Mookie Betts may have wanted to fight the handsy Yankees fans from Game 4 of the World Series, but apparently, he’s one of the nicest guys ever.
By now you’ve probably seen the two Yankees fans, Austin Capobianco and friend John Peter who interfered with Betts attempting to catch a ball in foul territory Tuesday night by grabbing his glove and hands. Betts didn’t want to discuss the incident after Game 4, preferring to focus on the fact that the Dodgers lost. But after the Dodgers took Game 5 and Betts won his third World Series Wednesday night, the former MVP was more willing to discuss the incident with the MLB on Fox postgame crew.
“That was really wild. I’ve never experienced anything like that. I was telling my wife, that was like the second time in my life I’ve ever wanted to fight someone.” – Mookie Betts on the Yankees fan interference #WorldSeries #MLBpic.twitter.com/oc4a36ES6o https://t.co/1ufhxKR6A5
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) October 31, 2024
“That was wild, man. That was really wild. I’ve never experienced anything like that,” Betts told Kevin Burkhardt, Alex Rodriguez, David Ortiz and Derek Jeter after the Dodgers’ 7-6 win. “I was telling my wife, that was like the second time in my life I’ve ever wanted to fight someone.”
And who could blame him? Betts had one fan attempting to pry the baseball from his glove like he was trying to rip a tennis ball from a dog’s mouth, and a second fan grabbing his other hand like he wanted to put them in shackles. But not only did Betts show amazing restraint by not fighting back, he also kind of sort of defended the unruly fans.
“I get it, man. I get it,” Betts continued. “I don’t know if he was trying to get the ball, I don’t know what he was really trying to do but he had to do what he had to do and it is what it is.”
Major League Baseball and the two handsy fans are lucky Betts was the one being interfered with. Because while Betts may have “wanted to fight” there are other professional athletes who would have fought back in the heat of the moment as tempers flared. Imagine Albert Belle’s reaction to Capobianco trying to pry his glove his open?
There are scenarios where that incident could have turned ugly. Instead, through the grace of Mookie Betts, it was a viral video that brought added attention to the World Series with half the population appalled by it, while the other half laughed it off.