Mookie Betts of the Los Angeles Dodgers has had an illustrious career. He’s been a World Series champion four times, three with L.A. and one with the Boston Red Sox, where he also won an American League MVP. He’s been an all-star eight times, a Silver Slugger seven times, and a Gold Glover six times. It could be argued that he’s on the fast path to the Hall of Fame.
And all of it almost…didn’t happen?
On a recent Spectrum SportsNet L.A. broadcast of the Dodgers during the regular season, play-by-play announcer Joe Davis told the story of how Mookie almost quit baseball to pursue basketball…at Trevecca.
According to Davis, Mookie’s first year as a minor league baseball player wasn’t going like he had hoped. He didn’t have a single home run. If he would even hit the wall off of a bounce, it was a surprise. In his second season, he was in low A Greenville, the lowest minor league affiliate for the Boston Red Sox. His batting average was .130, which wasn’t much to smile at.
“He was this close to quitting baseball,” Davis said. “He was thinking more and more about retiring from baseball and going to college to play basketball.”
He had a school picked out.
“He was going to go to Trevecca Nazarene in Nashville,” Davis said over the air.
The only thing standing between Mookie and a Trevecca basketball career was the ACT he was scheduled to take on a Saturday morning. A Friday night Greenville game went extra innings late into the night, so Mookie decided to reschedule his ACT for the following week.
“He never took that ACT,” Davis said.
The next day, Mookie made a change to his swing from a big swooping leg kick to more a small stride. That night, he hit a home run. And he never stopped hitting.
Only a year later, Mookie was in the major leagues.
“The ACT never happened. College basketball never happened,” Davis said. “But I tell you what, it was this close to happening.”
This story is courtesy of Spectrum SportsNet. Photos courtesy of the Los Angeles Dodgers and Carrie Giordano.