Mookie Betts promised he would homer for a Make-A-Wish fan, and instead, he hit three
Mookie Betts is a man of the people. After winning both a World Series title and the AL MVP in 2018, how could anyone in Boston not love him? (The bowling excellence is just the cherry on top.)
Betts' reputation in Boston was enhanced even further on Friday night. He had more incentive than normal to do so. Earlier in the day, he met a 10-year-old Red Sox fan from the Make-A-Wish Foundation named Nico.
"I'm glad he came. He was our good luck charm. He's a great kid. I think him and his family had fun down in BP and I think if I can kind of use the platform that I have to make people smile like that then I know I've done something well." - Mookie after meeting Nico Sapienza https://t.co/miYaaSDSgK
— Rob Bradford (@bradfo) July 27, 2019
Betts promised Nico that he would step his game up against the Yankees and hit a homer.
It's hard to homer on command. But nothing is truly hard if you happen to be as good at anything as Betts is at baseball. He lived up to his word in his first at-bat of the night ... and just kept going.
according to our calculations
— Red Sox (@RedSox) July 27, 2019
━━━━━ ━━
┃ Mookie Betts ┃
┃ is good ┃
┃ at baseball ┃
└━━━━━━━┘
7 ┃ 8┃ 9┃ / ┃
━┛━┛━. |━ ┛
4 ┃5 ┃6 ┃ + ┃
━┛━┛━┛━ ┛
1 ┃ 2 ┃ 3 ┃ = ┃
━┛━┛━┛━ ┛ pic.twitter.com/cUJiCnQpcv
That will do the trick! In just four innings, Betts notched the hat trick against James Paxton by homering three times over the Green Monster.
That was giving Nico all he asked for and then some. What a pro. Honestly, it's the kind of story that legends are born from.
Former Yankee Paul O'Neill might have hit a pair of homers for a little boy in the hospital on Seinfeld a few years back, but Mookie did him one better for Nico. Score another win for the Red Sox, and another point in the "awesome" column for Mookie.
Andrew Mearns is a writer for Cut4 whose baseball obsession was born from the shattered dreams of Mike Mussina's perfect game attempt in 2001. He has a startling memory of World Series highlights that barely functions as a party trick.
