Former Dodgers All-Star Catcher Reveals He Was Involved in Scary Accident
Former Los Angeles Dodgers catcher and four-time All-Star Paul Lo Duca revealed Wednesday he is recovering from a bad accident.
“I want to thank everyone for their thoughts and prayers,” Lo Duca wrote on his Twitter/X account. “I was involved in a bad accident coming back home to New york from Oaklawn. I was not able to eat for the first couple weeks because of multiple fractures but I’m getting stronger!”
Since retiring from Major League Baseball, Lo Duca has become a well-known horse racing commentator.
The former backstop didn’t become an everyday player until 2001. Once he was up with the big league team full-time, it didn’t take long for him to make a large impact on the field. He was named to the National League All-Star team in 2003 and again in 2004 before being traded to the Marlins.
Lo Duca calls the day he was traded the “”weirdest and worst” day of professional life because he found out as it scrolled across the bottom line on ESPN.
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“We were in San Diego, and I was lying in bed watching ESPN in my hotel room,” he said years after the trade, “when all of a sudden I saw scrolling across the bottom of the screen that I got traded. I totally freaked out. I called my agent right away, but he knew nothing about it other than that he heard the same thing on the radio.
“So I raced to the ballpark, frantically looking around for anyone who might know. All I kept asking people was, ‘What’s going on?’ I mean, I couldn’t believe it. But all the coaches told me to forget about it, that they hadn’t heard anything about it. So I went about my business, even hit in the cage.”
Two hours later is when then-general manager Paul DePodesta called him to the executive offices.
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At the time, the trade was baffling. Lo Duca was sent to Florida along with Juan Encarnacion and Guillermo Mota for Hee-seop Choi, Brad Penny and minor league pitching prospect Billy Murphy.
The trade still doesn’t sit well with Lo Duca or Dodgers fans.
Lo Duca, 52, is a Brooklyn native who played as a catcher in the majors from 1998 to 2008. He spent time with the Dodgers, Marlins, Mets, and Nationals, finishing his career with 80 home runs and 481 RBIs.
Dodgers Nation wishes him the best in his recovery.
Photo Credit: Photo by Scott Rovak-USA TODAY Sports
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