Mookie Betts will be staying in an AirBnb while his Dodgers are in Milwaukee this week, thank you very much.
The Dodgers’ regular right fielder will choose not to stay with the team at the infamous Pfister Hotel, known in baseball circles as a haunted hotel.
This is the second year in a row that Betts has chosen not to stay with the team at the century-old hotel in downtown Milwaukee.
“No,” Betts said when Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register asked if he would stay at Pfister. “That’s not going to change.”
Betts hasn’t experienced anything supernatural himself, but he’s heard enough stories. He explained last year that he couldn’t sleep during a previous stay at the hotel.
“Every time I heard a noise I thought, ‘Is that something?!’?” Betts said.
You can hardly blame him. The Dodgers activated Betts from the injured list on Monday and moved him to No. 2 in the batting order for the first time since 2020. He will also return to his original position in right field, where he has won all six of his Gold Gloves. With the Dodgers in a division race and six weeks left in the regular season, there’s no reason for a superstar coming back from injury to take any risks.
Spooky experiences at the Pfister Hotel go beyond the Dodgers
The ghostly history of the Pfister Hotel begins with its construction on an old cemetery in 1893. Over the decades, guests from Joey Lawrence to Megan Thee Stallion have reported strange experiences there.
Since it is one of the hotels where baseball teams often stay during their games against the Brewers, baseball players also get their money’s worth.
“When I woke up in the morning – I swear on everything – the clothes were on the floor and the table was across the room against the wall,” Bryce Harper recalled to ESPN the Magazine. “I really thought there might be someone in my room. I had no idea what the hell had just happened, so I actually looked around and then checked to see if the door was still locked, and it was.”
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Former Cardinals pitcher Carlos Martinez blamed the ghost for his poor performance on the field. Former Pfister narrator Anna Lardinois recalled his experience in a segment for local radio station WUWM.
“The Cardinals pitcher woke up in the middle of the night and posted on Instagram that he had just been touched by the ghost of Pfister,” Lardinois said. “Well, the next day he plays terribly, he blames the ghost of Pfister and the city cheers. So how can you not love the ghost of Pfister who just wants the Brewers to win?”
Former Pirates manager Clint Hurdle says a former player came into his room in the middle of the night after being frightened, but he declined to name any names.
“I actually let him come into my room – not to sleep. I calmed him down, went back to his room with him and sat there for a while,” Hurdle said. “The TV didn’t come back on. I walked out. Everything was fine. For some people it’s real, there’s no doubt about that. I’m absolutely sure I don’t want to name names. He’s still playing.”
