Dodgers Mookie Betts Full Mic'd Up Interview 9/4/22

Are you comfortable talking during this? How much are you comfortable doing? I play right field. It ain't much going on out here. Now let's see it. Set up. Get my little lean so I can get it up in the air. Left shoulder up. Good. Oh, great finish. Very good. Follow through. I ain't getting this voice. Get on your horse. The original. The OG joining us now from right field. Big smile on Mookie Betts' face. He just hurt himself in his ear, which is weird to begin with. Mookie, thanks for joining us again. Thank you guys for having me. This is always fun being on here with you guys. Hasan Kim will be up first. Then Soto, so you may have another one hit to you in right field. Hopefully I can get it. Hopefully you get this one. I don't know with the heat out here. I don't know how much running I can do. You've done really well so far with two very good plays. Cutting that near double off to your right. Then a good play down the line in right field. Hey, Alden Gonzalez is with us. He told us that you're listening now to sort of power of positive thinking podcasts or things. Who are you listening to and what does that do for you? I really just kind of listen to a bunch of reels on Instagram. I'm sure everybody kind of gets lost on the Instagram reels and I kind of decipher between ones I believe in and ones I don't. Other than that, I read the two books that are my favorite are David Goggins ones by David Goggins called Can't Hurt Me. That'll get you really motivated to run through a wall. No excuses for anything because we all have our stuff that we go through in life. And then Will Smith book, man. That Will Smith book has probably been the one that resonated the most. It just really talks about his life, but it really brings things into perspective. Give us some examples for people that don't know the book. Oh, man. Just the first story in the book is he talks about him building a wall. His dad put him and his brother up to build a wall. It's this big, huge wall. You have to lay one brick at a time. He kind of talks about people look so far in the future or worry about other things that are going on and it's like enjoy the process. Lay one brick at a time. One brick at a time. By the time you finish laying the bricks just focusing on one thing at a time, you get to your destination. I put that in perspective. It's a long season with 162 games. You're not going to get a hit every game, but you just go through the process. Take me through that card that you are reading right now. Is it specific to not only the hitter, but also the counts? Pitch by pitch? Only pre two strikes and then at two strikes. It's crazy, man. When I first came up, this was unheard of. Now we get dinged for not being in the right place. I ain't going to say it's ridiculous, but we've come a long way, should I say. You trusted your feel as much as you do the card, I would assume, no? I do, but I think the card. It's hard to argue with computers. It's hard to argue with computers. I tried it, man. For the last two years, I tried it and they won. This is Juan Soto with one man down. Vesio looked like he could play second base like Mookie. He did last night. Oh, man. I don't know if he would have as much fun as me, though. I know you enjoy bowling. Here's a question from a fan. Which feels better, hitting a grand slam or rolling a 300 game? Oh, man. That's a tough question. I'm going to say hitting a grand slam because I get paid to do that. I would love to bowl a 300. I actually go bowling all the time. It's my way of getting away from baseball. Every Saturdays and Mondays there's some pro guys, PBA guys out here. The bowling community is huge out here in LA, so it's been very important to me. Very near and dear. That's an important thing that I started doing this year. I feel like that really has played into my success this year. Have you rolled a 300 game? Nah, I always go practice. It's me, a couple PBA guys, a couple coaches. My family, we go over there at 10 in the morning. I bowl from usually 10 to 12, 30, and then come straight to the field. On Mondays, the bowling alley is closed. They open it up for me, so I go in there. Me and my family, we go bowling. I come straight to the field, take a little nap at the field, and get ready. No swing. Soto down to first on a walk. It's unbelievable how much he I wish I could have his eye. His eye is ridiculous. That's going to bring Dave Roberts out here and perhaps a bullpen change. We will stay and continue our conversation with Lukey, who's moving over towards Cody Bellinger and Joey Gallo. Lukey, we just did the Little League World Series, where of course, that guy you're about to go talk to was a star back in 07. Oh, yeah. Yes, he was. Feels like it was yesterday with him. You want to ask him about the bowling movie? I can see you chomping at the bit. I'm just interested in your favorite bowling movie. Have you seen the big Lebowski or not? No, I haven't. They had it on the movies on the plane. Yes. I started to watch it, but then I said, you know what? I'm just going to go to sleep. I chose sleep over the movie. You're a big plane sleeper. You're good with that? Oh, my gosh. As soon as we get up, as soon as we take off, it's 10 minutes and I'm knocked out. I'm out. I'm out. You're looking to have a conversation with Lukey on an airplane. Get him in the first 10 minutes. First 10 minutes. If it's not before that, I'll talk to you when we land. You're beautiful. Here's a fan question. Fan question, not the booth. Which player could use a fashion makeover? Oh, which player could use a fashion makeover? Let me take some looks around here. A fashion makeover. I'm going to have to go with... Are you going to phone a friend? I may need to... Hey, Billy, I was thinking you, first of all. Thinking me? No, thinking. Thinking me. I was thinking the answer is you, but which guy on our team could use a fashion makeover? I was saying you. That's kind of good. I mean, it's not bad, but I mean, I feel like it could be better. It could be better. JC does really good. JC's nice. Barnes. CT? No, you're right. Chris Taylor. CT. He could use it. Fashion's not his thing, huh? It's either Billy or CT. I think Billy because he's tall, and you know, tall people look so good in clothes. You know, and Billy, he just doesn't care. He's going to up his game. He doesn't care. If he cared, I mean, I feel like he already is a good-looking guy, but if he cared, he'd be that much better. Here's the other one you can ask us. Who is the best clubhouse singer? Who sings the best in the clubhouse? Who sings? I haven't heard a soul sing. Because you're sleeping all the time. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. I'm sleeping. You know what? Hanser. He's the only one that sings, so we're going to go with Hanser. Hanser Alberto. All right. Hanser Alberto. Hey, Mookie, for so many years, you obviously played in the American League East and now in the National League West, and this guy at the plate has been there along with you. What has impressed you so much of Manny Machado? I think just how consistent he is. You know, he does everything at an elite level, and then he just doesn't stop. It's all year. He applies pressure all year. Obviously, we all know what kind of defender he is, but he controls the zone. You end up into 30 homers pretty much every year, hitting 300. He's 280, 300 I'm assuming every year. Just consistent. I mean, you know what you're going to get. The Padres got a good one for a long time. Yeah. O-ball is one strike to Manny with Juan Soto on first. Mookie Betts out in right field wearing the microphone and the earpiece for us. How much are you into form over the result? Because he's got a left-hander swing. I mean, it is a pretty swing. Yeah. Form can only get you so far, but it does get you a long way for sure. Obviously, you've got to be able to hit pure contact. He's got that. That's why he is who he is and he does what he does. Take me through your last at-bat with a runner in scoring position. Luis Garcia on the 9-1 out. Is that what you were trying to accomplish to do? Yeah, I mean, I had to mentally get myself ready for 100, first of all. Uh-oh. Secondly, I'm only responsible for the guy on third. As easy as that is to say, it's really hard to do. Put that in your head. You're only responsible for the guy on third. 100 would sink. I'm just trying to look for something up and stay inside of it because he's taking my thumbs away from me a couple times. Luckily, I was able to get the barrel on that one and drive in a run and send in Trey. Trey, you know, you got Trey and Freddie behind you. You just get one. Get the guy in from third. They'll take care of the rest. I'll get mine, share the sugar, let someone else bring somebody else in. Exactly. That's being a team player, you know. New piece of wood in Machado's hand. O-ball, two strikes in that side. Alden said that it was you and Freddie, team meeting. Let's lay the iPads down. Let's talk to each other, fellas. Let's communicate about what we're seeing. I remember the last time we spoke to you, I think the baby was in diapers and you were talking about changing diapers. Do you have to do that same thing at home? Can we put down the technology and just talk to each other? You know what? She is actually a really good with that. She doesn't really watch a whole lot of TV. She doesn't watch her iPad too much. She likes to go out and play and run around and all those type of things. I don't have to do it too much, but here guys, we were struggling a little bit. Even though we have a really good record, guys individually were kind of struggling. It's really easy to get lost in yourself. It's really easy to feel bad for yourself. I'm not hitting good. I need to figure out what's going on. While you're doing all that, you're forgetting to compete. We're still playing a game. We're still competing against another team. If you don't have your swing that day, that's fine. Just go compete. You never know what's going to happen in the game. Something may click. They may throw it in the one spot that you could hit it. It's always a competition. We had to get that in our heads. I think once we got that in our heads is when we started playing a lot better and we became closer. It's fun. It wasn't not fun earlier, but now when you get a group of guys with all one mission, it's just so much fun. You get laughs, jokes. We all know why we're here. You should hear the jokes you're missing when you're sleeping on the plane. Those jokes can't be good. I'm going to assume that they're not good. A little birdie just told me to ask this question. It's cool that somebody opens up a bowling alley for you. That's a really neat thing. Then they said, ask Mookie who the most famous person he hung out with this week was. Were you hanging out with some famous people? Being in L.A., man, there's so many famous people out here. Spill the tea, Mookie. Who was it? I would say probably one of my good friends. I didn't hang out with him this week, but I talked to him all the time since I came out here. It's been Nelly and then Chris Paul. He lives right around the corner. There's so many people out here. It's hard to really... I ain't going to say we're friends. Chris Paul, I would consider friends. Nelly, he comes over to the house at 2 o'clock in the morning and hangs out. We shoot cool. He's a competitor. Nelly rolls over at 2 a.m.? That's when his day starts. You stay up and I just take my nap at the field. You just develop different friends especially with people that are alike like you. They have things going on. You and CP3 play one-on-one yet or no? No, I refuse, but we have bowled and that didn't end too well for him. Has he asked you to play? Because I know, Mookie, you're a huge basketball fan, great basketball player. He hasn't, but if he did ask me, I would definitely go. I just want to see how far I could get with him. I mean, he's what, close? What is he, 38? Something like that. I mean, I don't think that really matters. I don't think it really matters, but maybe I can run around him a little bit. I don't know. We've got to get you in a State Farm commercial then with Chris Paul. I'll do it. I don't know that I like State Farm commercials, but I'll like it if I'm in it. Maybe Chris Brown's going to be a little disappointed he wasn't mentioned in all of this. Oh, I did go to that concert. I was with Chris Paul at that concert. Great concert. We went back there and hung out for a minute. He's famous. That's famous. That's a different level of famous. He has so many people there. You just kind of shake his hand and keep him moving. I understand, after a game, I don't really want to do a whole lot of talking. After a concert in front of 20,000, 30,000 people, I'm sure he's not trying to do a whole lot of talking either. I respect boundaries and whatnot. I feel like that goes a long way. You play a concert every night. You've played in two as far as home ballparks go, great concert stadiums, Fenway Park and Dodger Stadium. You clearly seem to have made the transition to Los Angeles for a Tennessee guy. Oh, yeah. This is like... I don't know if you want to call that or just act like it didn't happen. I'm deferring to you on that. The uh-oh was good enough for me. Okay. There are two completely different things. Here is really laid-back, chill. If you strike out three times, the fans are like, oh, and then they keep it moving. Fenway is like their hearts and souls are in it. They are here as well, but it's just completely different. You strike out three times, you're 100% getting booed. Who's hitting right now? Yeah. I actually kind of enjoyed that because it made you not strike out three times. I feel like that's the mental toughness that definitely helped me get to where I am now. I definitely do love it here. Other than this heatwave, which has been kind of ridiculous, this has been kind of the best time of my life. Little girl out here, she loves it. Family out here, they all love it. That's great to hear. I think a lot of people, Mookie, because we kind of talked about the Instagram or the ability of you to get your mind right. For somebody that's so successful at everything he does, to think that would be an issue, that would be a problem. You'd think you're the most confident guy in the world, and you've discovered that's not really the case all the time, huh? No, I think it's the opposite. I think what kind of drives me is insecurities. I don't want to... My fear to fail, I think, is what drives me to be successful. Obviously, you're going to fail and whatnot. You're going to fail and whatnot, but you just got to learn to deal with it. Once you learn to deal with it, you keep it moving and whatnot. Yeah, that's definitely... That was nice. It's great talking to you guys. You're the best, man. Thank you very much. Tell Nellie and Chris Brown we said hello. We appreciate it. Take care. Mookie Betts.