LOS ANGELES — Mookie Betts knows a thing or two — or three — about what it takes to win a World Series.
If Los Angeles becomes the first team in a quarter century to win back-to-back World Series championships, Betts would be the only active player with four rings. He won his first title with the Red Sox (2018) and has the chance to go for three in six years with the Dodgers (’20 and ’24).
Betts tends to downplay his individual accomplishments — a tall task for a superstar who counts the 2018 AL MVP Award and six Gold Gloves in right field among his career accolades — but he has been vocal about what it would mean for the Dodgers to defend their title. No team has repeated as champions since the Yankees won three in a row from 1998-2000.
“Something that hasn’t been done in a long time,” Betts said. “I think we’re all kind of set on that and understand that’s the final goal. That’s something that I think we’ll all take pride in because it hasn’t been done in so long.”
According to the Elias Sports Bureau, 18 players have won four or more World Series in the Divisional Era, which began in 1969. Of those, six have won five titles.
Elias’ criteria for considering a player to have won a title holds that he must have been on the winning team’s World Series roster that year, even if he did not appear in a game. Other databases may use different criteria in making this determination.
If Betts is able to become the 19th, he would be:
Here is the full list, per Elias, in reverse order of when they won their fourth championship:
It wasn’t all smooth sailing for Betts, who slumped at the plate through the first two-thirds of the season, or the reigning champions, who did not win the NL West until the penultimate series of the regular season. But the Dodgers have come alive under the lights, rolling into the World Series with a 9-1 record this postseason.
“We had never doubted on the inside. We just played,” Betts said. “We didn’t care what was going on outside. We know how much talent we have. It’s not always going to be glitz and glamor.”
As the Dodgers have learned this season, there’s a reason why it has been 25 years since a team repeated as World Series champions. Doing it just once is tough. Repeating is another beast.
Four times in the course of a career would be something else entirely, especially if it comes by the Dodgers going back-to-back.
“It’s hard to win,” Betts said. “To do it two times in a row, that’s something super special.”
