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Orel Hershiser on Dodgers Territory · Foul Territory

0:03
Speaker 1: Oral, good to be with you, Thank you so much.
0:06
Speaker 1: As we are basically a third of the way through
0:08
Speaker 1: the season. What grade would you give your Dodgers to
0:11
Speaker 1: this point?
0:13
Speaker 2: Wow, So the bar is so high. I can't give
0:18
Speaker 2: them an A because you know that would be probably
0:21
Speaker 2: undefeated for the bar they raised for themselves with this
0:24
Speaker 2: roster and talent and everything they got going. But they're
0:27
Speaker 2: definitely at a B plus. And I'd say there a
0:30
Speaker 2: B plus because it's a little streaky. It's a little
0:33
Speaker 2: streaky for the offense. You know, there's the big highs
0:36
Speaker 2: of ten games or so of over ten runs, but
0:39
Speaker 2: then you have the games where they don't score three,
0:42
Speaker 2: and so they would tell you that they're a little
0:44
Speaker 2: bit more streaky. But they're beating the teams they should beat,
0:47
Speaker 2: and they're beating some of the high caliber teams too.
0:52
Speaker 3: You know, got a high caliber player there both sides
0:55
Speaker 3: of the ball with show Hao Tani. And we talk
0:57
Speaker 3: a lot about show Hao Tani, and also the same times,
1:01
Speaker 3: not enough about what he's doing.
1:04
Speaker 4: We know what he could do with the bat.
1:05
Speaker 3: We've seen that a lot over the first two years
1:07
Speaker 3: of him and Dodge Blue. But now he is a
1:09
Speaker 3: full time two way player in his third season in
1:12
Speaker 3: Dodge Blue, and it's impressive. We're talking about right now
1:15
Speaker 3: in era as of the time, we're recording an era
1:17
Speaker 3: under one. Even when he doesn't have his best command,
1:21
Speaker 3: the stuff is still just so dangerous, so dominant.
1:25
Speaker 2: One.
1:26
Speaker 3: Have you ever seen anything like a show Hey Otani,
1:29
Speaker 3: even down to the little league where you guys were
1:31
Speaker 3: going to pitching and playing shortstop and you know, catching
1:34
Speaker 3: and all that stuff at the same time, like the
1:36
Speaker 3: amount of talent that this dude has just kind of
1:39
Speaker 3: talk about seeing the unicorn day unicorn day in and
1:43
Speaker 3: day out.
1:44
Speaker 2: Well, you know, you have a million people at the
1:47
Speaker 2: little league level that can do this. Then it as
1:50
Speaker 2: you go up the pyramid of sports and you get
1:54
Speaker 2: near the peak, of course it's it's only one. There's him. Well,
1:58
Speaker 2: where do they start to fall off. They really start
2:00
Speaker 2: to fall off around college because high school coaches let
2:03
Speaker 2: their best athletes do both. They're in the game no
2:07
Speaker 2: matter what, with their bat, with their arm on the mound,
2:10
Speaker 2: that shortstop. At college, you see a few and there's
2:14
Speaker 2: few more now that show Hey is doing what he's doing,
2:17
Speaker 2: and the big leagues are grasping and really hugging the
2:21
Speaker 2: two way player because it expands their roster. And I
2:24
Speaker 2: think that but one of a kind. He's one of
2:28
Speaker 2: a kind, and it's not only one of a generation.
2:30
Speaker 2: It might be one of a lifetime for people, and
2:34
Speaker 2: it could be once every hundred years we see somebody
2:37
Speaker 2: and I don't mean somebody's going to do it both ways,
2:40
Speaker 2: but somebody is going to do it at an elite level.
2:43
Speaker 2: And elite is not an easy word to say, but
2:46
Speaker 2: you can say elite for him on both sides of
2:49
Speaker 2: the ball and you're not stretching it. Well.
2:53
Speaker 5: I've been accused on this podcast of being a rookie
2:55
Speaker 5: Sasaki apologist, and I think it's important to remember that
2:59
Speaker 5: he is, although he comes rightfully with so much hype
3:02
Speaker 5: and fanfare, still a pitching prospect, and as we saw
3:05
Speaker 5: him go through May took a lot of steps forward.
3:08
Speaker 5: What have you seen from Ropie over the last few
3:11
Speaker 5: starts that has you encouraged?
3:13
Speaker 2: Well, I think he's gone through the natural adjustments of
3:17
Speaker 2: somebody coming from the far East, and the change of
3:19
Speaker 2: the ball and the number of games and how often
3:21
Speaker 2: you're supposed to pitch, the length of the spring training,
3:24
Speaker 2: food culture, travel, all the different things, but the microscope
3:29
Speaker 2: was on him and he wasn't really allowed to go
3:32
Speaker 2: through those without being judged. And then the performance of
3:36
Speaker 2: last year and then you know, putting it together and
3:39
Speaker 2: then contributing in a big way in the playoffs in
3:41
Speaker 2: the World Series. I thought it was a great transformation
3:44
Speaker 2: and a great step forward. But then he comes back
3:46
Speaker 2: into spring training to be started on and he starts
3:53
Speaker 2: and amazing. It's probably because he needs to throw a
3:59
Speaker 2: lot more pitches and a lot more consistently, and he
4:01
Speaker 2: had not built the consistency yet. He had the stuff
4:04
Speaker 2: to be a short reliever. He had the stuff to
4:06
Speaker 2: go out there for an inning or two, but to
4:08
Speaker 2: go around the order a second time, to let the
4:11
Speaker 2: opposing team start to see what you're landing and what
4:14
Speaker 2: you're not landing. He went through a serious learning curve
4:18
Speaker 2: and went through a lot of defeat and with that,
4:21
Speaker 2: I think it softened his personality. It softened his ability
4:24
Speaker 2: to say, you know what I do need to change,
4:27
Speaker 2: and that happens with all young players. With certain players,
4:31
Speaker 2: we see them go up and down from the miners,
4:33
Speaker 2: they get exposed, they learn what they need to work on,
4:36
Speaker 2: they go back down to the Triple A, they get
4:39
Speaker 2: exposed again, they get called up and they have to
4:41
Speaker 2: work on even more. We're not seeing that with him.
4:44
Speaker 2: He's having to develop at the big league level. I
4:46
Speaker 2: think one thing it's because they really think it's going
4:49
Speaker 2: to pop at any time, because of the great ability.
4:52
Speaker 2: The other reason I think is because he's very popular
4:55
Speaker 2: on the team and guys around him want to succeed
4:57
Speaker 2: and we have the ability of a rott to kind
5:01
Speaker 2: of carry somebody. Kind Of like when Sandy Kofax came
5:04
Speaker 2: to the big leagues and he was a draft pick
5:06
Speaker 2: that got one hundred thousand dollars or more and he
5:08
Speaker 2: had to stay in the big leagues for the Dodgers
5:10
Speaker 2: to keep him because that was the rule. Well, it's
5:12
Speaker 2: kind of the same thing around Sasaki. It's like, the
5:15
Speaker 2: potential is there. We've got him, we got time to
5:18
Speaker 2: develop him, and we've got the talent around him that
5:20
Speaker 2: it's not going to hurt our playoff chances that he
5:23
Speaker 2: can do it. And what have I seen in him
5:25
Speaker 2: physically or mentally or emotionally. I've seen mechanical changes. I've
5:30
Speaker 2: seen consistency, I've seen the confidence grow, and at all
5:33
Speaker 2: is like executed, and the results are when he's in
5:37
Speaker 2: the strike zone. We knew if he was going to
5:39
Speaker 2: be in the strike zone, he's going to be really good.
5:42
Speaker 2: And that Connor McGinnis and Mark Pryor have kind of
5:44
Speaker 2: added the slider and up the usage of it, and
5:47
Speaker 2: he's gained confidence in that. And now he actually has
5:50
Speaker 2: a breaking ball to compliment the split, to compliment what
5:53
Speaker 2: used to be the fork, to compliment the four seam
5:55
Speaker 2: fastball up and the four seam fastball and two seamed
5:58
Speaker 2: fastball down. He's got to another breaking ball that gives
6:01
Speaker 2: him a weapon that on certain days when he's not
6:04
Speaker 2: landing the split, he can land the slider.
6:09
Speaker 1: August thirtieth, nineteen eighty eight, the sixth inning of a
6:12
Speaker 1: game against the Expos ended in the tenth inning of
6:14
Speaker 1: the September twenty eighth start against the San Diego Padres.
6:17
Speaker 1: I remember, very early in my tenure with you on
6:20
Speaker 1: the set for Sports and at LA we were talking
6:22
Speaker 1: about the scoreless inning streak and it came up that
6:24
Speaker 1: you had fifty nine.
6:25
Speaker 2: I was like, you did that? Was you? You're like, really,
6:29
Speaker 2: you didn't know that?
6:30
Speaker 1: And I know that now. I know that now it's
6:33
Speaker 1: so impressive. It's still the record in Major League Baseball
6:36
Speaker 1: for consecutive scoreless innings. So, Bulldog, I want you to
6:40
Speaker 1: brag a little bit on what Christopher Sanchez of the
6:43
Speaker 1: Phillies is doing right now.
6:46
Speaker 2: Yeah, the interviews have started. I think he's at around
6:50
Speaker 2: forty four as of this taping. I think that with
6:54
Speaker 2: Christopher Sanchez, he's going through a great time in his life.
6:57
Speaker 2: He's doing something that he loves and he's doing it
6:59
Speaker 2: very well. The baseball probabilities of us ground ball pitchers,
7:05
Speaker 2: their balls are being hit at people. You know, you're
7:08
Speaker 2: not making mistakes up and when you do, your outfielders
7:10
Speaker 2: are catching it for you. It's a team record, but
7:14
Speaker 2: it also gets attributed to an individual. And you know,
7:18
Speaker 2: the worst part of my personality when I got to
7:21
Speaker 2: the big leagues was reacting to things and not responding
7:25
Speaker 2: to things. And so you have to be learned to
7:28
Speaker 2: be a good responder. And a response is kind of
7:31
Speaker 2: a thoughtful thing where the nerves and the pressure and
7:35
Speaker 2: the fifty thousand people and this is for the playoffs,
7:38
Speaker 2: or this is for my team, or this is for
7:40
Speaker 2: whatever the World championship, and this could be the last
7:44
Speaker 2: pitch if I get this guy Tony Phillips out and
7:47
Speaker 2: you start almost crying, and you think about little boy
7:51
Speaker 2: things and they tell you to enjoy it, but I
7:53
Speaker 2: couldn't enjoy it. I had to go out there and
7:55
Speaker 2: focus and respond to the situation. So I hope he
7:59
Speaker 2: has a great response to the chasing of the record.
8:03
Speaker 2: For me, I'm so present tense. I am so present
8:07
Speaker 2: tense that to think of the past and how it
8:10
Speaker 2: might affect my future, it already has and so I
8:13
Speaker 2: am not going to wish Ill Will on somebody that
8:16
Speaker 2: has a chance to have a life changing moment, a
8:20
Speaker 2: life changing headline, and then see what it happens for
8:24
Speaker 2: him with that. I think the most important part of
8:27
Speaker 2: eighty eight and that string you talked about is that
8:29
Speaker 2: it continued into the playoffs and the World Series, and
8:33
Speaker 2: winning the MVP in the NLCS, winning the MVP in
8:35
Speaker 2: the World Series, being on the mound for the last
8:38
Speaker 2: pitch of the World Series, doing the Disney commercial, and
8:42
Speaker 2: having those memories with all my teammates. You know, we
8:46
Speaker 2: were doing a lot of things. As we continue on,
8:48
Speaker 2: those trophies will get dust, they'll get rusty, but you know,
8:52
Speaker 2: the relationships will last forever. So I want to respond
8:56
Speaker 2: to this, not react to it now. I can't can't
9:01
Speaker 2: excuse me, I have the broadcast today. I can't say
9:07
Speaker 2: that the same feelings are for my friends and family.
9:10
Speaker 2: I would have to say I am responding and thinking
9:16
Speaker 2: about it, and I am not gonna I'm not going
9:18
Speaker 2: to put ill will onto somebody or root against him
9:21
Speaker 2: that has a chance to have a life changing moment.
9:23
Speaker 3: For the transparency of the audience. We are recording this
9:27
Speaker 3: before Christopher Sanchez's most recent start, which I think he's
9:31
Speaker 3: starting for the Phils on Tuesday, So there's behind the
9:35
Speaker 3: scenes there. But Bulldog, you're talking about the past and
9:38
Speaker 3: how it could relate.
9:40
Speaker 4: To the future future for everybody. I want to talk about.
9:44
Speaker 3: The CBA negotiations of course in ninety four. Yeah, putting
9:49
Speaker 3: you on the spot here, and of course, you know,
9:51
Speaker 3: don't upset the organization.
9:52
Speaker 4: We don't want to cut off your paycheck.
9:54
Speaker 2: But yeah, I'll just sign a new deal too.
9:57
Speaker 3: You know we love that congrat Yeah, that's an important
10:01
Speaker 3: one there.
10:01
Speaker 4: We'll get back to me.
10:02
Speaker 3: How long, how long we still got a bulldog in
10:04
Speaker 3: our life?
10:06
Speaker 2: Oh, we signed a three year deal with another option,
10:09
Speaker 2: so we might be here till I'm ancient. No, I'm
10:11
Speaker 2: sixty seven. So we're signed till seventy one.
10:15
Speaker 5: Congrat breaking news, breaking news on doctor territory, congratulation.
10:19
Speaker 2: Getting five stars. You know, you know we'll still be
10:23
Speaker 2: doing this for.
10:23
Speaker 3: Your So did he mash that thumbs up button for
10:27
Speaker 3: the bulldog there? And having him around? And maybe he's
10:29
Speaker 3: going to get back into podcasting with Joe Davis, But
10:32
Speaker 3: that's that's a different story.
10:34
Speaker 2: But yeah, a lot of work. You guys do a
10:36
Speaker 2: lot of good work. It's a lot of work.
10:39
Speaker 4: Was Itkjuski? Did he get did he get lazy? On
10:41
Speaker 4: you guys?
10:43
Speaker 2: Nouy is the man, doctor Krajewski. His nickname for me
10:48
Speaker 2: is oral Intelligence because he hands me a five card
10:51
Speaker 2: and I look smart. I love one of the best.
10:54
Speaker 3: I love Richard as I call him. I don't know
10:56
Speaker 3: if it annoys him, but I love calling him Richard.
10:58
Speaker 3: All right, So ce b. Nineteen ninety four. Of course,
11:03
Speaker 3: the season is cut short because there's talk of a
11:06
Speaker 3: salary cap. Now we're hearing salary cap back in the ethos,
11:11
Speaker 3: back in the lexicon. Here, you don't necessarily need to
11:15
Speaker 3: speak so much about this now, But as a former
11:19
Speaker 3: professional baseball player, what would a salary cap do to
11:25
Speaker 3: the player's side of it. Obviously the owners want a
11:28
Speaker 3: reason to not spend money, but how bad could this
11:31
Speaker 3: be for baseball or for players?
11:36
Speaker 2: A lead off that I'm proud to be an American.
11:40
Speaker 2: I believe in the free market system. So I think
11:45
Speaker 2: that a lot of what goes on is trying to
11:50
Speaker 2: protect the health of the sport. And I think ownership
11:53
Speaker 2: tries to protect the health of the sport. And I
11:56
Speaker 2: think players are always looking for freedom. And those two
12:00
Speaker 2: equations don't always match up. Because there's the heart of
12:04
Speaker 2: the fans, the heart of the cities, the heart of
12:08
Speaker 2: we developed a player, we'd love to keep him, that
12:11
Speaker 2: we've invested in, players, we'd love to keep them. And
12:14
Speaker 2: players are like you know, as I grow and as
12:17
Speaker 2: I earn and as I get better, I want the
12:20
Speaker 2: freedom to have the highest bidder for me. And that
12:25
Speaker 2: does not exist because you have to earn that with
12:27
Speaker 2: free agency. But it does exist a little bit with arbitration,
12:30
Speaker 2: it does exist a little bit with minimum salaries. And
12:34
Speaker 2: then then there are other perks around that, of course,
12:36
Speaker 2: which are really off the chart as far as human
12:38
Speaker 2: comforts is whether it's you know, the Dodgers in their
12:42
Speaker 2: playing or the locker room, the way it's built, and
12:44
Speaker 2: other expenses that you know, it's fantastic to play in
12:47
Speaker 2: the big leagues. So the CBA is a very tough,
12:50
Speaker 2: tough year. It's a sad year for I think everybody,
12:53
Speaker 2: from players to owners to fans, and hopefully it's something
12:57
Speaker 2: that we can get to the pressure points early enough
13:01
Speaker 2: that baseball is not taken off the board. We usually
13:04
Speaker 2: see that both sides start from very far off tangents
13:09
Speaker 2: and then both sides work theirselves to what is the
13:12
Speaker 2: middle where we have no idea where the middle is,
13:15
Speaker 2: and usually it is the players that are giving in
13:19
Speaker 2: because we can see how the needle has moved through
13:21
Speaker 2: the years. I think early on when the union was formed,
13:25
Speaker 2: it was looking like the players were winning because they
13:27
Speaker 2: were gaining back something as far as freedom, as far
13:30
Speaker 2: as a retirement fund, as far as a portion of
13:34
Speaker 2: the national TV package. But the revenues now are so
13:38
Speaker 2: great and are so complicated, and the needle has moved
13:42
Speaker 2: so far is into a king's ransom salaries and perks
13:46
Speaker 2: for the players that it seems like the players are
13:48
Speaker 2: always giving something up and that okay, But I think
13:53
Speaker 2: the main thing for the players where their fight is
13:56
Speaker 2: going to be is protecting all the different generations of players,
13:59
Speaker 2: from even the minders to the early big leaguers, to
14:02
Speaker 2: the rookies, to the to the guys eligible for arbitration,
14:05
Speaker 2: to then when you qualify for free agency, and then
14:08
Speaker 2: how much money you can make once you get into
14:10
Speaker 2: those equations. And so it's a very hard, complicated equation.
14:15
Speaker 2: But I think, you know, hopefully for me as a broadcaster,
14:18
Speaker 2: as an ex player, as an ex Union rep, as
14:21
Speaker 2: a as a rookie that made it as a minor
14:23
Speaker 2: leaguer for four and a half years, as playing the
14:25
Speaker 2: Dominican Republic in Venezuela Arizona Instructional League, go into all
14:30
Speaker 2: those spring trainings, you know, put all that work in.
14:32
Speaker 2: It turned out to be a wonderful life. But this
14:35
Speaker 2: CBN is the kind of thing that you know, it's
14:38
Speaker 2: a tough, tough time or all.
14:42
Speaker 5: The other day at Chase Fielder, we're having a conversation
14:44
Speaker 5: pre game about mister Justin Robleski, and I think his
14:47
Speaker 5: approach to pitching is the perfect blend of that old
14:50
Speaker 5: school mentality and really being open minded to the analytics
14:53
Speaker 5: side of the game. What do you see from Robleski
14:56
Speaker 5: that reminds you, maybe even a little bit about yourself.
15:01
Speaker 2: My fastball moved a lot more, but he is very
15:04
Speaker 2: much into fastball command. I did want to throw the
15:08
Speaker 2: ball inside and outside, but my primary motive was to
15:11
Speaker 2: make sure it moved first, because I know late movement
15:14
Speaker 2: is the number one tool, because we know a knuckleball works.
15:17
Speaker 2: So he has decided that I am going to pound
15:21
Speaker 2: the zone and watch Clayton Kershaw at the tail end
15:23
Speaker 2: of his career when Rableski was up and saw a
15:25
Speaker 2: guy that had less stuff than him but was having
15:29
Speaker 2: a much lower er than him, was having much more
15:31
Speaker 2: success than him, And he's like, so it's not about stuff.
15:35
Speaker 2: What is Clayton doing that his making him succeed? And
15:39
Speaker 2: what it is is he controlled the count, he controlled
15:42
Speaker 2: the batters. He didn't back down when all of a
15:44
Speaker 2: sudden there was things melting down around him with men
15:48
Speaker 2: on base, Clayton continued to attack, and he attacked mainly
15:51
Speaker 2: with two pitches, his fastball and his slider. Of course,
15:54
Speaker 2: there was the curveball from heaven, but the curveball from
15:57
Speaker 2: heaven even his last three four years was not there.
16:00
Speaker 2: He used it more as an off speed pitch. The
16:02
Speaker 2: other thing Clayton had to do is he had to
16:04
Speaker 2: make adjustments and start throwing to the arm side instead
16:07
Speaker 2: of the glove side, and he threw there more often.
16:09
Speaker 2: He even tried to develop a changeup. So Rableski, what
16:13
Speaker 2: he has done is he's realized and I think a
16:16
Speaker 2: lot of the pitchers need to realize this. There are
16:18
Speaker 2: so many different equations for success. Other than measuring your
16:22
Speaker 2: velocity and your spin rate. It really does come down
16:25
Speaker 2: to movement and execution. And if you can make the
16:29
Speaker 2: ball move at seventy miles an hour or you can
16:31
Speaker 2: locate at one hundred miles an hour, the equation is
16:35
Speaker 2: right there in front of you. And so I love
16:38
Speaker 2: it when all of a sudden, the light bulb goes
16:40
Speaker 2: on for somebody and they start to pitch. And pitching
16:44
Speaker 2: is about counts. It's about getting outs, it's about getting
16:47
Speaker 2: quick outs. It's about finding a swing and miss when
16:49
Speaker 2: you need it and only you need it. I think
16:51
Speaker 2: one of my favorite quotes from our little conversation there
16:54
Speaker 2: in Arizona was the fact that you said, let me
16:57
Speaker 2: think at sixty seven I almost blanked on it. You
17:00
Speaker 2: don't get any reward for a swing and missed than
17:03
Speaker 2: when the count is zero to one. It doesn't strike
17:06
Speaker 2: a guy out. It just is a strike. So I
17:09
Speaker 2: would rather in my day, if there's a man on second,
17:12
Speaker 2: no out, I don't want the guy moved over to third.
17:14
Speaker 2: I might think about finding a way to get a strikeout,
17:16
Speaker 2: not getting the ball put in play man on third
17:18
Speaker 2: less than two outs, definitely maybe going to think about
17:20
Speaker 2: a strikeout. But if the scoreboard says six nothing my lead,
17:23
Speaker 2: I am not going to risk a crooked number for
17:25
Speaker 2: the team to come back just to try and save
17:27
Speaker 2: my ear. I'm going to trade it out for a run.
17:29
Speaker 2: And I think he's starting to understand that whole winning equation,
17:32
Speaker 2: not only about the batter, but the scoreboard, the situation
17:36
Speaker 2: where the wind's blowing, all the different things of my
17:38
Speaker 2: on artificial turf, am I on grass? Do I want
17:41
Speaker 2: the out to the left side to the right side.
17:43
Speaker 2: There are so many parts of pitching that are about winning,
17:48
Speaker 2: not about spin rate and velocity.
17:50
Speaker 1: Man, I could listen to you talk about pitching forever.
17:53
Speaker 1: I learned so much from you. I learned so much
17:54
Speaker 1: from Pedro Martinez is just an encyclopedia of knowledge that
17:58
Speaker 1: it actually not to say that you're done it down,
18:00
Speaker 1: but you have a way of explaining things that's just
18:03
Speaker 1: really poetic. I want to talk about Dave roberts maturity.
18:06
Speaker 1: We're talking a little bit about Rableski's maturity and his development.
18:09
Speaker 1: Dave Roberts or you and I were there when he
18:11
Speaker 1: was introduced to the organization. I want to say, this
18:15
Speaker 1: is back in twenty sixteen, and you know he has
18:18
Speaker 1: just taken this team to new heights, but he's also
18:22
Speaker 1: had to mature as a manager. What have you noticed
18:25
Speaker 1: about Doc's development?
18:27
Speaker 2: Wow, I think some of his development people are going
18:33
Speaker 2: to think. I think the description that made it look
18:40
Speaker 2: like he wasn't ready was the public description was people
18:44
Speaker 2: that got lazy and just said, well, he's new and
18:47
Speaker 2: this is where he came from, and this is what
18:49
Speaker 2: he's going to do, and this is how strong the
18:51
Speaker 2: ownership is, and this is how strong the front office is.
18:54
Speaker 2: So Dave Roberts is just a puppet, and that pretty
18:56
Speaker 2: much at the beginning was the whole thing, and that
18:59
Speaker 2: got sutantiated a little bit because they didn't go very
19:02
Speaker 2: far in the playoffs with an unbelievable roster, and so
19:05
Speaker 2: some of the maturity and some of the growth as
19:08
Speaker 2: a manager is reacting to negative things in the press.
19:11
Speaker 2: You have to talk to him three and four times
19:13
Speaker 2: a day, and then the fan reactions on talk radio,
19:17
Speaker 2: and then how we're you going to turn that around
19:18
Speaker 2: making sure that that doesn't infiltrate your roster. And so
19:22
Speaker 2: I think Dave's maturity is really just the growth. It's
19:25
Speaker 2: not something like, oh he was lacking. I think the
19:29
Speaker 2: stress and the losing early on and the outside influences
19:34
Speaker 2: of the media and different people. I think it exposed
19:37
Speaker 2: great character. I think exposed amazing character, and I think
19:41
Speaker 2: it's always been there. And then as the stature grew
19:44
Speaker 2: and he showed he could handle it, all of a sudden,
19:47
Speaker 2: the narrative changed, and the narrative has changed to who
19:50
Speaker 2: Dave Roberts really is now. People grow and change and
19:53
Speaker 2: he has for sure, and it's in confidence in how
19:55
Speaker 2: he introduces the team in spring training, on how he
19:58
Speaker 2: sets goals, how he verbalized the goals. Now, like if
20:01
Speaker 2: we don't win a World championship, you know what, it's
20:03
Speaker 2: it's a lost season. It's not what we're out here
20:05
Speaker 2: for so he's able to be confidently out there right
20:08
Speaker 2: at the very beginning of a season, right for the
20:12
Speaker 2: repeats and the tree peats and all of them, and
20:14
Speaker 2: who knows how long it's going to go on. But
20:17
Speaker 2: I've always told him in our text messages and our
20:19
Speaker 2: face to face phone calls and whenever we talk, that
20:23
Speaker 2: I would have loved to play for him. I would
20:26
Speaker 2: have ran through a wall for him like I did
20:27
Speaker 2: for tomlessword, I would give up my body for him
20:30
Speaker 2: and just say, let's go win the game. Who cares
20:32
Speaker 2: about tomorrow? Because he loves his players so much. He
20:36
Speaker 2: cares about their careers. He looks at everyone individually, and
20:41
Speaker 2: you know, he starts out with, you know, let's get
20:43
Speaker 2: comfortable being uncomfortable, but let's do it in your own style,
20:47
Speaker 2: in your own way. And he has been been an
20:52
Speaker 2: amazing friend and an amazing manager.
20:55
Speaker 3: Yeah, the people who like to complain, of which they
20:57
Speaker 3: have quieted down, but the people like to him playing
20:59
Speaker 3: over fire. Dave roberts, it's like, find a better person
21:02
Speaker 3: to to manage all of the personalities, all of the
21:06
Speaker 3: people who drive nice cars. As Mookie would say, that's
21:10
Speaker 3: a tough gig and he is only getting better with age,
21:13
Speaker 3: like wine like red stitch wine. Shameless plug there for
21:16
Speaker 3: for doc another guy I want to talk about. I
21:20
Speaker 3: mentioned Mooki there. It's been a little bit of a struggle,
21:22
Speaker 3: a little bit of a slog for.
21:23
Speaker 4: Him this season.
21:25
Speaker 2: Uh.
21:25
Speaker 3: Less about the mechanics side and all that kind of stuff.
21:27
Speaker 3: Just mentally, can you think back to moments in your
21:30
Speaker 3: career where you have kind of felt yourself struggling and
21:34
Speaker 3: lost at sea?
21:35
Speaker 4: What am I doing?
21:36
Speaker 3: How do you get yourself mentally back on track? Because
21:38
Speaker 3: we saw him check out last year and that kind
21:41
Speaker 3: of worked for him after you know, his wife says,
21:44
Speaker 3: just you know, be yourself. How do you how did
21:46
Speaker 3: how did the bulldog get himself mentally back on track?
21:50
Speaker 2: Well? I think it would be hard to uh to
21:53
Speaker 2: compare us because an everyday player has to get up
21:56
Speaker 2: the next day and do it right away, where a
21:57
Speaker 2: starting pitcher you've got four days or so to kind
22:00
Speaker 2: of regroup and talk with the team psychologists, talk with
22:03
Speaker 2: your wife, You go out to dinner, relax, try and
22:06
Speaker 2: get away from the game, play with your kids, play golf.
22:09
Speaker 2: Everyday player you immediately have to get right back out there,
22:12
Speaker 2: so any therapy that I was doing when I was
22:15
Speaker 2: bad mentally, I had a lot of time where an
22:18
Speaker 2: everyday player they have to speed up that clock in
22:20
Speaker 2: a hurry, whether it is how do I get to
22:22
Speaker 2: sleep tonight because I can't because I'm depressed and I'm
22:25
Speaker 2: grinding on everything. But I need my rest aspire a
22:28
Speaker 2: lot of control, and it's going to lead injuries or whatever.
22:31
Speaker 2: So it's just it's just really hard for an everyday player,
22:35
Speaker 2: and a lot of my friends everyday players, right, you know,
22:39
Speaker 2: like a Mike's Socio hit four hundred every April and
22:42
Speaker 2: then by the end of the year he was hitting
22:43
Speaker 2: two forty because just the grind of being a catcher
22:45
Speaker 2: and then carrying a pitching staff for Muki, I think
22:49
Speaker 2: Mooki has matured in a big way of dealing with this.
22:51
Speaker 2: You know, he was the guy in Boston, he was
22:54
Speaker 2: the guy in LA and now he understands he has
22:57
Speaker 2: a role with this team and he will be a
23:00
Speaker 2: the guy on certain nights in certain series and possibly
23:03
Speaker 2: an MVP of a National Championship series or a World series,
23:07
Speaker 2: and that could happen. But there's a role now on
23:10
Speaker 2: this team, and I think he's I think he's embracing it,
23:12
Speaker 2: and I think it's helping him relax and deal with
23:16
Speaker 2: ophers a little bit better and deal with looking up
23:18
Speaker 2: there with a two hundred batting average. I think he
23:21
Speaker 2: can just say, you know what, every day. One of
23:24
Speaker 2: the things that he turned the corner last year was
23:26
Speaker 2: with I'm going to come out every day. I'm not
23:28
Speaker 2: going to look at my numbers. I'm not going to
23:29
Speaker 2: look at how I feel. I'm going to do something
23:31
Speaker 2: today to help this team win, and to get out
23:35
Speaker 2: of yourself and into the team. I think that's a
23:38
Speaker 2: big step.
23:41
Speaker 5: Oral, I want to hit on maybe a bigger picture
23:43
Speaker 5: baseball question because I'm a baseball traditionalist and I believe
23:47
Speaker 5: in the value of stats that we've used to evaluate
23:49
Speaker 5: the game throughout its history. Not a lot of people
23:52
Speaker 5: agree with me, though. It's the Cardinal way, thank you
23:55
Speaker 5: very much.
23:56
Speaker 2: Even though we're tell you on your side now right.
24:00
Speaker 5: You'll have to teach me the dodge your way. It's okay,
24:02
Speaker 5: I'm willing to make the adjustment, but when it comes
24:04
Speaker 5: to pitcher wins, we as an industry just don't value
24:08
Speaker 5: them the same as we used to do. You still
24:09
Speaker 5: see the value in a starting pitcher win.
24:13
Speaker 2: Well, I mean you've heard me talk in this interview
24:16
Speaker 2: and you can tell that I don't think about baseball,
24:19
Speaker 2: So so the win to me is still very important.
24:26
Speaker 2: The eer is still very important. I loved lately that
24:31
Speaker 2: Dave Roberts said something about I don't mind a bad swing.
24:35
Speaker 2: Where it's a blue pit, it's called a hit, and
24:38
Speaker 2: he gave himself a chance. It's not a swing and miss, strikeout,
24:41
Speaker 2: come back to the bench. I think that I still
24:45
Speaker 2: value who's up next and what my pitch selection should
24:48
Speaker 2: be because of who's up next. I still value there's
24:51
Speaker 2: a base open. I still value strike one. I still
24:54
Speaker 2: think the most important pitch is the one to one
24:56
Speaker 2: pitch because it can go to one, two or two
24:58
Speaker 2: to one. So yes, the W I think is still important.
25:03
Speaker 2: Going back to what we talked about with Robleski, you know,
25:07
Speaker 2: if the score is three to one and there's two
25:09
Speaker 2: outs in the seventh and there's a tying run or tying
25:13
Speaker 2: run at the plate, my number one job is to
25:16
Speaker 2: not let him hit a home run. My other number
25:18
Speaker 2: one job is to know who's in the bullpen and
25:20
Speaker 2: who's fresh, and who could come in behind me. And
25:22
Speaker 2: what's the next guy. Does he strike out a lot.
25:25
Speaker 2: It's just there's so much about pitch selection and where
25:29
Speaker 2: you put it. This is black and a ball, and
25:31
Speaker 2: I'm not missing over the middle. This is I've got
25:33
Speaker 2: to knock this guy down a little bit. But I
25:35
Speaker 2: can risk that I'm going to hit him, and that's
25:38
Speaker 2: okay if he ends up standing at first base, because
25:40
Speaker 2: it's going to give me a better chance to get
25:42
Speaker 2: him out away. And I want to get him out
25:44
Speaker 2: away because the wind's blowing out to the pull side,
25:47
Speaker 2: so I want him to have to hit the ball
25:48
Speaker 2: the opposite field. I mean, that stuff all comes into
25:52
Speaker 2: w's now. I understand we can break it down where
25:55
Speaker 2: it's no big deal, but I also understand in the moment,
25:59
Speaker 2: the history of the game and the stats and everything
26:02
Speaker 2: around it in that moment, that moment is so much
26:06
Speaker 2: more special than all the stats that tell me exactly
26:10
Speaker 2: what to do, compared to what I see, what I feel,
26:13
Speaker 2: and what I have as far as the current data,
26:16
Speaker 2: what's going on.
26:19
Speaker 1: I don't want to let you go at all, but
26:22
Speaker 1: we have to wrap up our show, and I didn't
26:24
Speaker 1: want to wrap it up without talking about what you're doing.
26:27
Speaker 1: You continue to reinvent yourself. You and Dana have created
26:30
Speaker 1: such an amazing life for you guys, and for your
26:32
Speaker 1: kids and all of the things. And I don't know
26:34
Speaker 1: that I've seen you smile more than at the open
26:38
Speaker 1: house for Oral Herscheizer, Chevrolet and Sino. Tell me more
26:42
Speaker 1: about how this came about. Was it Chino?
26:45
Speaker 2: Where were you? I can't remember, Gino, California. Yeah, I
26:49
Speaker 2: mean I have a life triangle all on it. I
26:52
Speaker 2: have this triangle because we live in Pasadena, and I
26:55
Speaker 2: drive out the Chino to the dealership. It's about thirty
26:58
Speaker 2: five minutes and I stay there from about nine in
27:00
Speaker 2: the morning until about two in the afternoon, and I
27:02
Speaker 2: take the hour drive from Chino into Dodger Stadium and
27:06
Speaker 2: I announced the game and I get home and I
27:08
Speaker 2: have this whole triangle. We also have that at our ship. Yeah.
27:14
Speaker 2: We you know, got into the car business by way
27:16
Speaker 2: of a commercial being asked to endorse for Tolo Chevrolet
27:19
Speaker 2: and fell in love with it. The great thing about
27:22
Speaker 2: the car business is it has a bad reputation at times,
27:26
Speaker 2: and I can bring in a better reputation and say
27:29
Speaker 2: we're going to stand behind our word. We're gonna have integrity.
27:31
Speaker 2: And what I love about it is I've never seen
27:34
Speaker 2: anybody buy a new car and not be smiling. And
27:37
Speaker 2: it's so it's like a football game. You come to
27:39
Speaker 2: the game, you're smiling. You leave the game, hopefully you're smiling.
27:41
Speaker 2: Your team won. You leave a car dealership you've won,
27:44
Speaker 2: and you're driving your new car, and you're getting to
27:47
Speaker 2: go to grandma's house and you're getting to go travel
27:49
Speaker 2: to work, and you're getting to go to the kids'
27:51
Speaker 2: soccer games and you're doing all this and that new
27:53
Speaker 2: car smell and everybody's having fun. And so we can
27:56
Speaker 2: stand behind my word. I have a reputation of being
28:00
Speaker 2: an okay guy, and so people come in and know
28:03
Speaker 2: that they're going to get it on a shake, and
28:05
Speaker 2: it's a it's a lot of fun to I start
28:08
Speaker 2: a tradition there. On Sundays when I'm home, I go
28:11
Speaker 2: to one of the flower guys under the bridges and
28:14
Speaker 2: I buy them all of their flowers. I buy twenty
28:17
Speaker 2: five books and I take them to the dealership and
28:20
Speaker 2: any female that comes in, I feel like it's the
28:23
Speaker 2: female that's going to make the decision if or cars
28:27
Speaker 2: for the female. So I'm like, I am given every
28:31
Speaker 2: lady that walks in a bouquet and put them in
28:34
Speaker 2: a good mood. And if they're in a good mood,
28:36
Speaker 2: we got a chance. And our car we went from
28:40
Speaker 2: like two to three cars to like seven or nine.
28:43
Speaker 2: Look at that. Now they got flowers.
28:47
Speaker 1: It's the charm of fifty five. It's all right, what's
28:50
Speaker 1: coming up at Legends Attic? What do you got going
28:53
Speaker 1: on there before we say goodbye?
28:55
Speaker 2: Well, we always have appearances and things. I think we've
28:58
Speaker 2: got Chris Taylor coming out after he announced his retirement.
29:01
Speaker 2: We've always had, you know, the list as goes on.
29:05
Speaker 2: But I just love Legends Attic because we make it
29:08
Speaker 2: memorable to buy memorabilia and so the is gorgeous. We're
29:14
Speaker 2: now in three locations. We're going to open up another one.
29:17
Speaker 2: We're probably gonna have a free standing building up ten
29:19
Speaker 2: thousand feet soon, in about another six months or so.
29:22
Speaker 2: And so I just love making it memorable that people
29:25
Speaker 2: are coming from memorabilia, whether it's cards, jerseys, helmets, whatever
29:28
Speaker 2: it is artwork. That's the fun part. That's the fun
29:31
Speaker 2: part of that too. And it's all smiles and people
29:34
Speaker 2: say to us, you know, we can't believe that you
29:36
Speaker 2: don't charge an admission. I'm like, it's not about the admission,
29:39
Speaker 2: It's about you coming in here, having a great time,
29:41
Speaker 2: and if you buy something that's fantastic or I'm proud
29:44
Speaker 2: of you.
29:44
Speaker 1: Always have been an ambassador of the game, an ambassador
29:49
Speaker 1: of the Los Angeles Dodgers, and every single bit of
29:52
Speaker 1: this was earned, nothing was given to you. Thank you
29:55
Speaker 1: so much for taking the time. We appreciate it and
29:57
Speaker 1: we look forward to talking to you again soon.
29:59
Speaker 2: Bulldog, you're my original friend in this crew, but these
30:03
Speaker 2: other two are becoming my friends now. And you know, Katie,
30:06
Speaker 2: she's got her ways of becoming friends. It's not it's
30:08
Speaker 2: not even you.
30:10
Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm gathering you don't have a choice.
30:12
Speaker 2: Don't have a choice to have on the Dodger beat.
30:15
Speaker 2: She is changing the whole beat.
30:18
Speaker 1: I don't doubt that.
30:19
Speaker 5: I hope it's a good big we'll figure we'll figure
30:20
Speaker 5: it out.
30:21
Speaker 2: He's quite the addition to Dodgers territory as well.
30:24
Speaker 1: All right, give my love to Dana. Thanks for being
30:25
Speaker 1: with this, Bulldog.
30:26
Speaker 2: We'll talk to you you guys, take care