Steve Webb
LOS ANGELES, CA — When Jarlin Garcia struck out James Outman on Thursday, he strutted off the mound pointing at Mookie Betts in the on-deck circle. Then, he pounded his fist on his head in mockery of the Dodgers’ celebratory gesture. It was the same gesture that Betts himself used when he took Garcia deep a couple of weeks earlier in LA. The dust-up that followed shined a spotlight on the move. But what is it exactly, and how did it find its way into the 2022 Dodgers’ repertoire?
If you recall, at the beginning of the year, the Dodgers were flashing the “hang loose” sign, which was the brainchild of Hanser Alberto. He started doing the sign in the Dominican winter league as an indication that his teammates should “switch it up,” i.e., change the momentum of the game. And for a good bit of the year, that was the only gesture you would see from the Dodgers’ hitters after a home run or base knock.
However, of late hitters have added the odd gesture of banging their fists on their helmets to motion to their dugout from the basepaths. And where might the inspiration from this curious move come from? None other than Trea Turner and filmmaking legend Martin Scorsese.
In the classic Scorsese film, The Wolf of Wall Street, Leonardo DiCaprio plays Jordan Belfort, a driven young man who takes the financial industry by storm and force of will, only to see it blow up in his face in the last half of the movie. In a pivotal scene, which Turner says he has memorized and quotes from regularly, Belfort is trying to motivate his sales team to make more from their sales calls.
“See those little black boxes?” DiCaprio says to his sales team. “They are called telephones. I’m gonna let you in on a little secret about these telephones. They’re not gonna dial themselves! Okay? Without you, they’re just worthless hunk of plastic. Like a loaded M16 without a trained Marine to pull the trigger. And in the case of the telephone, it’s up to each and every one of you, my highly trained Strattonites, my killers. My killers who will not take no for an answer! My fucking warriors who’ll not hang up the phone, until their client either buys or fucking dies!”
And with the last line, DiCaprio insanely starts banging his microphone against his head as he heads into the crowd of “killers” who have been whipped into a frenzy. It is something to see….
Recently, Hanser Alberto visited our very own Bleed Los Podcast and explained the genesis of the gesture first hand. “That was Trea Turner,” he told the Bleed Los gang, “you know that movie, Wall Street, with the guy hitting the microphone on his head? So now we do that, and it’s fun.”
And as for Jarlin Garcia, and his weird timing? Well, he got warned, and Gabe Kapler got tossed from the game the aftermath. And the Dodgers? They won the game and swept the series. And, yes, they’re still banging their helmets after every hit. And when Trea Turner went yard late in that same game, you should have seen the Dodger dugout. Headbanging like you wouldn’t believe!
Now, a crooked and toxic Wall Street wheeler-dealer is not exactly the inspiration I would choose for somebody to base my life on. After all, in the movie, things don’t exactly end great for Jordan Belfort. But, as fun way to fire up your squad, I’m all for it.
Long live the helmet bang!
