“My jaw was swollen, like double Kanye" - When Mookie Betts opened up about his freak childhood accident in sixth grade

Mookie Betts is known for his phenomenal performances in the MLB. But very few know about the accident that helped him find his way to baseball, where he's hailed as one of the best in the league.

A story was reported by Jessica Camerato on Boston.com in 2014, where Betts shared an incident that occurred when he was still a high schooler. While traveling with his friends and family in Kansas City, he faced a life-threatening accident that changed his life forever but in a good way.

In 2005, Mookie Betts, who was an avid bowler, was traveling with his parents and three of the bowling team members for a bowling tournament in Nashville, Tennessee. Unfortunately, his stepfather, who was driving an SUV, got off-roaded, and the vehicle rolled into the median.

“I got thrown out,’’ Betts said, according to Camerato. “I was on the road. My mom said if the cars kept on going, they probably would have rolled over me.’’

Fortunately, none of his family and friends were severely injured during the accident. Mookie Betts' stepfather recovered at the hospital, while his mother suffered a broken shoulder. One of his friends only chipped his tooth, but Betts himself got the most affected.

He was thrown out of the car and suffered several injuries. His first clear memory of that time was of the first-aid treatment he received at the crash site. After that, he remembered the hospital where he was treated for a dislocated wrist, broken toes and injuries to the jaw.

“I don’t remember anything except them cutting my clothes off. Those were some good clothes. That was a good pair of jeans and a bowling shirt. My jaw was swollen, like double Kanye,’’ Betts referred to Kanye West’s notorious accident.

He still faces the aftereffects of the event to this day.

“We tried to go to sleep and couldn’t. If you hit the little ridges on the side of the street, I’ll flip out, and I won’t go back to sleep. To this day, I’m still kind of whatever,” he shared.

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The story behind Mookie Betts' introduction to baseball

After the shocking event, Mookie Betts was determined to move on. He returned to school with marks on his face and swollen cheeks.

He had to stay sidelined but decided to learn how to use his left arm in the meantime. He turned to baseball as a substitute for bowling until he fully recovered. Little did he know that this decision would lead to his stardom.

“My wrist took the longest,’’ said Betts via Jessica Camerato. “I couldn’t throw because it (the cast) was on my right hand, but I could hit … Then you had a DH (designated hitter) and an EH (extra hitter)– I was the EH.

"I put a batting glove on, had my bat, and I could kind of wrap my hand around it, and I hit. I literally played in games with a cast on my wrist. I don’t know how I did it.’’

Looking back at the incident, Mookie Betts shared that it was nothing short of a miracle that he survived.

“I thought, ‘Wow.’ The car was messed up,’’ Betts said when he saw the photo of the car in the accident after three years. “I don’t know how we stayed alive in that thing, but, hey, we did.”

He also learned a life lesson from the experience, which he shared in the article.

“You can’t take anything for granted. At that point, I was like life can be taken from you at any time. Try to be happy … Anything can happen at any time," Betts said.

Now, almost two decades later, Mookie Betts is on his way to becoming one of the greatest players in the MLB. At the age of 30, he already has seven All-Star nods, an MVP title and two World Series rings.

In 2024, he might add more to his list of accomplishments as Baseball unicorn Shohei Ohtani has joined the Dodgers camp to help the team win the World Series once again.