Fan names daughter after Dodger's Mookie Betts following home run bet
A father has made good on his word to name his daughter after Mookie Betts after the two-time World Series champion hit a timely home run, the Los Angeles Dodgers star revealed.
"Back a couple weeks ago, I was on deck, and this guy started talking to me and he said, 'Mook if you hit a home run, I'll name my daughter — her middle name — Mookie'…he said he was serious," Betts said in a video posted to social media.
Betts said he advised the fan, Giuseppe Mancuso, not to make the bet, noting that Mancuso's wife would probably not be pleased to find out about it. According to Betts, the fan said he was still going to follow through on it and said he may have even been on the phone with his wife at the time.
During the ensuing at bat, Betts wound up hitting "I think, the furthest home run I've hit in my career," he said. "I circle the bases, come back, and give him a fist bump…I thought it was super cool."
Several weeks later, when Mancuso's daughter was born, Betts was surprised and flattered to be tagged in a tweet from the fan that said "a bet is a bet" alongside a photo of a birth certificate that read "Francesca Mookie Mancuso."
"Shout out to you Giuseppe," Betts said. "I can't wait to meet Francesca. That's going to be my girl."
In the caption of his tweet, Betts called the moment "one of the coolest" of his entire career.