Mookie Betts Wants to ‘Be Known as More Than an Athlete’ With His Jackie Robinson Doc
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Los Angeles Dodgers star Mookie Betts is releasing a documentary film in the days before he pursues his third World Series title that goes behind the baseball diamond to explore the home life and career of the legendary Jackie Robinson. And like Robinson, Betts hopes that with this film he’s able to demonstrate that there’s so much more to him than just being a ball player.
“I’m an athlete in this same space like he was, and I want to be known as more than an athlete,” Betts told TheWrap. “I don’t want to be just the athlete. I don’t want to be in just this little box. I know I’m more than that. Yes, I may be good at hitting the baseball, but I’m also good at being an entrepreneur and running companies and doing these things with my best friends.”
Betts’ film is “Jackie Robinson: Get to the Bag,” and it airs this Wednesday, Oct. 12 via Fox Sports on FS1 following the day’s MLB postseason coverage. Betts’ Dodgers begin their Wild Card series of the playoffs against the Padres on Tuesday.
The film is the first project of a deal he and his company One Media/Marketing Group (OMG) signed with Propagate in January to develop films, scripted and unscripted TV shows and podcasts.
In the interview, Betts sat down along with his producing partners Cam Lewis and Jeff Mason, who explained that OMG has four other projects in development, including a limited series, another scripted project and two game shows.
“Get to the Bag” is an unconventional approach to a documentary that recruits Brooklyn-based rapper Skyzoo in order to tell Robinson’s history via a hip-hop lyrical narrative. In addition to interviews with historians and baseball stars, the film is set in the Ebbets Field Apartments Complex, the former site of the Brooklyn Dodgers’ old stadium. And it examines Robinson’s choice to unexpectedly retire from baseball and enter into the workforce, establishing himself as an entrepreneur and an advocate for the civil rights movement later in his life.
You can check out a teaser for the film below.
“We are entrepreneurs. Mook is doing a lot of this stuff behind the scenes when people just see him on the diamond,” said Betts’ producing partner Lewis. “So for us it was really pivotal to tell this piece of Jackie because that directly and indirectly made Mook who he is today, and we’re using that same platform to inspire, to show that we’re still doing this whether you see it or not.”
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“Get to the Bag” in particular captures how Betts and his team want to differentiate from the many other athletes who have turned to Hollywood in recent years and launched their own production companies. Lewis says that the company would be cliche to only be a sports-focused brand, and they feel Betts’ platform remains untapped. Lewis has known Betts since they were in sixth grade, and he and the team are excited to shape what Betts’ brand can be. Mason adds there could even be a documentary about Betts somewhere down the line.
“He’s well beyond baseball. So with this, we’re able to tell stories or put him as on-camera talent and show personality, show who we are, who he is, who this company is outside of just sports,” Lewis said. “It was pivotal for us to start with this piece, but not let this piece be who our company is.”
Dodgers fans know though that Betts has a long baseball career ahead of him in Los Angeles (he’s signed with the Dodgers through 2033). But though he still has to juggle his work on the field with what he wants to do off it, he explains he hasn’t spoken with some of his other L.A. peers such as LeBron James about how to navigate being an athlete and working in Hollywood.
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“I have my own experience. And so what you experienced and what you went through, that doesn’t mean that I’m going to go through and experience the same things. I’m 30 years old man, and I’m at the point where I’m gonna make my own decisions and fight my own way,” Betts said. “There’s gonna be some bumps in the road. But my bumps are going to be different than your bumps. And so I’m willing to just go face first, and when I go out, I got my boys with me. There’s nothing in the way that we can’t accomplish.”
Betts said he’s been spending his five days off before the series against the Padres — the longest break he’s had before a postseason — simply getting some sleep and enjoying “work and some PJs” and not looking too far down the road, either in his baseball career or in his producing career.
“If you try and get big so fast, you just forget to take care of all the small things to get you to where you go. And so at the end of the tunnel, there’s a light at the end of the tunnel. But nobody talks about the darkness that you go through to get to the light,” Betts said. “So I pay attention to that darkness one foot at a time. One foot at a time until we get to the light, and I don’t know where we’ll be 10 years from now, but we’ll be somewhere for sure.”
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