For his entire career, there is one thing about Justin Turner that has never changed: his red hair.
Turner’s ginger look is so iconic that his official nickname is simply ‘Red’ – and the long beard that he has sported for most of his time in MLB is something even young fans 6,000 miles away appreciate.
[MORE: What we learned from Cubs’ win over Yomiuri Giants]
Before the Cubs’ exhibition game against the Yomiuri Giants on Sunday, Turner said he was told he had two fans in the stands donning a special look.
“I got stopped by our photographer who was like, ‘Hey, there’s two of your really big fans in the stands right now,’” Turner told Marquee Sports Network’s Taylor McGregor after the team’s workout. “It was two young kids wearing orange beards and I was like, ‘Oh man, that’s awesome!’”.
When Turner and the Cubs took the field for batting practice, he got to meet his two mini-mes. The moment went viral online, with one video of the interaction on amassing over 6,000,000 views and 120,000 likes on X.
“Sure enough, they were sitting right next to the dugout – so I brought them down, took some pictures with them and signed some baseballs,” Turner said. “That was really cool.”
MLB’s Tokyo Series has been a rich celebration of intertwining baseball cultures and fandoms, and Turner’s fan interaction only further exemplified how significant the experience is for everybody involved.
“For that to happen all the way over here in Tokyo – that was pretty special,” Turner said. “It was hopefully a memory of a lifetime for them and I hope we created some more Cubs fans.”
Catch the full interview with Justin Turner on the Marquee Sports Network app.
Turner and the Cubs split the exhibition games against the Hanshin Tigers and Yomiuri Giants. They will now take on Turner’s former team – the Dodgers – in a pair of regular-season games Tuesday and Wednesday morning. Coverage begins on Marquee Sports Network at 5 a.m. Chicago time.
