On September 13, 2026, Emmet Sheehan walked onto the field with two handwritten letters on his cap: EF. No team code, no jersey number — just the initials of Edward T. Fergus Jr., his uncle, who died on September 11, 2001, on the 104th floor of the North Tower of the World Trade Center. The moment came two days after the 25th anniversary of the attacks, and it was captured by @TalkinBaseball_ on X.
A gesture that isn’t in any rulebook
MLB has its 9/11 protocol: uniform patches, moments of silence, flags at half-staff. What Sheehan did isn’t in any protocol. According to the tweet from @TalkinBaseball_, Sheehan had the initials «EF» drawn on his cap in honor of Edward Fergus, his uncle who died at the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. The connection wasn’t confirmed by Sheehan or the team directly — but the image speaks for itself.
Edward T. Fergus Jr. was 40 years old when he died. He was a partner at Cantor Fitzgerald Investments, working on the 104th floor of the North Tower. That day, Cantor Fitzgerald lost 658 employees — a third of its entire global workforce. Fergus lived in Wilton, Connecticut, just minutes from Darien, where Sheehan grew up.
From Connecticut to Dodger Stadium
Sheehan was born in New York and raised in Darien, Connecticut. His uncle lived in Wilton — less than 15 minutes away by car. Both towns sit in Fairfield County, less than two hours from the city that was forever changed on September 11, 2001.
When a Dodgers pitcher — back-to-back World Series champions in 2024 and 2025 — takes the mound with someone’s initials handwritten on his cap, it isn’t a generic national tribute. It’s something far more personal: a nephew carrying his uncle to work.
Sheehan was selected by Los Angeles in the sixth round of the 2021 Draft out of Boston College. In 2026, he was called up from Triple-A Oklahoma City — where he posted a 2.84 ERA with 8 strikeouts in 6.1 innings — to bolster the rotation following an injury to Edwin Díaz. He joined the active roster of the reigning champions, and two days after the 9/11 anniversary, he walked onto the field with his uncle’s initials on his cap.
The numbers behind the pitcher
Sheehan’s 2026 ERA looks worse than he’s actually pitched. Statcast says he’s been unlucky: his xERA of 3.91 — the ERA he’d deserve based on the quality of contact he allows — sits 1.17 points below his actual ERA of 5.08. His whiff rate of 31.4% ranks in the 90th percentile across all of MLB; hitters simply can’t make contact when he’s at his best.
- 22 starts, 101.0 innings pitched in 2026
- ERA: 5.08 · WHIP: 1.21
- 118 strikeouts vs. 31 walks (27.3% strikeout rate)
- xERA: 3.91
- Average fastball: 94.4 mph with 2,444 rpm of spin
- Whiff rate: 31.4% of swings against him miss
- Opponents batting average: .240
- Average exit velocity allowed: 89.1 mph
- Barrel rate allowed: 10.5%
How he compares to the rest of MLB:
- Strikeout rate (K%): 83rd percentile
- Whiff %: 90th percentile (elite)
- Fastball spin: 88th percentile
- Barrels avoided: 7th percentile (one of the lowest in MLB)
