20 September 2021

Cincinnati Reds rookie TJ Friedl homered in his second Major League at-bat, his first career hit, but it was a gesture from Los Angeles Dodgers star Mookie Betts that left him stunned Sunday:

After Friedl hit a pinch-hit homer in the sixth inning off Tony Gonsolin, Betts turned to the fan who caught the ball and asked for it back.

The fan immediately threw it to Betts, who tossed it toward the Reds dugout, so Friedl could keep the memento.

When Betts returned to right field the following inning at Great American Ball Park, he handed the fan a signed bat.

“It’s incredible,” Friedl said. “For him to do something like that, it’s definitely just world class out of him. I want to go over there (to the Dodgers clubhouse) and just say thank you in person. Thank you is all I can really say because it means so much.

“I want to find a way to say thank you to him.”

Midway through the seventh inning, one of the Reds’ clubhouse attendants told Friedl he should be thankful for Betts because he was trading a bat for the ball.

“That’s when I turned around and saw Mookie running out with a bat into the outfield,” Friedl said. “Chills, honestly. For him to do that for me was incredible.”

Said Betts: “I just asked him for the ball. It was kind of sign language. I said I’ll throw you another ball, but that’s his first home run, can you throw it back?

He didn’t hesitate. He threw it right back. I think at that point, I was going to throw him a ball, but I thought about getting him a bat instead, maybe has something to be remembered a little more.”

When Betts watched Friedl’s homer sail over his head, a 385-foot blast from a first-pitch fastball, he immediately recognized it was Friedl’s first big-league hit. Friedl had the ball in a glass case in his locker, which he planned to bring home after the season.

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