Former MVPs Betts, Bellinger make star duo

LeBron James, an L.A. guy all the way now, clearly loves him some L.A. Dodgers. You could see it by the way he was live-tweeting about them on Tuesday night, all the way to the end of their 8-3 Game 1 victory when he gave a shout-out to Clayton Kershaw and Mookie Betts and Cody Bellinger. It is not exactly breaking news that the Dodgers are loaded. They just reminded the country of that to open the World Series.

Game	Date	Result	Highlights
Gm 1	Oct. 20	LAD 8, TB 3	Watch
Gm 2	Oct. 21	TB 6, LAD 4	Watch
Gm 3	Oct. 23	LAD 6, TB 2	Watch
Gm 4	Oct. 24	TB 8, LAD 7	Watch
Gm 5	Oct. 25	LAD 4, TB 2	Watch
Gm 6	Oct. 27	LAD 3, TB 1	Watch

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Kershaw takes a seat now. But the firm of Betts and Bellinger makes you want to see what it might do in Game 2. Even the fans who just tuned in on Tuesday night, because it was the World Series, are going to do that. I asked the great William Goldman, who won screenwriting Oscars for “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” and “All the President’s Men” one time why a certain movie had been a hit.

He laughed and said, “Because people wanted to see it.”

People want to see Betts and Bellinger, and nothing against the Rays, who of course are such a compelling story of their own. This doesn’t mean the Dodgers are a lock to win it all after just one game, not by a long shot. But Tuesday night, Mookie Betts and Cody Bellinger, their two star position players, continued to look like the same kind of star combination that LeBron and Anthony Davis just were for the Lakers; that Steph Curry and Kevin Durant were when they were winning championships for the Warriors, when they were the biggest attraction in the NBA. This is, in fact, the way the old Lakers won their first title in Los Angeles, when they put Wilt Chamberlain together with Jerry West.

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Betts and Bellinger played the way they did in Game 1 the way they did in Game 7 against the Braves, when Mookie’s glove went over the wall to take away a home run from Freddie Freeman and Bellinger hit the moon shot home run that put the Dodgers ahead, 4-3, in a National League Championship Series they were about to win, 4-3. MVPs, doing their MVP thing. The great Kershaw did the same thing on Tuesday night.

But it is Mookie and Cody who most make the Dodgers a team to watch, who are doing the most to pull in TV ratings right now that were bigger in Game 7 against the Braves than LeBron and AD got the night they won their championship. They are not just former MVPs, by the way. They are former MVPs both under the age of 30.

My friend John Labombarda of Elias Sports Bureau (they know everything) also points out that Game 1 was only the fifth time in World Series history that former MVPs had hit home runs in the same game. So they had that going for them.

There was a time, when the Dodgers in Brooklyn had the same situation they have right now: two position players who were former MVPs, along with an ace starting pitcher. It was 1956. Don Newcombe was both MVP and Cy Young Award winner that year (the way Kershaw was in 2014). Roy Campanella, the most exciting catcher in the game, had won his third MVP the year before. And Jackie Robinson had his own MVP, all the way back in ’49. But Jackie turned 37 in ’56, when the Dodgers lost to the Yankees in the Don Larsen World Series. Campy would turn 35 in November.

Mookie Betts didn’t turn 28 until the week before last. Cody Bellinger turned 25 in July. Neither one has likely won his last MVP. The only problem going forward is that Betts and Bellinger might take votes away from each other the way they’ve both taken home runs away from the other team this October in the outfield.

They are not alone on the Dodgers, not by a long shot, not after Corey Seager just won an MVP award of his own in the NLCS. They are just the ones doing the most right now to make the Dodgers a Hollywood movie that people want to see.

Betts in particular has a skill set, with two hits, two runs scored, two stolen bases and a home run, that at least reminds you of Willie Mays’ on display. This after all the glove and skill he showed the Braves at the end of the NLCS. Maybe the only baseball fans who aren’t as excited as the rest of us to see what he does in Game 2 are Red Sox fans. For quite obvious reasons.

Manager Dave Roberts, who told me during the season it was a “joy” to watch Betts play baseball the way he does, said this after Game 1, about the sight of Betts on the bases:

“That's just another element that Mookie brings. He does a lot of studying to be able to create stress. And whether it's stealing a base or just being on base to make the pitcher speed up or not execute a pitch, he creates tension, and he's just a heckuva ballplayer."

So is the other under-30 MVP next to him in the outfield. No wonder LeBron was so excited Tuesday night. Even in another sport, he knew exactly what he was watching. You know he’ll be watching tonight.