Los Angeles Dodgers right fielder Mookie Betts is one of the few American-born Blacks playing baseball. He’s also one of the best players, period.
ABOVE PHOTO: Los Angeles Dodgers’ Mookie Betts during the ninth inning of a baseball game, Friday, June 9, 2023, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
By Chris Murray
For the Philadelphia Sunday SUN
If there’s anyone in Major League Baseball that has truly made the most of his time in the sport is Los Angeles Dodgers right fielder Mookie Betts.
Unlike a lot of players who dream of making it to the big leagues while playing Little League baseball, Betts, who was also an All-State bowler at Overton High School in Nashville, said he didn’t figure out he was good enough to be a major leaguer until a few games into his first year with the Boston Red Sox in 2014.
“I didn’t know what I wanted to do,” he said during an interview at Citizens Bank Park during the Dodgers series with the Philadelphia Phillies. “Baseball just kinda landed on me, man. This wasn’t that I woke up and said that this was something that I wanted to do. I was just gifted. God gifted me with some abilities, and I think my parents did a really good job of exposing those abilities to myself first and other people and I embraced it.”
Actually, it was more like Betts landing on baseball, and he did by making himself one of the game’s brightest stars as one of the few American-born Black players in baseball. During his seven years with the Boston Red Sox, Betts became of the game’s best lead-off hitters, one of the best clutch hitters, and one of the game’s best outfielders.
Betts, a six-time All-Star, was the American League’s Most Valuable Player 2018 and led Boston to a World Series win over his current team, the Dodgers. He is a 5- time winner of MLB’s Silver Slugger Award — three with the Red Sox and two with Los Angeles.
In the field, Betts is a six-time Gold-Glove winner in right field. Back in 2020, Betts got his second World Series ring by helping the Dodgers to defeat the Tampa Bay Rays.
So far this season, Betts is helping the Dodgers both as a batter and in the field. As the team’s lead-off hitter, he has a .367 on-base percentage and a .534 slugging percentage. He has a .391 batting average with runners in scoring position. Betts is batting .263 with 17 home runs and 41 runs batted in.
“He hits leadoff for us, and the guys go as he goes,” said Dodgers manager Dave Roberts. “There’s a joy that he plays the game with. Certainly, there’s a skill set that he can do anything on a baseball field.”
With the departure of former Dodgers shortstop Trea Turner to the Phillies, Betts has had to play in the field because of injuries. While he has spent the bulk of his career in the outfield, Betts has had to play shortstop and second base.
“It’s good to have Mookie in the lineup. He certainly makes us better,” Roberts said. “There’s a desire and openness to play on the dirt …We don’t have a Trea Turner that we can plug in every day…To have Mookie penciled in and not miss a beat has been huge.”
What’s even more remarkable about Betts is that he is arguably one of the few Black baseball players who can say they had a good experience playing in Boston, a city with a troubled racial past that hasn’t always embraced its Black athletes even when they were successful.
But that wasn’t Betts’ experience during his time in Boston. He said it was a place where he came of age as a big-league ball player dating back to his rookie season in 2014.
“There’s two ways, especially if you’re Black, you love or you hate it,” Betts said. “For me, I loved it. I really enjoyed it. I think a lot of it had to do with me because I played so well. I had an absolute blast. It was some of the best times in my life. I had seven years of great memories. … It’s a city where if you play well, they’ll throw out the red carpet for you.”
That said, Betts is still concerned with the lack of African American players in the game. As it stands right now, African American players made up just 6.1% of players on opening-day rosters according to USA Today.
“I think he understands that he has a responsibility to be a spokesman, at times, for African American balls players and I do think the roles changing and Major League Baseball being aligned with trying to get some more diversity. I think we’re slowly trending in the right direction,” Roberts said.
Betts said African American athletes tend to seek sports like football and basketball as a profession for financial reasons. He urged Black athletes to keep their options open.
“I just played all of them and kept my options open. I think that’s one thing that African American households need to keep the options open,” Betts said. “I know some of its financial. To (stop playing) baseball unless it’s financial doesn’t make sense.”
But Betts is also concerned that more African American fans aren’t coming out to the park to watch the games. At the 2022 All-Star Game in Los Angeles, Betts wore a tee shirt that read, “We Need More Black Fans at the Stadium.” He said he can understand why Black people don’t come out to the ballpark.
“There’s no culture in it and so why would we go to something when our culture is not there,” Betts said. “It makes sense. Do I want more Black people here? Absolutely, but it’s my job and the rest of our jobs to inject some culture into it and make it appetizing for Black people to come. I want to make that Black people see it and they come.”
Since his rookie season in 2014 with the Red Sox, the 30-year-old Betts has put together a career that will probably carry him to Cooperstown and into the Baseball Hall of Fame. For all he has accomplished that’s something Betts aspires to after his career is over.
“Getting to the Hall of Fame is a goal that I want to achieve,” Betts said.
Betts will be part of a Juneteenth special on Blacks in Major League Baseball on the MLB Network on Sunday, June 18. Check your local listings for time and channel number.
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