Dodgers News: Mookie Betts Almost Gave Up on Baseball Before His Career Even Began
Mookie Betts has established himself as one of baseball's greatest players. The six-time All-Star has accomplished just about everything a player can ask for, including two World Series with two different teams, an MVP Award, a batting title and tons of Gold Gloves and Silver Sluggers.
Betts is still only 30 years old, and has nine more years with the Dodgers to continue putting his name in the record books. However, this incredible career almost never happened.
Betts was recently on the LOL Networks' "Cold as Balls," a hilarious show hosted by Kevin Hart. Betts and Hart were speaking about his MLB career, and the fact that before it all began, he almost gave up on baseball.
Betts told Hart why he almost stopped playing, and what contributed to him continuing — you'll never guess the reasoning.
"I was playing so bad. I was bad, a month straight," Betts said. "The only reason why I didn’t go back to school was because that night we played extra innings, and I had an ACT the next morning, so I didn’t get home until 1 o’clock. And I was like, 'ain’t no way I can wake up at 7 o’clock to be at the ACT by 8.' So I was like, you know what, I’m just gonna miss it."
That one missed ACT test ended up saving Betts' baseball career. He decided to keep working at it, and very quickly, he figured things out.
Betts said he made a "little mechanical change," and after that "just started being successful."
Well that success must have come pretty quickly, because Betts was drafted in the 5th round of the 2011 draft by the Boston Red Sox, and made his debut just three years later. Then, he burst onto the scene in 2015 — finishing top-20 in MVP voting — and never looked back.
Dodger fans have to be very thankful for that extra inning game, and the fact that the ACT was at 8:00 a.m. Because if those two things weren't the case, Betts may not be the current leadoff hitter for the Dodgers, and they may not have won it all in 2020.
