Latest / Foul Territory / Dusty Baker reflects on his baseball career on Dirt From The Dugout

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Dusty Baker reflects on his baseball career on Dirt From The Dugout · Foul Territory

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: There he is.
• 0:04
  Speaker 2: Hell Man, Hello, Dusty, Yeah, hi man, how you doing
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: How I am doing great?
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: I am doing great. Your your close. I retired. I
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: know you're a special advisor for the Giants. You just
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: managed Team Nick or Walgo in the WBC. But look
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: at how relaxed you look compared to Justin and me.
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: Well, hey man, you know, I'm trying to live a
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: relax life, trying to stay busy at the same time.
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: And uh, you know, life's good. I mean know, life's
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: real good. And uh you know, I spend time with
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: my grandsons four and six. I can I get to
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: go to the ballpark the river Cats twice a month
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: here in Sacramento, Uh you know, to watch the Triple A.
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: And I go to San Francisco twice a month, and
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: I spend time at the winery. So hey man, life
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: is good.
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: Life is good. That's good to hear. That's really good
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: to hear. And I know all about Darren. It's great
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: to hear about your grandkids as well. For the people
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: that are on here, this is about trying to help
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: them with the advice you can give for parents of
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: players at really any age and their baseball journey nobody
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: has had as a unique journey. I don't think as
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: you have. I know it's a broad question, but when
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: you look back on your baseball life, is there a
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: way that you can kind of summarize it to open
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: some doors that we can then go down to talk
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: about for the people at home.
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's good question, you know. Number One, I was
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: a twenty fifth round draft choice, and they're only twenty
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: six rounds and a lot of teams told me there
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: after I made it that they were going to draft
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: me in the next round, So that left one round
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: for the other twenty something teams. But the thing about
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: it is I was so fortunate to, you know, to
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: get drafted by the Braves, which I did not want
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: to get drafted by the Braves because that was a
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: time of civil unrest, is nineteen sixty seven. There was
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: freedom marches, they were you know, peace and love. There's
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: anti Vietnam, there was an anti conformity completely around the country.
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: And I get drafted by the Braves. Met the Great
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: Hank Aaron and he told me said, hey, Dussie, if
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: you have enough confidence in yourself to you know, to
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: be in the big leagues by the time year your
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: graduating class would have graduated from college and signed if
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: not go to college and then lo and behold here
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: I was. I was in the big league next year
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: at nineteen years old. And you know, they made me feel,
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: you know, like they excuse me, like I belong. You know.
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: They were guys on the team, Felipelo, Joe Tory, you know,
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: Rico Cardi, Bob Tillman, Cleat Boyer. I have a picture,
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: you know, they took me and Ralph out to the
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: Playboy Club when we were our first week in the
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: Big League in Atlanta, and he bought us a suit
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: and uh. And I kept this polaroid and I sent
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: it to my buddy. I was like, man, my best
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: buddy that I went to high school, and I said, man,
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: this is the big leagues. And uh. And in that picture,
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: in that picture was Ralph Guard, myself, Cleat Bowyer and
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: and and Bob Uker. And so that was my introduction,
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: you know, to the big leagues.
• 3:22
  Speaker 3: Uh.
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: The main thing is is that it only takes one
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: person to like you. And the person that liked me
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: was Bill White. Because not many people believed in me.
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: Uh.
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: The general manager, who was Paul Richards, trusted Bill White's judgment,
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: and and he said that, uh, you know, I played
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: all four sports trying to be like Bobby Bonds. I
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: grew up I lizing Bobby Bonds my dad, and Bobby's
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: the league coach. And and he said that if he
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: if I could take all those uh uh love for
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: the sports and talent and and and and and take
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: and put him into one one sport, that I could
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: be something. And my dad told me that if I
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: changed my attitude and and short my temper, that you know,
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: I could do anything that I wanted to do.
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: All right, let's press pause, because there's a billion things
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: that you just talked about there. So well, your dad,
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: your dad was Bobby Bond's little.
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: Lea coach, Yeah for real.
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: And so okay, that's unbelievable. Yeah, I didn't know that.
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah. And then Bobby's mom baby sat me. And then
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: Bobby's sister, older sister Rosie, who went to the Olympics,
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: she baby sat me too, you know, and so uh well,
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: you know all of us, and so like, you know.
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: Then you ended up babysitting Barry. You babysat Barry.
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: Well, that's pretty good, exactly, babysitting you know, but that's
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: pretty good. Okay, you got me on that one.
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: I got you there before you go on. This is
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: really about the people that are part of our team.
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: We have questions that they want to ask you, and
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: then I'll and Justin will follow up. Here's the first one.
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: This is uh comes from MT. It says, what advice
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: do you give players, Dusty when it comes to dealing
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: with failure, particularly young players that may be experienced it
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: for the first time as they move to the higher levels.
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: Good question. What I try to tell my player is
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: that you're one at bad away from a hot streak,
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: and everything starts with one, and you have to forget
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: yesterday if it was bad, and remember yesterday it feels good,
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: and then build on top of that. So you know,
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: my my main I mean, a winning streak starts at one,
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: losing streak starts at one, and so does a you know,
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: so do's a batting streak? So it starts with one,
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: and uh, it's a new day every day.
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: All right. Good advice. Good advice. Next one comes from
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: Chan Best advice a coach gave you, and best advice
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: that you provide young prospects. I'm more interested in the
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: first part, What was the best piece of advice that
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: a coach ever gave you?
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: Don't lie to me. Yeah, I mean, that's what my
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: high school coach told me. That's what a couple of
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: professional coaches told me. And this is what I tell
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: my players. You know, it's like, give me a chance
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: to understand, because if you lie to me, I have
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: no chance of understanding and I can't help you, and
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: I won't This will be between me and you. I
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: won't tell anybody unless it's life threatening or if you
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: committed like a serious crime. And you know, I learned
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: that in the military when I was in the Marines
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: and said, hey, you know you got to just give name,
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: rank and serial number, take it to your grave if
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: it's if it's somebody else's word or.
• 6:42
  Speaker 3: Problem, great, Yeah, Dustie. One thing I was always curious of.
• 6:47
  Speaker 3: You've played for so long, you coach for so long, right,
• 6:50
  Speaker 3: and you know, you win a lot of ball games,
• 6:53
  Speaker 3: but there's only one happy team at the end of
• 6:56
  Speaker 3: every season, right, And so as a manager, you go
• 6:59
  Speaker 3: through a lot lot of seasons, really good seasons that
• 7:02
  Speaker 3: you had, You won a lot of games. Did it
• 7:05
  Speaker 3: feel like unfinished business? Are unsatisfying at the end of
• 7:09
  Speaker 3: the season when you didn't win it.
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: All, well, if you had a good team, and you know,
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: when you have a good team now now, if you
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: don't have a good team, it's almost like you can't
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: wait till the season to end because it gets long.
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: But if you have a good team and you have
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: a bona fide chance to win, then it's always like
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: you you know, you have unfinished business. And but that's
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: the beauty of the game. You know, there's always going
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: to be one winner. Every spring. You start the next year,
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: you know, thinking that it's going to be you. And
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: like al Campan has told me, when you start the season,
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: you don't you think you have a good team, but
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: you really don't know. And you have to go around
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: the league one time and then you'll see do I
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: need another left handed bat or do I need a
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: couple of left handed relievers? Do I have you know,
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: do I need some more speed or do I need
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: another starter? So it takes a while. You know, once
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: you go around the league, then you can compare yourself,
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: you know, to other teams and see if you have enough.
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: Was there was there one team, Dusty that you felt
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: when the season ended. I did have the best team
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: and we should have won and we didn't.
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: A couple of times, and uh and uh, I felt
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: like that. In my very first year, you know, we
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: won one hundred and three games and there was no
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: wild card team, and you know, like I went to
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: the stadium every day to watch the playoffs and sat
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: in my office. And then my wife finally told me, hey,
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: you know, you can't bring it back, and you know,
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: come on home, because I was going there every day.
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: And then you know, you know, two thousand and two,
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: I felt that we had the best team, you know.
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: And another time and in two thousand and three, when
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: we were in Chicago and we lost to the Florida Marlins,
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: I felt that we had the best team. And it hurts,
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: you know, you know when you lose, and and and
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: I felt that we had the best team in Washington.
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: You know, the first year we lost to Chicago. The
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: second year we lost to Chicago. But the but the
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: best team doesn't always doesn't always win. You know, you
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: got to ask some breaks, you got to ask some things,
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: you know, go your way, and uh you got to
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: capitalize on them. Right. Uh.
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: Nice, A nice compliment comes in here. From one of
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: our one of our teammates. So went to a Cal
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: game a few years ago. Dusty was watching Darren play.
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: But Dusty happily took time to chat and sign autographs
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: for all the kids in the stands. I imagine, Dusty,
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: you know you maybe you were always like that, but
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: at some point you realize there's an obligation almost as
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: a player or former manager or current manager to those people.
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: When did that happen in your life?
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: It actually happened when I was a little league. It
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: went to uh, yeah, you know, I went to the
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: Coliseum to watch the Dodgers play and there was a
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: there was a player on the Cardinals that that you know,
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: was rude to me and told me to get out
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: of here. Kid, And I cried, and I never asked
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: for another autograph till I was like thirty years old,
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: and I said, if I ever make it to the
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: big leagues, that you know, I didn't think I was
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: going to make to the big leagues as a baseball player.
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: I always thought I was going to be a basketball player.
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: But I said to myself that if I make it
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: to the big leagues, you know, I'm gonna try to
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: sign for every kid, because you I don't want a
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: kid to feel like I felt that day.
• 10:46
  Speaker 3: I like it, Dusty obviously, you know you brought you
• 10:49
  Speaker 3: watch different sports, and you see in the NFL they
• 10:51
  Speaker 3: do the jersey swap thing. Now as a manager, as
• 10:54
  Speaker 3: a player, who would be the person that you think
• 10:57
  Speaker 3: of that you wish you had their jersey because you
• 11:00
  Speaker 3: loved watching them player, You loved how they went about
• 11:02
  Speaker 3: their business. Who was that for you in your career?
• 11:07
  Speaker 2: Elgin Baylor?
• 11:09
  Speaker 3: Hmm interesting, interesting, I here, Dusty.
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: Sorry, man, I loved Elsi Baylor. You know he's Jill
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: you on at the top of the key, you know
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: what I mean. My dad goes, what's wrong with their head?
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: I said nothing, Dad on me Elsen Bailey. He goes, no,
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: you're not, You're Dusty.
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: You didn't like You didn't like the Sheltics very much,
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: did you, Dusty?
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: No, I didn't like him at all, Baking because they
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: won all the time. And then and then once I
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: became a manager, I was hoping that I'd win all
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: the time. And I remember asking Bill Russell. I asked
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: Bill Russell, you know how did you guys win all
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: the all those games? Was it? Red r Bach or
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: was it Habiltak and you Sam Sam Jones or whatever
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: it is. And he told me that we loved each
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: other and that and that really floored me because you know,
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: you don't think of Bill Russell when it comes to love.
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: And he told me that they loved each other, which
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: I took with me. You know, uh, you know to
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: other teams that I that.
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: I manas I think about Bill Russell as the greatest
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: defensive player I ever saw, and that he used to
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: vomit before every game and that was the key.
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I didn't know that.
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, oh yeah, yeah sure. Did he vomit in private?
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: Did he mess up?
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: Yes? No, he went into the bathroom. He was in
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: the bathroom.
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: Okay, good, good, Yeah he did.
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: He did. But you know, you bring up, you bring
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: up this idea that Russell shared with you about those
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: Celtics teams, and he said, uh, you know, we all
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: loved each other. Well, you've been a manager for so
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: many different franchises and you won division titles with all
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: of them. How do you build that? You know, for
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: parents who were coaching little league teams or travel teams,
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: whatever they be doing, how do you build that love
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: in a clubhouse, so they all start playing for we
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: instead of me, right well, and.
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: It's getting it's getting tough to do that because of branding.
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: You know, look at me. You know there's more individual lies,
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: you know, notoriety now than there used to be. But
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: you know the thing about it is is that I
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: built it because I never had a bunch of rules,
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: because somebody has to enforce all these rules, and my
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: rules where don't lie to me, show up to work
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: on time, and give me all you have. You know,
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: while you work, and you know you're you got the
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: best job in America. You know, if you work an
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: eight hour day, boy, that is a long, long game.
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: And so you're you're looking at four and a half
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: to five hour days and you make a great living,
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: and you know, appreciate where you are, Appreciate what you have.
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: And you know how many people in life reach their
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: lifetime goals, you know, before they're thirty years old. Some
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: of them are twenty five, from six, twenty seven years old.
• 14:01
  Speaker 2: And you have to maximize that because somebody's always trying
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: to take your job from below, and somebody on your
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: team a lot of time is trying to take your job.
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: And I asked Jim Gilliam. I said, I said, you know, Jim,
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: how do you stay in the big leagues? He told me,
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: he said, if there's a kid trying to take your job,
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: he said, send them back to the miners. Like pee
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: wee recent about eight guys back to the miners. And
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: he says, if there's a guy on your team trying
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: to take your job, he says, keep them on the bench.
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: And I said, how you do that? He says, he says,
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: by going out there playing and performing, you know, every
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: day I try to do.
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a valuable lesson.
• 14:42
  Speaker 3: That's great, So Dusty, when you look at just your
• 14:45
  Speaker 3: your career and uh playing and managing your life. Obviously
• 14:49
  Speaker 3: the book that that's out, Now, what was the purpose
• 14:54
  Speaker 3: or what is your what is your passion or reason
• 14:57
  Speaker 3: behind wanting to come out with a memoir?
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: Well number one. Everybody been asking for like forty years.
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: And when I was on the Dodgors, I'm serious, and
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: I promised, I promised a guy that I would write it,
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: you know, with him, Lyles Spencer, and and when I
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: was ready to write it, you know, I had to
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: make sure that I was out of the game, because
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: you know, you'll get black ball and then baseball it happens,
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: and you know, a lot of times baseball doesn't when
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: the negative things said or negative comments or like everything
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: is in the utopia situation and it's really not, you know,
• 15:42
  Speaker 2: because it's a microcosm of the world. And I just
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: thought about some of the things that I've been through,
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: some of the things my family, my brother, black people,
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: white people that we've all been through that sometimes needs
• 15:57
  Speaker 2: to be said and and and uh, you know, I
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: declare my heart and my mind as well. And you know,
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: we all have certain problems. And a lot of times
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: people think that here a professional play, everything's just beautiful
• 16:13
  Speaker 2: all the time. But you know, we got the same
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: problems that everybody else has. It's just said, you have
• 16:18
  Speaker 2: to deal with it and go perform on a daily basis.
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: And hopefully this to help, you know, some people that
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: are that are struggling. And a lot of times I
• 16:27
  Speaker 2: talked to people and they feel hopeless, and uh, you know,
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: above all you got to give. You got to give
• 16:34
  Speaker 2: people some hope, and hopefully is to give people some hope.
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: This is the book that Justin just referred to. It's
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: called Crossroads. It's a memoir. It's about three hundred pages long.
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: I know, Dusty spent about two and a half years
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: writing it, and again I strongly encourage people to go
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: out there and get it. Dusty. What was the what
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: was the most difficult chapter to write about in the book.
• 17:01
  Speaker 2: Well, the most difficult thing, period was to have to
• 17:07
  Speaker 2: you know, relive some of the things that I had
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: suppressed in my life, you know, to you know, to
• 17:13
  Speaker 2: have to relive you know, my departure in LA, to
• 17:18
  Speaker 2: relive my divorce, to relive you know, like like how
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: I had to and the I R S. That was
• 17:28
  Speaker 2: probably the most you know, difficult chapter. You know, some
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: of it I brought on myself and some of it
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: you know, was forced upon me. But you know there
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: are times when I I kind of wanted to quit,
• 17:43
  Speaker 2: not kind of I wanted to quit and I wanted
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: to quit life period. And I remember, I mean it
• 17:49
  Speaker 2: was so vivid to me talking to Pete Rose on
• 17:52
  Speaker 2: first base because Pete he was in Melville's forty four
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: game Hidden Street, and he his dad died, he was
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: getting divorced, and I asked him, I said, Pete, how
• 18:03
  Speaker 2: are you doing this? And I'll always I'll never forget,
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: he said, Dusty, you have to use the ballpark as
• 18:10
  Speaker 2: a sanctuary away from your problems, because when you get
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: back home from the ballpark, the same problems are there
• 18:18
  Speaker 2: that you left. And so, yeah, you know, to me,
• 18:22
  Speaker 2: the ballpark was a you know, was a sanctuary, you know,
• 18:27
  Speaker 2: for me. And I learned that from Pete Rose.
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think, I Justin, I know, we've got a
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: couple more questions here from our group, but you know,
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: and Justin works with a bunch of recruits, he works
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: with young kids. He's an advisor, Dusty, I think, and
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: having covered the sport for so long, we do tend
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: to lose sight of the fact that the managers, the coaches,
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: the players are real people too. And I think this
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: book does a great job kind of letting people see
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: behind the curtain.
• 18:54
  Speaker 3: All right, Justin, Yeah, absolutely, Let's get to this question. So, Dusty,
• 18:58
  Speaker 3: this is awesome.
• 18:59
  Speaker 2: Thank you.
• 19:00
  Speaker 3: Are you able to walk through the two thousand and
• 19:02
  Speaker 3: three NLCS game six, Steve Bartman, this is a conversation
• 19:06
  Speaker 3: you've had a thousand times, Dusty or more, but right,
• 19:09
  Speaker 3: let's uh, yeah, I'd love to hear your thoughts on that.
• 19:12
  Speaker 2: Well, that wasn't one of the top five worst worst
• 19:16
  Speaker 2: things that happened on the baseball field to me. I mean,
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: you know, we had an opportunity, you know, to win
• 19:21
  Speaker 2: that game, you know, opportunity to turned over play, opportunity
• 19:24
  Speaker 2: to base the loaded who had and you know a
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: number of our opportunities they kind of took it. You know.
• 19:29
  Speaker 2: The Bartman thing didn't help. And I felt sad for
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: Bartman because here's a guy that caught the l come
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: to the game to root his team on, that had
• 19:41
  Speaker 2: never been there in along, that hadn't been there in
• 19:43
  Speaker 2: a long time. And then you know, at the end
• 19:46
  Speaker 2: of the day, I mean, this guy was the biggest
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: goat in in in Chicago, and quite frankly, quite frankly,
• 19:56
  Speaker 2: like man, I mean that that was a sad situation
• 19:59
  Speaker 2: for me. I wanted to win the next year and
• 20:02
  Speaker 2: and and I was going to invite Bartman, you know,
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: to come right in the in the car and or
• 20:06
  Speaker 2: take a tape parade with me and my family, and
• 20:10
  Speaker 2: uh yeah, I mean that was one of my motivations.
• 20:13
  Speaker 2: We didn't get there, and you know, we got knocked
• 20:14
  Speaker 2: out by Houston right right after that, but that was
• 20:18
  Speaker 2: my goal and my uh.
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: Purpose you know, did you did you ever interact with him, Justine?
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: Did you ever see him again?
• 20:27
  Speaker 2: Nope? I never, I never saw I didn't see him
• 20:30
  Speaker 2: in the stand state of truth because you can't see
• 20:33
  Speaker 2: the left field foul pole from the dugout. I mean
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: because because because the wall, and I didn't even see
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: the play. Now the cub I mean, the Marlins had
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: a great view of the play because they were looking
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: right down the left field line. I'm looking down the
• 20:49
  Speaker 2: right field line. And then I didn't see it until
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: after the game on TV. And uh, you know, but
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: I could tell by moy Says's reaction and by the
• 21:05
  Speaker 2: way I thank him and Aramis ro Maris and Derek
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: Lee are two of the most three of the most
• 21:12
  Speaker 2: underrated players that I haven't had. Those guys and Ellis Birds.
• 21:17
  Speaker 2: I mean, those guys are oh yeah, mendus players.
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: We grew up with Ellie Bergs in Boston. Here's a
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: question that comes from Cooper Benjamin Dusty, and I'll kind
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: of shorten it up a little bit, but he says
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: that he had an uncle who told him the story
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: that in two thousand and two in San Francisco, Rob
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: Nen had blown a few saves. After the game, you
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: and then went out to be on the ballpark and
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: you just started fishing and you hooked a monster thirty
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: pound fish and the entire time you two were fighting
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: the fish, and he didn't blow another save after that
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: because you said, this is how I want you to fight.
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: Just as a caveat. I'll say this as the host
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: of Baseball Tonight. Every single night, it felt like when
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: Rob Nen came into the game and we had to
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: stay until the game was over, Poor Rob Nen would
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: occasionally blow a game. Is the fish story truth?
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: I don't remember. I did take all the guys fishing
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: ta too, because you know, we'd fished right behind the ballpark.
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: That's what I said.
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's true. But Rob Nen was one of the
• 22:20
  Speaker 2: best guys I mean closes I had, I.
• 22:22
  Speaker 4: Mean, uh, Rob then I don't think, well, if people
• 22:27
  Speaker 4: were save, I think it was always Levana Hernandez and
• 22:32
  Speaker 4: it was never Curt Reader.
• 22:35
  Speaker 2: And that's why maybe they're maybe that's why they're best friends.
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: Like right now, that's funny, that's really funny. So so
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: you do you know, look, in games, you deal with disappointments.
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: We got that you sort of talked about that when
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: you when you have players who are at the height
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: of their you know, sort of their game. Like I'll
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: take Barry for example, Barry failed to Kerry Wood and
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: Mark Pryor failed, Bryce Harper failed. Is it different when
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: the stars fail? Or is it just like everybody else?
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: And how you handle it because a lot of the
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: parents here have kids that are the stars and maybe
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: they have a harder time dealing with failure.
• 23:15
  Speaker 2: Well, you know something, baseball, as long as you played baseball,
• 23:18
  Speaker 2: you're gonna fail. Trust me, I fail. I saw Hank
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: Aaron fail. William may fail. They just don't fail as
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: often as everybody else, but they do fail, and and
• 23:30
  Speaker 2: and and you have to have a strong mind and
• 23:34
  Speaker 2: will to deal with failure and and and Baseball is
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: as much like life as anything because it's not always
• 23:42
  Speaker 2: up and up. Sometime you're down and then you got
• 23:45
  Speaker 2: to kick yourself. You got to pick yourself right back up.
• 23:48
  Speaker 2: And See, there are times in baseball when I can
• 23:51
  Speaker 2: remember I was the hero on Monday, and I was
• 23:54
  Speaker 2: a goat. I blew the game on Tuesday. And so
• 23:57
  Speaker 2: that's why they always told us I was coming up.
• 24:00
  Speaker 2: You don't get too high when it's going good, and
• 24:02
  Speaker 2: you don't get too low when it's going badly, because see,
• 24:05
  Speaker 2: this game will humble you on a daily basis, and
• 24:09
  Speaker 2: so you have to try to try to be It's hard.
• 24:13
  Speaker 2: You got to try to be as even keel as possible.
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I like that, Dusty.
• 24:19
  Speaker 3: I want to go to another question one of our
• 24:20
  Speaker 3: team members, so from Coleman Foley, what did you learn
• 24:23
  Speaker 3: from your favorite coaches that you then used in your
• 24:26
  Speaker 3: coaching career.
• 24:27
  Speaker 2: Good question, Well, that's a really good question. The coaches
• 24:32
  Speaker 2: that I really remember from from high school mister McCullough,
• 24:36
  Speaker 2: Spider Jorgenson, which I had in American Legion, Jim Gilliam,
• 24:40
  Speaker 2: Clint Courtney, shoot all all the great coach that I
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: had pressing Goldman as Jim Gilliam, is that they all
• 24:49
  Speaker 2: would would recognize like like differences in your personality and
• 24:58
  Speaker 2: therefore they could tell, you know, wish button a push,
• 25:01
  Speaker 2: or something was wrong with you. You know, if you're a
• 25:05
  Speaker 2: guy that talked a lot and all of a sudden
• 25:07
  Speaker 2: you're quiet, or if you're a guy that was quiet
• 25:09
  Speaker 2: and all of a sudden talks a lot, something's going on,
• 25:12
  Speaker 2: and something's going and they all recognize that that when
• 25:16
  Speaker 2: something's going on off the field, because see the off
• 25:19
  Speaker 2: the field men, the concentration that you need to play
• 25:23
  Speaker 2: baseball is so exact and different between a fileball pop
• 25:28
  Speaker 2: up and a homer, and if your concentrations off just
• 25:32
  Speaker 2: a little bit, then then it's going to tell in
• 25:35
  Speaker 2: your performance.
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: So is that something that parents can learn is that
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: when did you recognize your ability to kind of read
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: the room? Like Carl's not feeling good today, but he
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: seems okay. But when did you recognize that you sort
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: of had that skill? Did you develop it? And then
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: how did you use it?
• 25:56
  Speaker 2: Well? Actually I didn't. I didn't know I had it.
• 25:59
  Speaker 2: But my high school coach, my basketball coach, and noticed
• 26:03
  Speaker 2: that that something was wrong with me because I came
• 26:06
  Speaker 2: home one day and my mom and dad and were
• 26:09
  Speaker 2: no longer married. From that day forward, I never saw
• 26:12
  Speaker 2: him argue you never saw anything. Now, all of a sudden,
• 26:14
  Speaker 2: me being the oldest of five, I was a man
• 26:16
  Speaker 2: at the house and I'm I'm blowing layups and I'm
• 26:19
  Speaker 2: missing free throws. And that's when that's when my high
• 26:23
  Speaker 2: school coach he told me, said, Dusty, what's wrong? And
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: I'm like, oh, nothing, man, everything's cool. And then I
• 26:29
  Speaker 2: couldn't wait for him to keep priding and asking me
• 26:32
  Speaker 2: because I trusted him and and you know, he's the
• 26:35
  Speaker 2: one that taught me then, Jim Gilliam, you know, later
• 26:38
  Speaker 2: on when I was having troubles in my marriage, he
• 26:41
  Speaker 2: he could see it. And the good ones, you know,
• 26:46
  Speaker 2: you know, they noticed the personality changes, but they don't pry.
• 26:49
  Speaker 2: They kind of wait for you to to kind of
• 26:52
  Speaker 2: give them opening to you know, to talk, you know,
• 26:55
  Speaker 2: talk to you. I like that.
• 26:58
  Speaker 3: So going back to the man days, Dusty, one of
• 27:01
  Speaker 3: the things that I think is lost in today's game
• 27:04
  Speaker 3: a little bit is the understanding of how important a
• 27:07
  Speaker 3: manager's feel is within a game.
• 27:09
  Speaker 2: Right. We're in this analytical.
• 27:11
  Speaker 3: Era, which is which is great, but the feel of
• 27:16
  Speaker 3: a manager, that experience and knowing the players and understanding
• 27:19
  Speaker 3: what they're good at in the in the right move
• 27:22
  Speaker 3: at the right time. Tell me about your experience and
• 27:25
  Speaker 3: that as a manager h after after being a player,
• 27:28
  Speaker 3: and how you learned learned how to gain that feel
• 27:32
  Speaker 3: in a game and make the right moves at the
• 27:34
  Speaker 3: right time based on some of that feel.
• 27:37
  Speaker 2: Well, sometimes you don't. Yeah, I don't know if you've
• 27:41
  Speaker 2: made you don't know if you're reading the right move
• 27:44
  Speaker 2: or not until later. And sometimes you can make the
• 27:46
  Speaker 2: right move, all the right moves, and if the players
• 27:49
  Speaker 2: don't perform or come through, then then it appears to
• 27:52
  Speaker 2: be the wrong move. Or sometimes you can make the
• 27:54
  Speaker 2: wrong move and a player, you know, bails you out.
• 27:58
  Speaker 2: I actually learned in the Marines because my last day
• 28:03
  Speaker 2: at boot camp, I had a drill started named Sergeant Goolsby,
• 28:08
  Speaker 2: and this guy big brother, he filled out his fatigues man,
• 28:13
  Speaker 2: and I didn't think he liked me. So I didn't
• 28:15
  Speaker 2: think he liked me. And I was in advanced mode
• 28:18
  Speaker 2: of transport and I did six months and then you know,
• 28:22
  Speaker 2: five and a half years uh in the reserves. And
• 28:25
  Speaker 2: he told me that if my unit get called up,
• 28:29
  Speaker 2: he said us, you have to listen to the the
• 28:32
  Speaker 2: the second lieutenant that studied war strategy and whatever academy
• 28:38
  Speaker 2: he went to. But if you want to get home,
• 28:40
  Speaker 2: he says, you listen and hang around that second I
• 28:43
  Speaker 2: mean that that staff sergeant who's two tour of Vietnam,
• 28:46
  Speaker 2: and he will get you home. You know, he knows
• 28:48
  Speaker 2: where the booby traps are, you know where snipers should be,
• 28:54
  Speaker 2: and so Uh. That taught me right then about about
• 28:57
  Speaker 2: the field and experience. And and I've had the bad
• 29:02
  Speaker 2: reputation like, well, Dusty don't like sabor mantions. Well that's
• 29:05
  Speaker 2: a that's a lie. You know. It's like, dude, I
• 29:09
  Speaker 2: like to use both. You know, I like these my
• 29:11
  Speaker 2: feelings and I used math. I mean ever since, I
• 29:15
  Speaker 2: ever since I played baseball. When I was playing in
• 29:17
  Speaker 2: high school, I had a wrist band and I had
• 29:21
  Speaker 2: like everything that I did. Say, if I went one
• 29:23
  Speaker 2: for four, my average would go down this and that,
• 29:25
  Speaker 2: and if I was one for three and I had
• 29:27
  Speaker 2: it all figured out. Yeah, I had it all figured
• 29:30
  Speaker 2: out before the game. So you know, like I like,
• 29:33
  Speaker 2: I like, I like both. The combination of the two. Uh,
• 29:38
  Speaker 2: you know, to me is a way to go. I
• 29:41
  Speaker 2: love that.
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: And I know, I know you've seen Dusty and having
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: worked with Dusty and covered Dusty for years, Dusty never
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: was caught without having wristbands on. I mean Dusty dressed
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: for the game when he was managing. So you know, Dusty,
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: why did you do that? Like what do you did?
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: You want to still feel like a player, have players
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: relate to you? What led to that?
• 30:04
  Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying I've been asked that some time. Man,
• 30:08
  Speaker 2: I didn't feel like a player. I knew what I was,
• 30:11
  Speaker 2: okay to me, it was just it was part of
• 30:14
  Speaker 2: the uniform. Like ever since I played, I always had
• 30:18
  Speaker 2: always had wristbands. I had little skinny arms, and I
• 30:21
  Speaker 2: had one little skinny wristband. Then I went to the
• 30:24
  Speaker 2: double wristband. And then because I like to tell people that, hey, man,
• 30:30
  Speaker 2: late in the game, basis, lord, it gets hot and
• 30:32
  Speaker 2: dug out and you gotta wipe your brow and part
• 30:34
  Speaker 2: of us, part of you know, part of us, a
• 30:37
  Speaker 2: little bit of supicision. I remember one time, Billy Williams,
• 30:40
  Speaker 2: I had like eight different combination of colors. Right. I
• 30:44
  Speaker 2: forget what team I was on, and we were going
• 30:46
  Speaker 2: in Chicago and Billy Williams he said, He's called me
• 30:48
  Speaker 2: Johnny B. Because our birthdays on the same day. So
• 30:50
  Speaker 2: I was close to Billy. He said, Johnny B. I've
• 30:53
  Speaker 2: been watching you, man, He says, you about to run
• 30:55
  Speaker 2: out of color combinations, aren't you. And I says, and
• 30:59
  Speaker 2: I was too, because we had lost like seven eight
• 31:01
  Speaker 2: in a row, and so I was like, dang. I
• 31:04
  Speaker 2: was like, I was like, maybe Billy's maybe Billy's gone
• 31:07
  Speaker 2: to me, you know what I mean? And he was
• 31:09
  Speaker 2: so but I didn't admit it, but he was right
• 31:13
  Speaker 2: all the way.
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: He was onto it. That's great, it's great.
• 31:17
  Speaker 3: I want to get to this question, Mitch Larson asked here.
• 31:19
  Speaker 3: It's a great one. So where's the toothpick?
• 31:21
  Speaker 2: Dusty? You ask?
• 31:22
  Speaker 3: You want to make sure you want to know where
• 31:24
  Speaker 3: your toothpick is. Then he goes on to the streets. Now,
• 31:26
  Speaker 3: how important is conditioning like running poles or sprints for pictures?
• 31:30
  Speaker 3: And how different is a recovery routine for pictures now
• 31:33
  Speaker 3: versus ten years ago?
• 31:34
  Speaker 2: Good question, Mitch. That's that is great. Now number one,
• 31:38
  Speaker 2: I started the toothpicks because I was dipping tobacco and
• 31:41
  Speaker 2: my dentline gens told me that if you don't stop,
• 31:44
  Speaker 2: you know, you either get cancer, which I already had,
• 31:47
  Speaker 2: or you'd have receeeding gums. And so I stopped. But
• 31:54
  Speaker 2: the only thing is like an no, but the ninth
• 31:57
  Speaker 2: inning bases loaded two outs. I ended up having both,
• 32:01
  Speaker 2: you know what I mean, two ticks, editor, But you
• 32:06
  Speaker 2: know something about the question. See, when I was in
• 32:09
  Speaker 2: LA we didn't have any any arm problems. We had Sutton,
• 32:12
  Speaker 2: we had Jerry Royce, we had Tommy John, Dave Stewart,
• 32:17
  Speaker 2: Bobby well Sutcliffe, all these guys. I'd be coming in
• 32:21
  Speaker 2: the Dodger Stadium and they would be running out and
• 32:25
  Speaker 2: they would go up around the Police Academy. They'd run
• 32:27
  Speaker 2: for about an hour and then and then we'd go
• 32:30
  Speaker 2: off for batting practice and they'd just be coming into
• 32:33
  Speaker 2: the uh, you know, Dodger Stadium on the field. And
• 32:37
  Speaker 2: then one day I was Ferguson Jenkins got traded to
• 32:40
  Speaker 2: the Texas Rangers and we're I was in LA and
• 32:43
  Speaker 2: we were playing in Pompino Beach. And then the pitchers
• 32:48
  Speaker 2: used to run line the line poles or do pickups
• 32:52
  Speaker 2: and stuff. So Ferguson Jenkins he ran for five innings
• 32:57
  Speaker 2: line the line, so that's aw Fergie's throw. And then
• 33:00
  Speaker 2: he took a glass of water and ran four more innings.
• 33:04
  Speaker 2: So I asked him, I said, frigg you, what are
• 33:06
  Speaker 2: you doing all this running for? And he said, Dusty,
• 33:08
  Speaker 2: why do you think I won twenty games four or
• 33:11
  Speaker 2: five years in a row and pitched three hundred innings
• 33:14
  Speaker 2: four or five years in a row. Because he ran
• 33:17
  Speaker 2: And I believe especially with the pictures. Like Johnny Quaito
• 33:22
  Speaker 2: listened to me and I told Johnny, this is a rookie,
• 33:25
  Speaker 2: and I said, and he started running the you know,
• 33:28
  Speaker 2: the stands, and I like to see pictures, you know,
• 33:33
  Speaker 2: start running again.
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I can tell you this. There's a guy that
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: hated the Celtics. Before games, Larry Bird would run up
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: and down the stairs inside the Boston gardens. The great
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: ones seemed to have have an understanding that it takes
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: things like that, Dusty, I think it's important to pick Yeah, hey.
• 33:51
  Speaker 2: Carl, let me tell you Larry Bird story right quick. Now.
• 33:53
  Speaker 2: See we were in Saint Louis, and so every time
• 33:57
  Speaker 2: we go someplace then they would you the Dodgers as
• 34:01
  Speaker 2: as a recruiting trip to try to convince the kid
• 34:04
  Speaker 2: to come, like, uh, Pittsburgh it was Bobby Majors had
• 34:10
  Speaker 2: had Dan Marino come in. Then you go to San Diego. Yeah,
• 34:14
  Speaker 2: and and so they had Michael Ka. So here's Larry Bird.
• 34:16
  Speaker 2: Tommy John brings in Larry Bird. So I said, who
• 34:21
  Speaker 2: is this dude? He played on basketball time ago. Man,
• 34:27
  Speaker 2: He's he's the baddest dude. So my brother played against
• 34:30
  Speaker 2: them at Indiana State. He went to up and he
• 34:34
  Speaker 2: got on the phone and told me that this is
• 34:36
  Speaker 2: the baddest dude that he ever saw. So I really
• 34:39
  Speaker 2: started watching Larry Bird after that, and and and he
• 34:42
  Speaker 2: was one of the baddest dudes they ever played basketball.
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah, he wasn't afraid of he wasn't afraid of chirp
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: about it either to anybody that he was good at
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: doing that. Yeah, I think it's importantly we got We
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: got a question here from Mark, and then I think
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: we really should get into the relationship you had with
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: Tank Aaron. But Mark's question is, Dusty, what was the
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: most difficult moment during your twenty twenty two run to
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: win a ring with the Astros?
• 35:08
  Speaker 2: Hmm, most difficult moment was, well, my most difficult moment
• 35:15
  Speaker 2: was was trying to convince the upstairs people that my
• 35:24
  Speaker 2: lineup was correct and in the book. And yeah, I
• 35:32
  Speaker 2: mean that was my most difficult moment. I'll say, hey,
• 35:35
  Speaker 2: this might be my last chance. And I remember what
• 35:37
  Speaker 2: Hank Aaron told me, And I had kind of listened
• 35:40
  Speaker 2: to some people before in the past, and I was like, no,
• 35:42
  Speaker 2: I'm gonna listen. I'm gonna listen to myself and listen
• 35:45
  Speaker 2: to my heart.
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: Yep. You know what they say, Dusty, The only thing
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: more dangerous than somebody with a lot to gain is
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: somebody with nothing to lose. And there you were saying,
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: I'm at the end, I'm doing it my way.
• 36:00
  Speaker 2: That's right. Well, and then it made me the ways
• 36:02
  Speaker 2: I had done it my way like before that, because
• 36:07
  Speaker 2: then I might have had like three or four more.
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: You know, that's just so beautiful. That's good, Dusty. We
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: kind of go around and we ask people like kitchen
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: sink questions. So this is a little bit kind of
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: a little aught of the ordinary. But before we get
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: to the kitchen sink, tell the people and tell all
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: of us sort of the dynamic that you had with
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: Hank Aaron. Maybe stuff that people don't know about or
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: maybe can't read about, but I mean, I know how
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: critical he was in your development and in your life.
• 36:45
  Speaker 2: True. Well, you know, he promised my mother that he
• 36:48
  Speaker 2: would take care of me as if I was his son.
• 36:51
  Speaker 2: And also it was Ralph Guard and myself. We went
• 36:55
  Speaker 2: to Hank's home. We were in Hank's room every day
• 36:59
  Speaker 2: on the road. You know, if we had any problems,
• 37:03
  Speaker 2: you know, Hank was who we went to and you know,
• 37:08
  Speaker 2: Hank always had an answer, and he had to answer
• 37:11
  Speaker 2: for everybody on our team. And the time that we
• 37:16
  Speaker 2: were lost was when when he broke the record seventy
• 37:20
  Speaker 2: four and then seventy five. We were all by ourselves
• 37:23
  Speaker 2: without Hank, Ralph, Marty Perell's, you know, Darryl Evans, all
• 37:29
  Speaker 2: of us were lost. And you know, like Hank was
• 37:35
  Speaker 2: not only our leader, but he was the best citizen
• 37:39
  Speaker 2: at the same time. And a lot of times, you know,
• 37:42
  Speaker 2: your your best ball player isn't necessarily your best citizen
• 37:47
  Speaker 2: or leader. A lot of times it's your secondary players
• 37:50
  Speaker 2: that are that are the primary, you know, leaders on
• 37:53
  Speaker 2: your team. But the thing that people don't know is
• 37:56
  Speaker 2: how much Hank liked to laugh. And you know, he'd
• 37:59
  Speaker 2: make me and Ralph Nick, make me and Ralph sit
• 38:01
  Speaker 2: by him on the plane, and you know, I mean
• 38:06
  Speaker 2: he would like grab his buyer wrists and make sure
• 38:09
  Speaker 2: we didn't leave it. And one time we'd always go
• 38:11
  Speaker 2: to Hank's room. So Eddie Matthews would always check me
• 38:14
  Speaker 2: in Ralph Guard's room and he's like, Eddie's like, are
• 38:17
  Speaker 2: you guys in here? Oh yeah, Eddie, we're going to sleep,
• 38:20
  Speaker 2: he says, okay, So now we wait about thirty minutes
• 38:23
  Speaker 2: and we go to Hank's room and we sit down
• 38:25
  Speaker 2: there and talk and talk to Hank. And then one
• 38:28
  Speaker 2: time Eddie comes down there and he wants to talk
• 38:30
  Speaker 2: to Hank because he says he went back by our
• 38:33
  Speaker 2: room and he goes, man, those two little he used
• 38:36
  Speaker 2: to call us little bastards. Where those two little bastards at?
• 38:39
  Speaker 2: And he goes, man, they slipped out of the hotel. Well,
• 38:42
  Speaker 2: we're in Hank's closet now. Now Eddie wants to talk
• 38:49
  Speaker 2: to Hank. And yeah, Hank, did he have anything to drink? Now,
• 38:52
  Speaker 2: Eddie wants to drink. So me and Ralph we were
• 38:55
  Speaker 2: in there in that closet about two hours.
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: Sleep in the closet, that is That's fantastic. That is
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: such a good sod. You slept in the closet, Yeah.
• 39:13
  Speaker 2: Until Eddie left, you know, we but but but but
• 39:18
  Speaker 2: Hay's closet was was was as big as me and
• 39:21
  Speaker 2: rouse room room.
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm sure right. There are worse closets to have
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: to fall asleep in. All right, here's kitchen sink. You
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: managed thousands of players Hall of famers, some of the
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: flame outs to which player left the most indelible impression
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: on you? Which player?
• 39:39
  Speaker 2: Mmm? Boy, Uh, probably probably Willie McGee. Willie McGee Why, yeah, Well,
• 39:53
  Speaker 2: because Willy was a constant team player. Willie was the
• 39:57
  Speaker 2: same every day and and uh, and he's very unselfish.
• 40:03
  Speaker 2: And then and Willie and he was very you know,
• 40:07
  Speaker 2: very humble. Yeah, internally he was, he was very confident,
• 40:13
  Speaker 2: but externally he's externally he's very humble.
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: Okay, Uh, you've kind of given this one away, I think.
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: But you're a lover of basketball. Who was the best
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: player you ever saw play? And what was it about
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: his or her game that you liked the most?
• 40:29
  Speaker 2: Well, the best the best player I've seen play is
• 40:33
  Speaker 2: uh doctor j.
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 40:37
  Speaker 2: I mean I loved the Algebata, but I fell in
• 40:39
  Speaker 2: love with doctor J. You know when he was in
• 40:44
  Speaker 2: the A B A. Because I watched all them dudes. Man.
• 40:47
  Speaker 2: You know Laverne Tart I played, I played uh Downtown,
• 40:50
  Speaker 2: Freddie Brown, I played high school basketball. Uh, you know
• 40:54
  Speaker 2: with doctor Dunk, Darnelle Hillman who played with George McGinnis.
• 40:57
  Speaker 2: And uh, you know, I'm a basketball man. And that
• 41:02
  Speaker 2: A B A. You know, Oh, the A B A
• 41:05
  Speaker 2: had some bad dudes and the Dan Issel and Charlie Scott.
• 41:08
  Speaker 2: I mean, you name him, and they had him, you know,
• 41:11
  Speaker 2: big George McGinnis. I just loved watching a BA basketball.
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: Elvin Hayes from the corner. And I'm sure when you
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: saw when you saw doctor J grab Larry Bird by
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: the throat and Bird grabbed J by the throat, I'm
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: sure you were saying, choke him out, choke him out
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: right now.
• 41:35
  Speaker 2: But see I don't remember that.
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, you don't remember that. Oh they choked. They
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: had that in the playoffs. They were choking each other.
• 41:44
  Speaker 2: Okay, So who choked out? Who tapped out? Anybody?
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: I think Darryl Garretson got in the way and broke
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: him up. I JC O'Donnell, I have no idea commissioner
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: for a day baseball one rule would you either put
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: in or take out?
• 42:03
  Speaker 2: I'd put in a margin around the automatic strike zone,
• 42:10
  Speaker 2: because I'd put a margin about at least an inch
• 42:14
  Speaker 2: all the way around, because nobody has that kind of
• 42:17
  Speaker 2: eye except the machine, not the umpire, not the batter,
• 42:21
  Speaker 2: not the pitcher, not the catcher. Nobody has that kind
• 42:24
  Speaker 2: of eye. Because when I go to these the games,
• 42:27
  Speaker 2: and this hits like one hundredth of an inch. And oh.
• 42:31
  Speaker 2: The only guy that I remember they had that kind
• 42:33
  Speaker 2: of eye was he called him God. He was an umpire.
• 42:41
  Speaker 2: I can see him now and I would ask him,
• 42:43
  Speaker 2: I said, Man, I say Doug Harvey, And I'd ask Doug.
• 42:49
  Speaker 2: I said, Doug, where was that pitch? He says, son,
• 42:52
  Speaker 2: it hit the front corner of the black And I
• 42:55
  Speaker 2: was like, I couldn't know you that that That's why?
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: God, Yeah, last one on the kitchen sink, Dusty. So
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: in the book, you know, you're you're you. You've got Hendrix,
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: Jimmy Hendrix, You've got Barack Obama, You've got all these
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: players and managers, you got friends, you got your as
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: you said, your boys. Uh. You know, if you had
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: to spend the last sort of supper with one of them,
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: or somebody that you haven't yet met, like, who would
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: that be for you? Because it seems like you've met everybody.
• 43:37
  Speaker 2: Almost, I'd probably like to spend it with. Uh, because
• 43:45
  Speaker 2: all these people I already spent it with, I'd probably
• 43:48
  Speaker 2: like spinding with Marcus Garvey.
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: I think, hmm, okay, why yeah.
• 43:55
  Speaker 2: Uh, Well, because you know he was like uh uh
• 43:59
  Speaker 2: he fail of a couple of businesses. You know, he
• 44:04
  Speaker 2: was you know, first shipping line to try to get
• 44:08
  Speaker 2: the Africa to the US or to the Caribbean. You know.
• 44:13
  Speaker 2: You know, he's one of my mom's heroes. And he
• 44:16
  Speaker 2: went all through Latin America, South America, and I had
• 44:21
  Speaker 2: the fortunate I was fortunate to meet his son, who's like,
• 44:27
  Speaker 2: I think eighty five nine years old, Marcus Garvey Junior.
• 44:31
  Speaker 2: And you know, and and see my mom being a
• 44:34
  Speaker 2: black history teacher, black history teacher, you know, we always
• 44:38
  Speaker 2: had books around, and you know, Marcus Garby is one
• 44:41
  Speaker 2: of my mom's favorite people.
• 44:44
  Speaker 1: Thank you. That's a great Thanks for sharing that.
• 44:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's great, Dusty.
• 44:48
  Speaker 3: As we kind of finish off here, one thing we
• 44:51
  Speaker 3: ask everybody is your MVP. Who is your most valuable
• 44:55
  Speaker 3: person in your life growing up, whether it's baseball or away.
• 44:59
  Speaker 2: From the game. Who is that for you? My dad? Yeah?
• 45:05
  Speaker 2: That was my dad. That's simple. Yeah, that's awesome. Man.
• 45:09
  Speaker 3: What what kind of impact did he have on you, Dusty?
• 45:12
  Speaker 3: What what was the long lasting impact that that he
• 45:16
  Speaker 3: made on your life?
• 45:19
  Speaker 2: Well, you know, I mean my dad, you know, he
• 45:23
  Speaker 2: was he was honest, he was firm, but fair, you know,
• 45:26
  Speaker 2: if ifighted. I mean, my dad was firm now. But
• 45:30
  Speaker 2: my dad was a lot cooler than I gave him
• 45:32
  Speaker 2: credit for it, because he didn't bust me on every
• 45:34
  Speaker 2: time he could have busted me and then and then
• 45:38
  Speaker 2: he kind of let it pile up sometime and then say, okay, boy,
• 45:41
  Speaker 2: you think you're getting away with it. The last week
• 45:44
  Speaker 2: he did this, last month, he did this. Eight months ago,
• 45:46
  Speaker 2: you did this, and then a year ago you did that.
• 45:52
  Speaker 2: He knew I was getting a wing. I thought I
• 45:55
  Speaker 2: was getting away with something.
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: Jeez, I thought that. I thought that was your dad
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: called from the other side. As soon as you said Dad,
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: the phone rings and he's calling Dusty right now.
• 46:03
  Speaker 2: He knows hey, but no, But you know something, I
• 46:06
  Speaker 2: was in the in the World Series and I was
• 46:09
  Speaker 2: I was at a crossroads. I didn't know what to do.
• 46:11
  Speaker 2: Sometime in the game, you're not sure, So I said, Dad,
• 46:15
  Speaker 2: smile on me if you want me to go get
• 46:18
  Speaker 2: this picture. And actually it was it was grinky when
• 46:22
  Speaker 2: they had the bases loaded that one time, yep, And
• 46:24
  Speaker 2: I was like and I was like Dad, Everybody's like,
• 46:27
  Speaker 2: why'd you leave him out there? And I couldn't tell
• 46:28
  Speaker 2: everybody because my dad smiled on me, because they would
• 46:31
  Speaker 2: have liked, come on your dad's past already. But but
• 46:35
  Speaker 2: if my dad showed no emotion at all, that meant
• 46:40
  Speaker 2: that he didn't like what you were about to do
• 46:43
  Speaker 2: or like what you were doing. But if my dad
• 46:46
  Speaker 2: just had a smile on his face, boom, then it
• 46:49
  Speaker 2: was come one, come all day. Right.
• 46:54
  Speaker 1: I told you, I told you he was a cool
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: He was the coolest man on the earth. Here you go.
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: The book is Crossroads. Please go get it. It's Dusty
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: Baker's memoirs. Dusty, we could talk to you for about
• 47:03
  Speaker 1: six weeks, and uh, we're gratefully you spend some time
• 47:06
  Speaker 1: with us tonight. Really, we are really grateful. Thank you
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: very much.
• 47:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah, thank you guys. It's been great.
• 47:12
  Speaker 1: Thank you man.