Boston Red Sox: Mookie Betts Strikes Out, Walks Off
By Adam Tabakin
Boston Red Sox outfielder Mookie Betts’s bowling talents were on full display Friday night at NBA star Chris Paul’s annual charity bowling tournament.
Not satisfied with just being the best outfielder in baseball (non-Mike Trout division), Red Sox star Mookie Betts reminded the sports world Friday night that he is a darn good bowler as well!
Betts was competing in the All-Star Celebrity Clash at Chris Paul’s annual charity bowling tournament. Seeing as Betts has bowled two sanctioned perfect games since the start of 2013 and competed in the 2015 World Series of Bowling, it should come as little surprise that he emerged as the best celebrity bowler for the evening.
But just look at that confidence. How many bowlers out there can pull off a gold chain necklace? I’ve never been able to curve a bowling ball, and Betts does it like a professional. He rattled off six straight strikes to walk off with the title, and as you can see from the video in the above link, he literally walked off the lane before the ball struck the first pin.
Is there anything Betts can’t do? He’s a natural second baseman who somehow turned into arguably the best defensive right fielder in baseball. He led all of MLB in total bases in just his second full season at the age of 23 despite standing a few inches shy of six feet tall. He’ll be a perennial MVP candidate for the next decade, but his greatest achievement thus far may be making bowling look trendy.
Even Betts’s name is awesome. His initials are MLB (birth name: Markus Lynn Betts). My wife, who has learned to tolerate baseball, is such a fan of the name Mookie Betts that we got a golden retriever puppy last weekend and named her Mookie.
Baseball needs to go all-in on Betts and make him a full-on brand ambassador. MLB needs to continue reaching out to the African-American community to make sure it attracts the best athletes from all races and ethnicities. Betts is someone everyone can look up to. While someone like Trout seems to be an otherworldly athlete at six-foot-two and 235 pounds, Betts’s physique is more representative of the common man at just five-foot-nine and 180 pounds. Not everyone can aspire to becoming a giant like Trout, but you can relate to someone of Betts’s size.
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Playing in a huge baseball market like Boston, Betts is at the forefront of the game’s landscape. He is the best player on one of the game’s best teams with one of the sport’s brightest futures. It’s Mookie Betts’s world, and we’re all fortunate to be a part of it.