Dodgers' Mookie Betts' Home Run Brought Up Emotional Memory Following Stepfather's Death

Los Angeles Dodgers superstar Mookie Betts has had a brutal year.

Before falling into a career-worst slump, Betts battled a stomach bug that caused him to lose about 20 pounds, miss the end of spring training, and miss the first two regular-season games of the year in Japan.

Betts responded with three home runs and eight RBIs during his first 10 games of the season, batting .316 during this time, but towards the end of May, he fractured his toe, further making any consistency that much harder to attain.

As the season soldiered on and his slump continued, Betts lost his stepfather last month. The superstar recently opened up on a tradition that he had with his late stepfather and an emotional memory his Friday evening home run (his first in over a month) brought about.

“Every home run I’ve ever hit [Betts' stepfather) always texted me, ‘Home run Mookie time!’” Betts said. “That’s just what he says and then it has the number of homers after. Not getting that text was sad.

“I was thinking about it after hitting the home run. I’d always know. It was like clockwork. I’d look after the game and it would say ‘Text sent at 8:12’ or whenever I hit the home run. It’s a situation that kind of sucks. It’s been a year. It’s life.”

For the kind of competitor that Betts is, his lack of offense is extremely frustrating, but given everything else that the superstar has gone through off the diamond, simply suiting up and putting in the work each and everyday to try and help his team win speaks to his strength and composure.

“It’s been a lot,” Betts said.

Although his performance at the plate likely took a backseat amid the brutal news of his stepfather, Betts spoke on how the series of unfortunate events fanned the flames of the slump further, leading up to losing someone who played such an important role in his life.

“I just got lost and I spiraled,” Betts said. “It’s the first time I’ve ever spiraled like that. I was in new territory in a slump like this. Usually, something just happens and I get out of it. It wasn’t working that way. At that point, you have to realize it’s not just going to happen.”

Betts has seven RBIs so far in August, which ties his RBI total from June 25 to the end of July.

He seems to be figuring things out at the plate over the small sample size of batting .333 in his last five games, but hopefully, this means there is light at the end of the tunnel for the superstar, and just in time for another October run.

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