World Series: ‘The Buehldog’ channels ‘The Bulldog’

by Cary Osborne

Walker Buehler had just poured out his everything physically in Game 3 of the National League Championship Series in New York.

His four shutout innings against the Mets set the tone for the Dodgers’ pitching side and the bullpen rolled from there in the 8–0 win.

Shortly after his four innings were through that same Oct. 16 night, Buehler went to his phone and contacted his friend and 1988 NLCS and World Series MVP Orel Hershiser.

In the days leading up to Buehler’s NLCS start, he had been window shopping online for a 1988 Hershiser World Series jersey. He wanted to wear one coming to the stadium for a postseason start. With the potential that he might pitch a Game 7 in the NLCS, he felt it would be appropriate to wear the jersey of the postseason hero who shut out the Mets in Game 7 of the 1988 NLCS.

Buehler then had a better idea, so he rang up Hershiser.

“He said, ‘Man I love that jersey you wore in the ’88 World Series with the white piping. Can I wear it to my next start?’” Hershiser said.

Hershiser still had the jersey — the actual road jersey that he wore in the 1988 World Series.

Hershiser had it shipped from his out-of-state home to Los Angeles. The jersey arrived at Buehler’s locker at Dodger Stadium before NLCS Game 6.

But the Dodgers won the 2024 NLCS in six games, not seven.

After the Dodgers beat the Mets in Game 6 on Oct. 20, Hershiser texted Buehler and told him not to worry about getting champagne on the jersey. Buehler, excited in the moment, replied that he was going to wear the jersey that night.

“He texted me ‘My wife doesn’t want me to wear it out in case I get something stained on it.’” Hershiser said. “I go, ‘That’s even a better story.’”

Buehler decided that Game 1 of the 2024 World Series was the right time to wear it. And he did on Friday.

“It’s kind of funny. It fits me really well,” Buehler said.

Buehler and Hershiser have shared reputations as two of the best postseason pitchers in Dodger history. And there are other comparisons.

“Everybody used to say we look alike, which is kind of funny,” Buehler said. “And for a while, people called me ‘Buehldog’ because of ‘Bulldog,’” he said, referring to Hershiser’s nickname.

“Probably our boyish look,” Hershiser chuckles when asked why the two are compared. “You know — the reddish, brown hair. The kind of slight build. I’m taller, but we’re both kind of thin. But he’s much stronger now.”

Buehler and Hershiser formed a bond in 2017. During Buehler’s first big league Spring Training, then-Dodger pitching coach Rick Honeycutt called Hershiser and asked him to mentor the young pitcher.

Hershiser and Buehler later got into a golf cart, talked and went to a pitcher’s mound, where Hershiser told the then-22-year-old former first-round pick to get on the rubber and learn how to stand on it.

“He’s like, ‘What?’ I’m like, ‘Yeah, you need to learn how to stand on this rubber.’” Hershiser recalled. “And he’s like, ‘That much detail? And I said, ‘Yeah, that’s where you’re headed. Everybody’s got unbelievable stuff here. It’s the details that make you win. We started from there.”

Buehler wore the ’88 Hershiser jersey to the game that ended with Freddie Freeman channeling ’88 World Series Game 1 hero Kirk Gibson. Freeman, like Gibson, hit a walk-off home run.

Buehler starts Game 3 of the World Series on Monday at New York’s Yankee Stadium.

The jersey fit. Now it’s his opportunity to have a fitting performance.