Last December, Mookie Betts married his longtime girlfriend Brianna Hammonds at Terranea Resort in Rancho Palos Verdes, California. The ceremony was attended by other members of the Los Angeles Dodgers organization, including team owners, front office personnel and teammates.
Also in attendance was Two-time Grammy Award winning rapper Nelly, who delivered a surprise performance of 2002 chart topper “Dilemma,” which is Hammonds’ favorite song.
The St. Louis native has long been a fan of the Cardinals and even tried to recruit Bryce Harper to the team. He has also thrown out the first pitch at Busch Stadium.
Despite his connections to the Cardinals, Nelly was in a Dodgers jersey for a visit to Camelback Ranch during Spring Training. He attended a game against the Chicago Cubs and also took batting practice.
Nelly additionally caught up with Justin Turner and Betts after previously seeing them at the wedding and posed for photos.
In high school, Nelly was a promising baseball player who was scouted by multiple MLB clubs, and since then he has played in the Celebrity All-Star Game the league hosts each season.
Friedman, Roberts and Turner left Nelly’s performance to pursue Freeman
When the Dodgers began their pursuit of Freddie Freeman, it seemed unlikely that the veteran superstar would leave the Atlanta Braves, but that didn’t stop president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman and manager Dave Roberts from pursuing the 2020 National League MVP.
While at Betts’ wedding, Friedman, Roberts and Turner decided to step outside to make one more call to Freeman that required them to leave Nelly’s performance just minutes before MLB locked out the players.
“And then just before the lockout, at Mookie’s wedding, Doc, J.T. and I walked outside 10 minutes before everything went dark, and just said, ‘Hey, don’t forget about us. During this period just don’t forget about us.’ Friedman said.
“We actually left a live music performance of Nelly to walk out and make that call. It would’ve taken a lot to get us to do that, but Freddie was definitely worth it.”
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