A content material Mookie Betts has closed the e-book on his time in Boston. Purple Sox followers aren’t as lucky.

And as they’ve executed all season lengthy, the 2023 Purple Sox squandered no matter momentum they carried into an announcement contest due to self-inflicted miscues and logic-defying gaffes. 

All the things that performed out in Betts’ anticipated return adopted the script all of us anticipated.

From the day the 2023 schedule dropped, August 25 was poised to be a day of reckoning for a Purple Sox group left largely rudderless since deciding to ship their homegrown franchise star out west.

The revelry that poured out from the stands as Betts strode as much as residence plate stood in stark distinction to the gloomy mist that hovered over the ballpark all night time.

Granted, it was a becoming canvas for Friday’s festivities, with the Fenway Trustworthy’s collective cheers rooted in each appreciation and melancholy — grateful for all Betts had achieved in a Purple Sox uniform, and pained by the sight of him in Dodger blue.

For some Purple Sox followers, Friday opened outdated wounds.

It’s a painful train that has been carried out time and time once more since Betts first placed on an L.A. cap in February 2020. It’s destined to be repeated time and again till Boston fields a sustainable, contending roster.

However because the wheels proceed to churn for Boston followers searching for any semblance of salvation for the long run, Betts’ path has lastly come full circle.

And now he’s prepared to maneuver on.

“It’s enterprise. Either side gonna handle themselves and so generally it is probably not in the most effective curiosity for each. However it’s what it’s,” Betts mentioned of Boston buying and selling him. “I don’t know if it was or wasn’t. However that’s not the place we at the moment are.

“I’m sporting an L.A. jersey, obtained two children, obtained a manufacturing firm, obtained podcasts, I obtained numerous issues occurring in my life now … I’m tremendous blissful the place I’m at. I’m very blessed and really blissful. I’m at peace with my life now. … It’s a little bit bit simpler to say, ‘Wow, that was tremendous cool. However that’s not even remotely near who you at the moment are.’ So there’s no sense in making an attempt to attract a parallel.”

For all the strain that is available in a market like Boston, Betts thrived off of it.

That scrutiny saved Betts on a linear path towards success, evolving from a fresh-faced, 21-year-old rookie right into a perennial MVP candidate throughout his time with the Purple Sox.

“I knew day-after-day I put the uniform on, you’ve obtained to play nicely, it doesn’t matter what. The media, the followers, the folks will let you understand,” Betts mentioned of taking part in in Boston. “That’s the blessing. That’s the great half. That’s what I take pleasure in a lot. It’s nearly like a concern of listening to what folks needed to say. It’s type of what drove me to achieve success.”

However at 30, the burden now not falls on Betts to show himself.

One of many few unquestioned faces of baseball in 2023, Betts has relished the alternatives obtainable in his new residence in Los Angeles.

Past the varied media ventures readily available in that market, Betts lastly feels comfy in his personal pores and skin, now not the guarded famous person who let his play do a lot of the speaking with the Purple Sox.

“I do know individuals are saying he’s happier over there,” Alex Cora mentioned of Betts’ transfer to Los Angeles. “I believe he’s extra relaxed over there. Not a success to the tradition over there, however extra relaxed. I performed there, I performed right here. I understand how it really works. … I do know why it’s completely different. However on the finish of the day, they’re very profitable. He’s a part of what they’ve completed.”

It ought to come as no shock {that a} powerhouse franchise just like the Dodgers has managed to maintain their profitable methods since Betts made it to city.

Together with serving to the Dodgers win their first World Sequence in 32 years through the 2020 season, Betts has batted .282 with a .912 OPS, with 108 residence runs and 268 RBI over 439 profession video games together with his new crew.

For all the issues over whether or not or not Betts was going to be well worth the 12-year, $365 million mega-deal he inked with the Dodgers, he’s already accrued a 20.9 WAR over his 4 years together with his new crew. He’s on his option to securing his second profession MVP award, and first in a Dodgers jersey.

Whereas Betts nonetheless dominates, the Dodgers have adopted up their title season with two extra 100-win seasons. At 79-48, Dave Roberts and Co. are nicely on their option to undertaking the feat as soon as once more this fall.

As Betts basks within the current, Purple Sox followers discover solace within the glory days previous — and attempt to search consolation sooner or later.

Past their spectacular run to the ALCS in 2021, the Purple Sox have posted two last-place finishes since Betts was dealt away. They at present sit in fourth place this 12 months in a cutthroat AL East.

Constructing a bedrock of success with high-ceiling kids like Brayan Bello, Marcelo Mayer, Roman Anthony, Triston Casas, Kyle Teel and others gives the most effective path ahead for a fanbase trying to lastly transfer on from the Betts deal and the ache that got here with it.

Hope does sit on the horizon for Boston, with Chaim Bloom’s long-term outlook yielding fruitful returns throughout the farm system.

Maybe within the subsequent 12 months or two, the Purple Sox fanbase can lastly take a web page out of Betts’ e-book, soak within the second, and admire the current as soon as once more.

It’s only a disgrace that no matter subsequent chapter Boston pens doesn’t contain a participant like Betts.

“That was a really, very dope chapter in my life,” Betts mentioned of life in Boston. “However the chapter I’m in proper now — I’m having fun with it a lot. I find it irresistible a lot. I wouldn’t commerce it for the world.”