodgers. Five days after the announcement, finally…

All I could do the rest of the month was think and talk about Mookie Betts. My fiance suffered Mookie fatigue because of my excitement. Corona virus? Meh. It’ll go the way of SARS and H1N1. Nothing to worry about.

Now it is December once again. Coronavirus didn’t go away. But neither did baseball and neither did Mookie Betts. I wore my Vergudo jersey on opening day 2020, which was in July. Why? Because it was the best jersey I had at the time. Also because I didn’t think my family would notice that he wasn’t on the Dodgers anymore. They didn’t.

I will never forget the excitement and appreciation I had for my fiance when she bought me the perfect gift. But with the events of 2020, Verdugo getting traded and the DODGERS WINNING THE MOTHER EFFING WORLD SERIES, I have upgraded. I now own an authentic Nike World Series home white Kershaw jersey. Sorry babe, Verdugo has been demoted to “only wear with outer layer” status.