I Hope Mookie Betts Wins a Ring For Every Year of His Contract

The Los Angeles Dodgers are finally World Series champions after a half decade's worth of heartbreak. One of the very big reasons was their prized offseason acquisition, one Mookie Betts. It has sadly been overshadowed by the actions of Justin Turner after the series-clinching Game 6, but Betts had an outstanding World Series and sealed the deal with one last home run in the bottom of the eighth on Tuesday night.

This pained me, because I am a Boston Red Sox fan. The Red Sox, if you might recall, traded Betts for one simple reason: they didn't want to pay him. His monetary demands were not unreasonable from a baseball perspective. He's one of the three best players in baseball, and wanted to be paid accordingly. He didn't ask for anything outrageous. He just wanted his market value. And he thought Boston was on the same page, considering he told David Ortiz earlier this week he thought he was going to be a member of the organization for life until he ended up in Los Angeles.

It's not a "spurned lover" moment similar to how Patriots fans feel watching Tom Brady kick everyone's ass in Tampa Bay right now. Betts didn't want to leave! There isn't really an accurate metaphor for this. It simply feels bad. It feels bad rooting for one of the most valuable teams in sports as they trade a homegrown talent because they didn't want to pony up the dough to keep him.

I'm not trying to start a pity party, though. I can do that on my own time. No, I want Mookie Betts to win 12 rings. One for each year of the deal he got from the Dodgers that the Red Sox refused to give him. I want Boston's ownership, starting with John Henry, to feel every second for the next decade that they made a massive error they'll never recover from. I want the front office to gaze longingly across the country at what might've been if they weren't cheap until the year is 2030 and coronavirus is a scary story we tell children to make sure they wash their hands.

Because that's exactly what I, and the rest of Red Sox fandom, will be doing. No real Boston fan feels anything but love for Betts. Our anger and vitriol is reserved for the ownership that directed the front office to make the move. We want those rich individuals to feel the same way we will for the foreseeable future. So do it, Mookie. Win it all. Every year. We're all rooting for you.