Rosenthal: Mookie Betts’ latest goal? Become ‘a legend in the game’

GLENDALE, Ariz. – Mookie Betts continues to raise the bar. He talked about last season Want to be a Hall of Famer. His latest goal: to become, in his words, “a legend in the game.”

Betts, 31, made that statement in an interview I conducted with him for Fox Sports on Tuesday. I asked him, after winning two World Series and an MVP award, what keeps him going at this stage of his career. What motivates him. What drives him.

“My family, obviously,” said Betts, who is married and has two children. “But then just a drive within myself to just be great. I want to be great. When I’m done, I want you to keep in mind not necessarily just the baseball player, but also Mookie. I want to be a legend in the game.

“How I create that, I have no idea. I’m just going to get on with it and put a smile on people’s faces when I can, try to sign autographs when I can, be the best player I can be when I play, be the best teammate I can be .

“Whatever comes my way, I’m just going to try to be the best at it, no matter what. When it comes to the bench, I want to be the best cheerleader. Whatever it is. I think if I can do that, I feel like it creates some kind of legacy that I can leave behind. You won’t remember all the things on the field, but I definitely want people to remember who Mookie was off the field.

Major League players rarely speak this way. Until recently, sports culture discouraged any form of individualism. Freedom of expression is increasingly accepted, as evidenced by the league’s ‘Let the Kids Play’ promotional campaign in 2019. But even now, few players openly discuss individual goals, preferring to focus solely on the team.

Betts is certainly focused on his Los Angeles Dodgers winning the World Series, something they did in the shortened 2020 season but haven’t accomplished in a full season since 1988. After the team’s $1 billion offseason, which included the additions of Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto, he spoke of a “sense of urgency” this spring.

“We’ve been to the playoffs so many times and not gotten through,” Betts said, referring to the team’s 11 consecutive playoff appearances. “We got one, but one for nine or 10 is not that good in our sport, really in general.”

To become a “legend of the game,” at least from the perspective of Dodgers fans, Betts knows he has to perform better in October. He was brilliant in the 2020 postseason, but went a combined 2-for-25 as the Dodgers were eliminated in the past two Division Series, first by the San Diego Padres and then by the Arizona Diamondbacks, both times after hitting 100 or more had won. regular season games.

But when Betts mentioned his goal of becoming a legend, he wasn’t necessarily talking about on-field performance. I asked him when he realized that it was possible for him to achieve such a status, and that he even wanted to. His answer was telling.

“My friends really stick with me,” Betts said. “They tell me to embrace who you are. Embrace when you walk into a place and someone wants to have their picture taken or someone gets nervous. I used to shy away from it a bit. If I see someone who is quite shy, I go and talk to him. I’m going to humanize myself.

“I’m a normal person just like everyone else, but there are some things that I do a little differently, and there are some lives that I impact a little differently, and I think I have to embrace that. I’m trying. I’m trying my best. It’s weird to me, and it’s even weird to say something like that. But it really comes from my friends. They’ve been with me since I was in fifth grade, so they’ve seen where I was then. We had no idea all this would happen.”

“This” includes his remarkable 2018 season with the Boston Red Sox, when he won the American League batting title with a .346 batting average, helped the Red Sox win the World Series and was voted AL MVP. It also includes seven All-Star appearances and six Gold Gloves, not to mention a $365 million contract, the third-largest guarantee in Major League history.

However, Betts’ popularity stems not only from his immense all-around skills, but also from fans relating to a player who stands only 6 feet tall and weighs 180 pounds. Betts is far from a colossus. He also sometimes shows an endearing, almost childlike joy for the game.

The Dodgers plan to use Betts primarily at second base this season — he recently joked to reporters that he left his right field glove and cleats in Los Angeles. Last season, he moved deftly between right, second and shortstop, showing rare versatility, especially for a superstar.

“It felt like I could be a kid again,” says Betts, a native of Nashville, Tennessee. “Growing up, I never played one position. I almost looked like the utility man. I had four uniforms, and whoever called and needed a right fielder or a shortstop or a second baseman or a third baseman or a first baseman, that’s kind of where we went. It’s almost weird to only play one position, especially in the outfield.”

Wait, Betts played for four different youth teams at the same time?

“Wherever they were needed,” he continued, smiling. “Sometimes I would just pitch, and sometimes I would play left field. It didn’t matter. My dad, I appreciate that about him because I think that really taught me how to be a baseball player instead of just playing one position all the time.

For Betts, it was the start of something big: a Major League career about to enter its 11th season. The Hall of Fame seems within his reach, and yet he wants more. To win another World Series. To be admired on and off the field. To – yes, he said it – become a legend in the game.

(Top photo by Mookie Betts: Masterpress/Getty Images)