MILWAUKEE — Los Angeles Dodgers shortstop Mookie Betts has refused to stay at the team hotel in downtown Milwaukee for years, convinced that the famous Pfister Hotel is haunted.
So when the Dodgers come to town, he always checks into an Airbnb away from the team, not ready to encounter any ghosts.
Well, if there’s any extra room, Dodgers outfielder Teoscar Hernandez would like to join him.
Hernandez insisted before Game 2 of that National League Championship Series that while he does not believe in ghosts, his wife sure does – so they’re getting different accommodations.
“I don’t believe in ghosts,’ Hernandez said. “I have stayed in there before. I’ve never seen anything or heard anything.
“But my wife is on this trip, and she said she doesn’t want to stay there. So we have to find another hotel.
“But I’ve been hearing from other players and other wives that it’s something happening in these couple of nights.’
Well, just what are they hearing?
“The lights, some of the rooms, the lights goes off and on,’ Hernandez said. “And the doors, there are noises, footsteps, things like that, I don’t know.
“I’m not the guy that I’m going to be here saying, ‘Oh, yeah, I experienced that before’ because I’m not. And I don’t think I’m going to experience that.’
Well, you can’t convince Betts that something isn’t up, and refuses to take any chances, saying “I just don’t want to find out myself.’
Players in the past have talked about some strange occurrences at the 132-year-old hotel with Phillies first baseman Bryce Harper saying his clothes were once moved across the room, and players talking about phantom footsteps and the TV and radios mysteriously coming on in their rooms.
Yankees slugger Giancarlo Stanton once said: “It’s freaky with the head-shot paintings on the walls and the old curtains everywhere. It reminds me of the Disneyland Haunted House. The less time I’m there, the better.’
The truth, one former MLB executive says, is that it’s often just gags being played by teammates.
The doors to the rooms on the older side of the hotel don’t go all of the way to the floor, leaving about a quarter-inch gap from the bottom.
“So guys will take their TV remotes and go around to other player and staff rooms in the middle of the night clicking TV’s under their doors,’ he said. “I’ve seen it done a ton over the years. That’s where the whole haunted thing started back in the day.’
So the hotel is not haunted?
“Not haunted,’ he said.
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