Mookie Betts is the 2020 Dodgers' Version of Kirk Gibson
Prior to Cody Bellinger in 2019, the most recent Dodgers' position player to win the National League Most Valuable Player Award was outfielder Kirk Gibson in 1988. The next Dodgers' position player to win the NL MVP is outfielder Mookie Betts in 2020. Probably.
It's possible I'm getting carried away with both the MVP prediction and the comparison to Gibson, but Betts inspires that kind of thinking in me. And I doubt I'm the only person to whom it has occurred.
When Betts scored from second base on a errant pickoff attempt Saturday night in Colorado, my mind went straight to Gibson scoring from second on a wild pitch at Dodger Stadium, August 21, 1988. Those of you old enough to remember thought the same. As likely did a fair number of people who'd heard about it as lore.
As was the case throughout that World Series championship season, Gibby was the catalyst; the player who got things started for Los Angeles seemingly every single night. It wasn't every single night in reality, however -- L.A. won a mere 94 games that season, not 162 -- it just seemed that way.
On this particular night, with L.A. trailing the Expos 3-2, Steve Sax led off the bottom of the ninth with a groundout to first base off Joe Hesketh. Mickey Hatcher, another sure-fire sparkplug in 1988, pinch hit for Mike Scioscia and doubled to left. Let that be a lesson to you, Dave Roberts; if Tommy Lasorda can pinch hit for his starting catcher when the situation calls for it, you can hit for backup Austin Barnes.
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Dave Anderson ran for Hatcher. Gibson legged out an infield hit, with Anderson coming around to score, tying the game at three. Gibson stole second. No surprise there. Gibson raced home on Hesketh's wild offering to John Shelby, did a standup slide followed by a trademark Gibby fist pump and race-onto-the-field-arms-held-high by Lasorda, as the Dodgers poured out of the dugout to greet their hero. No surprise there either.
Sound familiar? See below.
Betts' play Saturday wasn't a walkoff like Gibson's -- or a runoff, as the case may be -- but you get the idea. The Rockies got the idea. Everyone with access to the video gets the idea.
While Mookie may not be the leader on the 2020 Dodgers; the guy, as Gibson was 32 years ago, he's clearly the team's most important player. And yeah, yeah, yeah, small size; but L.A. is 37-13 in games with Betts in the lineup and 1-3 with him on the bench from start to finish.
And while there was no Spring Training shoe polish incident with a misguided prankster ala Jesse Orosco as there was in 1988, Betts did make an impression on his new teammates with a speech at Camelback Ranch in February of 2020. In both cases, message received. Loud and clear.
Gibson had won a championship with the Detroit Tigers four years before coming to Los Angeles. Betts won one two years prior to his L.A arrival, celebrating with his Boston Red Sox, in the Dodgers' house at that. Both Gibson and Betts knew the difference between a World Series winning team and one that isn't; one that can't quite get over the hump, for whatever reason.
Gibson had a long spring and summer to impart the lessons of his experience to the 1988 Dodgers. Mookie has had a considerably shorter time frame. But if the other 27 men in the room aren't inspired by Betts' example, and by the way he carries himself on and off the field, then they simply can't be inspired. And I'm almost certain that that is not the case.
Notes:
Gibson's 1988 stats: 150 games, 632 plate appearances, 542 at bats, 157 hits, 28 doubles, one triple, 25 home runs, 76 RBIs, 31 stolen bases, four caught stealing, 73 walks, 120 strikeouts, .290/.377/.483, 148 OPS+, 262 total bases, 6.5 WAR.
Betts' 2020 stats: 50 G, 226 PA, 201 AB, 42 R, 61 H, 9 2B, 1 3B, 16 HR, 39 RBIs, 9 SB, 2 CS, 23 BB, 36 K, .303/.376/.597, 161 OPS+, 120 TB, 3.2 WAR.
Other Dodgers to win the MVP: Jack Daubert (1913), Dazzy Vance (1924), Dolph Camilli (1941), Jackie Robinson (1949), Roy Campanella (1951, 1953, 1955), Don Newcombe (1956), Maury Wills (1962), Sandy Koufax (1963), Gibson (1988), Clayton Kershaw (2014) and Bellinger (2020).
And remember, glove conquers all.
Howard Cole has been writing about baseball on the internet since Y2K. Follow him on Twitter.
Video courtesy of Spectrum SportsNetLA/Los Angeles Dodgers.
