Major League Baseball

Mookie Betts opts to stay at an Airbnb to avoid Milwaukee hotel with haunted history

Published May. 10, 2023 1:39 p.m. ET

Mookie Betts claims that he doesn't believe in ghosts, but he's actively looking to avoid them if they exist.

The Los Angeles Dodgers star is staying at an Airbnb with some friends instead of staying with the rest of the team at the Pfister Hotel during their three-game road series against the Milwaukee Brewers. Betts is staying at the Airbnb "just in case" the rumors about ghosts at the Pfister Hotel are true.

"It was a good excuse (not to stay there)," Betts told the Orange County Register's Bill Plunkett on Tuesday.

While Betts isn't a believer in ghosts, he doesn't want to find out if they're real or not during the team's stay in Milwaukee.

"You can tell me what happened after," he said. "I just don’t want to find out myself."

Betts' decision to stay at an Airbnb didn't affect his performance in Tuesday's game. He hit a leadoff home run en route to a Dodgers win.

Several players have spoken about being spooked out during their stays at the Pfister Hotel in the past. Then-Dodgers third baseman Adrian Beltre made the first known claim of something suspicious going on at the Milwaukee hotel in 2001. In an interview with Sports Illustrated, Beltre revealed that he heard knocking in the hallway and on his door, but didn't see anyone there when he opened the door. Later, Beltre said that the air conditioning and the TV kept turning themselves on and off. Then, Beltre heard banging noises from behind his headboard, causing him to have a bat in bed as he only had two hours of sleep over the entirety of his three-night stay.

In 2008, Carlos Gomez claimed that he heard voices while he was showering, but didn't see anyone in his room when he stepped out of the shower. However, his iPod powered itself on before a loud static sound broke out with the iPod vibrating so hard that it nearly fell off the table. Gomez caught the device before it hit the floor, but the static sound from the iPod ended and it began to play music. The iPod continued to play a static sound and vibrate again though once he placed it back on the table.

Several players shared their haunting stories of the Pfister Hotel in an ESPN The Magazine story in 2013. Bryce Harper said the clothes he put on the end of his bed moved across the room and the table also switched spots in the room while he was asleep.

Vinoy Renaissance in St. Petersburg, Florida is viewed as the other haunted hotel team commonly stay at in MLB. As he spent the first six seasons of his career with the Red Sox, Betts has stayed at the hotel in the past.

Even though Betts said he didn't have ghost experiences there, it didn't seem like a comfortable stay for him.

"I couldn’t sleep," Betts said. "Every noise, I’d be like, ‘Is that something?’"

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