Mookie Betts is a four-time World Series champion. He has a pile of individual awards and a legacy that already looks Hall of Fame bound. But here’s the thing: he didn’t grow up dreaming of playing in the majors. He didn’t even really like baseball that much at first.
In a recent interview on AM 570 LA Sports, Betts got honest about his relationship with the game. He basically admitted that for a long time, baseball was just something he did because someone was paying him to do it. The love came later. Way later.
“I didn’t really play baseball until I was forced to play baseball,” Betts said. “They gave me the money, I signed, and that’s when I started really just focusing on baseball. Even then, I didn’t, I still did other things. And then once I realized I was actually good at it.”
The Dodgers star was taken by the Boston Red Sox in the fifth round of the 2011 MLB Draft, 172nd overall. He signed for a $750,000 bonus and walked away from a scholarship to the University of Tennessee, where he was hoping to play both baseball and basketball. That decision wasn’t easy.
A Hard Sell
“They essentially bought me out of school,” Betts said. “It was life changing money that we got, and even then, I wasn’t sure. I really wanted to go to school, because they were gonna allow me to play basketball in school. But when they went up on the offer, it was like, ‘Yay, but dang!’ I can’t go. I really had to truly learn to play baseball, and learn to love baseball.”
That context makes Betts’s career even more impressive. This is a guy who didn’t grow up obsessed with the sport. He wasn’t the kid who slept with a glove under his pillow. He was a two-sport athlete who had to be talked into giving up hoops. And then he turned into one of the best all-around players of his generation.
This season hasn’t been his best at the plate. Through early May, Betts is hitting .236 with 11 home runs, 29 RBI and a .721 OPS. But the Dodgers, as defending World Series champs, are still sitting pretty at the top of the NL West. And Betts’s value has never been just about the bat. His defense, his baserunning, his ability to play multiple positions — all of it matters.
For a guy who needed time to fall in love with the game, he sure looks like he’s making up for lost time.
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