Mookie Betts Has the Flu
And other dispatches from Tokyo
TOKYO —
Both the Dodgers and Cubs held voluntary workouts today at the Tokyo Dome today, but Mookie Betts was missing.
Dave Roberts spoke with the horde of media crowding the field up the third base line, and told us that Betts had lost 15 pounds due to an illness he contracted before making the trip to Tokyo, and that the Dodgers’ training staff had made the decision he will not play in either of the two games against the Cubs on Tuesday or Wednesday, when MLB’s regular season officially kicks off.
My first reaction upon hearing this news was obviously, ugh. Shohei Ohtani’s face dominates the scene around the Dome. He is on billboards and big screens and 80% of the merchandise for sale features his name and number #17.
But Japanese fans know ball, and I watched today as Freddie Freeman and Mookie Betts t-shirts flew off the shelves of the official Costco-sized merchandise pop-up next to the Dome, as thousands of locals lined up to buy a piece of the Dodgers.
Yes, they are here to see Ohtani. I keep hearing over and over again from people who live here how proud they are of Shohei, and how he’s made baseball fans out of nearly every man, woman, and child in Japan. But Betts is absolutely adored here, too. He even made a surprise visit to an elementary school in Ota as part of MLB’s “Play Ball Initiative” back in January, and gave the kids a thrill of a lifetime when he hit them some baseballs.
My second thought was that Betts needs to get back on a plane home. He apparently got sick before the trip but came anyway. This is not a surprise, of course, because we are talking about a player who posts every day, and who understands his larger role as an ambassador of this game. But the 12-hour plane ride obviously did his body no favors. Fifteen pounds is an insane amount for anyone to lose in a week, let alone the smallest guy on the team.
I understand why his body went haywire. I landed in Tokyo on Thursday evening a few hours after the Dodgers did, and it took me until today (Monday in Tokyo) for my stomach to adjust to jet lag enough to eat a full meal. (I’ve been snacking, don’t worry!) But I’m sure I’ve lost a few pounds as well due to the nausea that comes with sleep deprivation and waking up at 3 am no matter.
Betts tried to take grounders at short yesterday, but had to drop to a knee between rounds to catch his breath while Roberts put his hand on his back. (You can watch a video of his fatigue I witnessed here).
The Dodgers will live without Mookie for two games. It’s not what anyone wants, but food poisoning and stomach bugs happen. My larger concern is that sometimes when ballplayers get really sick like this it can wreck an entire month. And then they walk up to the plate and find themselves hitting .185 on May 1st and press and it spirals from there.
But this is Mookie Betts we’re talking about. Roberts was asked by Dylan Hernández of the Los Angeles Times over the weekend if he has ever seen Ohtani struggle to excel at literally anything in life, and if he’s annoyed that he’s so good at everything. Roberts laughed and said that he can’t think of anything Ohtani is bad at, and then added that Mookie’s the same way. If Mookie can bowl a 300, perhaps he can gain that 15 pounds back by the time Opening Day rolls around at Dodger Stadium in ten days.
Still, it sucks to be sick. It’s even worse to feel like crap so far from home. For his sake, I hope he gets on a plane and heads back to LA tonight, as sad as Japanese fans will be not to cheer him during pre-game introductions tomorrow.
It wasn’t all bad news today at the Big Egg today, though.