Kentucky basketball players sang Christmas carols and provided Christmas for 11 families in Lexington Sunday. (Grace Bradley/UK Athletics Photo)
I remember late in the baseball season when Los Angeles Dodgers star Mookie Betts made national headlines when he convinced a Cincinnati fan to give him the ball after Reds’ rookie TJ Friedl hit his first home run — which at age 26 was also his first major league hit
Metts knew what the ball would mean to Friedl and then rewarded the fan with an autographed bat.
So what does this have to do with University of Kentucky sports?
Well, it turns out Friedl is Kentucky coach John Calipari’s cousin. Calipari invited Betts to UK’s game against North Carolina in Las Vegas to say thank you for what he did for the coach’s cousin.
“Now, what is Mookie Betts going to get from that (getting the ball for Friedl)? Like why would — you know what that tells me? He’s got a good heart, and he’s got a good heart for people,” Calipari said after his team’s win.
“He was getting nothing in return. You know, TJ went up and TJ was here tonight, too, and I got those together, their families and wives.
“But I told the team the story because like we’re going through in western Kentucky right now some miserable stuff (because of the tornado) ….”
That led Calipari to first reveal he would be in western Kentucky Sunday to help deliver 10,000 pairs of shoes to tornado victims, which he did with Gov. Andy Beshear, Lt. Governor Jacqueline Coleman, Jack Givens, and Darius Miller.
Calipari did not take any current players due to COVID concerns but when he returned to Lexington the UK basketball team continued its annual tradition of providing Christmas gifts for 11 local families.
“I want these kids to do stuff where they get nothing in return, to understand what true joy is,” Calipari said Saturday. “Now, this would have been a hard deal tomorrow if North Carolina would have beat our brains in, but we were able to get out of the gym alive, go back, and even though it makes no difference, it kind of does.”
It does, just like what Betts did for Calipari’s cousin.
