22 reasons Mookie Betts is better than your favorite player

The Red Sox star is one to watch these playoffs.

For fans of eight teams (and, for a quick minute early on, ten) the postseason is the best part of the baseball calendar. The players you’ve grown attached to throughout the regular season get to shine, and maybe even some late August call ups get to be the heroes of a tight series and be forever beloved by the fan base.

It’s a chance for electric personalities, talented players, and unlikely stars truly emerge. So for every playoff team, we’re picking one of the most exciting players to watch and explaining why we love them so much. Here’s why we love Mookie Betts.

1. Mookie Betts’ real name is Markus Lynn Betts. His mother chose those names specifically because she wanted his initials to be ‘MLB.’ Props for reaching a high bar set without his input.

2. His nickname is thanks to Mookie Blaylock, who he liked watching as a kid.

3. He’s never actually met Mookie Blaylock because he thinks he’d be too nervous. Relatable as hell.

4. He calls out racist Boston fans.

5. He has bowled three perfect games, on January 27, 2013, February 2, 2016, and November 12, 2017.

6. He was the Tennessee Boys Bowler of the Year in 2010. So his second career possibilities in bowling are legit.

7. He manages to do the salt bae move without looking like an idiot, which is a high degree of difficulty.

8. He looks good dancing in the outfield, as was the tradition after every Red Sox win in 2017.

9. He also knows when to cut a bit short before it gets old, which the outfield did this year when they stopped dancing after wins. Even though it was fan favorite.

10. He hit the first cycle of the MLB season this year. It was the 22nd in Red Sox history and he was the 21st player to do it in Boston.

11. Once, he drove a golf cart into a pond. Who among us?

12. When he gets excited, he gets REALLY excited.

13. When he played second base for the first time since 2014 he looked like a little kid having fun on the baseball diamond. He called it “a dream come true.”

14. He’s good enough that his manager compared him to Mike Trout. Which had the side effect of annoying everybody outside of Boston.

15. He is one third of the most adorable outfield in baseball.

16. He loves Drake.

18. He had one of the most honest mic’d up moments you’ll ever see.

19. When the Red Sox clinched the AL East he looked like this

20. And somehow didn’t freak out when J.D. Martinez did this.

21. He’s got ups.

22. His name is great for puns. That’s why he’s the Betts.