On Oct. 30, Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Mookie Betts was still in a foggy haze as he sat down for a postgame interview with the FOX baseball crew following the Dodgers’ five-game World Series victory against the New York Yankees. First baseman and World Series MVP Freddie Freeman showed out with a four-home run barrage, which included a wild Game 1 walk-off blast. Gusty right-hander Blake Treinen, whose career had seemingly looked all but done following a rash of multiple injuries, threw 42 pitches and struck out three batters in 2.1 innings of work in Game 5, stifling the Yankees to just one hit.
Yet it was Betts who once again reminded fans why the Dodgers moved heaven and earth in 2020 to sign him away from the down bad Boston Red Sox franchise. In 16 games during the 2024 postseason, the celebrated five-tool outfielder hit .290 with 18 hits, four homers, 16 RBIs, with 14 runs scored. Betts’ career stats are even more grandiose. The 2018 American League MVP is an eight-time All-Star, six-time Gold Glove winner, and a 2018 batting champ. The only reason Betts is not the biggest star in the game is because his teammate, Shohei Ohtani, is a record-shattering 54 home run/59 stolen base designated hitter, soon-to-be three-time National League MVP who has also won 38 career games as a pitcher.
On paper, Betts — who got his nickname because his parents were huge fans of NBA guard Mookie Blaylock — should be as known on a first-name basis as other larger-than-life figures within the current Black cultural zeitgeist as Beyoncé, Jay-Z, LeBron, Kendrick, Zendaya, and Barack and Michelle.
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When polarizing baseball-great-turned-analyst Alex Rodriguez reminded him that he was the only active player to have three World Series titles (one with the Red Sox in 2018 and two with the Dodgers in 2020 and 2024), Betts downplayed the feat. Instead, he lauded his teammates for their support during a stretch last season in which the 32-year-old scuffled at the plate.
“I remember in San Diego, I was just grinding, grinding, grinding,” he recalled. “Literally nobody turned their back on me. They all were in there, cheering me on in the cage while I was just hitting, hitting, telling me I’m good… all of my teammates were there… I love each and every one of those guys. I just love being a Dodger, really.”
Betts comes armed with throwback charm. In another life, the MLB superstar could have been an easy-on-the-eyes, ‘90s soap opera idol that would have given a fresh-faced Shemar Moore a run for his money. One wonders why Betts — who married childhood sweetheart Brianna Hammonds and has a postcard-ready family echoing BLACK LOVE comparisons to LeBron and Savannah James or Rihanna and A$AP Rocky — is not celebrated more by us. And while he has been name-checked in the rhymes of a few rappers, such as Benny the Butcher in “Rivi,” Dom Kennedy in “Confidence,” and BlueBucksClan’s DJ, A-Bliccy, and Jeezy in “Mookie Betts,” some rap heads are baffled that he largely continues to be left out of the conversation.
Mookie Betts of the Los Angeles Dodgers reacts after Freddie Freeman #5 hit a two-run home run during the first inning of Game Four of the 2024 World Series against the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium on October 29, 2024 in the Bronx, NY.
Sarah Stier/Getty Images
Folks outside of sports fandom would struggle to pick Betts out of a lineup. Yet he’s certainly not running away from the spotlight. In 2020, Betts made the jump to Hollywood, executive producing the award-winning 2022 documentary on the most beloved Dodger of them all, Jackie Robinson: Get to the Bag.
Despite the charismatic Betts’ $365 million contract with the Dodgers, a bargain in today’s eye-watering $700 million market set by his teammate Ohtani, away from the diamond he’s comically low-key. A gifted athlete who was a standout basketball product out of Nashville’s Overton High School, winning Class AAA All-City Player of the Year, Betts is a professional bowler, once scoring a perfect game in 2017.
So, what gives? Why hasn’t Betts become a ubiquitous fixture within Black celebrity circles? Blame MLB. In 2024, there were only four African American players in the Fall Classic (not including Afro-Latino players, and one from the Bahamas). In 2022, it was even worse when no Black American players took the World Series field.
This season, when MLB celebrated Jackie Robinson Day in honor of the giant who broke baseball’s color barrier on April 15, 1947, the number of Black players on the league’s 30 rosters amounted to a mere 6%. For context, 1991 boasted the highest rate of Black players in the MLB at 18%, headlined by such immortals as Barry Bonds, Ken Griffey Jr., Andre Dawson, Ricky Henderson, Ozzie Smith, Lee Smith and Eddie Murray.
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Back then, baseball was still deemed as cool around-the-way, so much so that the aforementioned Bonds, Griffey, and iced-out, two-sport superstar Deion Sanders, routinely shared SportsCenter highlights with Michael Jordan and Barry Sanders. Which is why Betts has made it his mission to bring more Black fans and elite Black talent to MLB.
“I think that one of the main things is the kids don’t see us out there,” he said in a 2023 CBS Mornings sit-down. During the profile he was filmed wearing a T-shirt that read, “We need more Black People at the Stadium.”
“If you watch football and basketball, you can see us everywhere… all on the court, all in the commercials,” Betts continued. “I have to continue to do my part, getting ourselves out there so kids can see someone that they can be.”
Each year, MLB development programs like the DREAM Series, the Hank Aaron Invitational, and the Breakthrough Series recruits between 1,200 and 1,500 kids to be part of the league’s diversity initiative. And the Andre Dawson Classic collegiate tournament showcases HBCU talent looking to break into the big leagues.
But the question isn’t whether Betts will finally be embraced by that nebulous and overused catch-all “the culture.” It’s what’s taking so long?
“I got three,” Betts said to the packed crowd at Dodgers Stadium for the team’s World Series celebration, holding up his right hand in the air. “I’m trying to fill this hand up, L.A.”
Keith “Murph” Murphy is a senior editor at VIBE Magazine and frequent contributor at Billboard, AOL, and CBS Local. The veteran journalist has appeared on CNN, FOX News and A&E Biography and is also the author of the men’s lifestyle book “Manifest XO.”
