Speaker 1: And now an exclusive interview with David Bassey for Dodger Talk.
Speaker 2: It's the Dodgers and Brewers.
Speaker 1: Everybody's excited about this, the two best teams in baseball,
Speaker 1: and it's time for our Managers Meeting, presented by Downy Hunday.
Speaker 1: We're in the office of Dave Roberts. It's always strange
Speaker 1: when I walk in. He has a smile that just
Speaker 1: goes away really quick, so I'm not sure whether or
Speaker 1: not he's happy to see me or not.
Speaker 2: But we're back here again, Dave. Yeah, here we are again, Dave.
Speaker 3: And I think you have that effect on people, man.
Speaker 3: But no, in all seriousness, I've had a great day.
Speaker 3: Got a chance earlier today to celebrate oral Hollywood Walk
Speaker 3: of Fame. He got his star and obviously with what
Speaker 3: he did with the Dodgers and then now as a broadcaster,
Speaker 3: so it was great to celebrate him.
Speaker 1: What was it like again for you to be out
Speaker 1: there this morning on Hollywood and Highland celebrating one of
Speaker 1: the Dodger icons, but you being the great ambassador for
Speaker 1: this team.
Speaker 3: Well it's quite the honor. And there was a great
Speaker 3: turnout and there were a guy from the eighty eight
Speaker 3: team Miggey Rowe was there from a current team, and
Speaker 3: obviously front office. Stan Castle was there and just family friends.
Speaker 3: Bob Costas was a master's ceremonies. Joe Davis spoke, Clayton spoke,
Speaker 3: I spoke, Jimi Harden spoke, and it was great. And
Speaker 3: I think is what you said, it's Dodger lore. It's
Speaker 3: a legacy, you know what we're a part of every day.
Speaker 3: It runs deep and the late great time of the Sword,
Speaker 3: I think was looking down with a smile.
Speaker 2: No doubt.
Speaker 1: I was watching a special on you backstage Dodgers, celebrating
Speaker 1: your managerial career with the Dodgers over one thousand wins
Speaker 1: now and at your introductory press conference, you were looking
Speaker 1: at the trophy case at Dodger Stadium. When you took over,
Speaker 1: there was only a couple of trophies in that case.
Speaker 1: Since you took over, there's three more. Does that ever
Speaker 1: hit you that you've added three championships and counting to
Speaker 1: this organization?
Speaker 3: You know, when you present it that way, it certainly does.
Speaker 3: And it's not to be taken for granted, but I
Speaker 3: think when you're in it, you're always wanting for more.
Speaker 3: But I do remember that press conference and that introductory
Speaker 3: press conference, and you know, that's our north Star, that's
Speaker 3: my north Star, that's everyone in this organization. The fan
Speaker 3: base is north star to continue to accrue championships. And
Speaker 3: Los Angeles is a city of champions and so you know,
Speaker 3: anything less than a championship is unacceptable. And so I
Speaker 3: think for me, yeah, you take moments to kind of
Speaker 3: celebrate the wins. But you know, as we're here in
Speaker 3: the middle of twenty twenty six in August, we got
Speaker 3: us against the Brewers in a four games series. So honestly,
Speaker 3: my focus is game tonight.
Speaker 1: You always try to tell me to temper the excitement
Speaker 1: over a series like this, but as we get closer
Speaker 1: to the end of the year, there's still a fight
Speaker 1: for the top three seeds in the National League. So
Speaker 1: going up against the Brewers four games series, Am I
Speaker 1: making too much out of the importance or excitement of
Speaker 1: this series?
Speaker 3: I think yes, But and I say that with all
Speaker 3: due respect in the sense of yes, it's gonna be
Speaker 3: a fun series, it gonna be a great series, but
Speaker 3: it's not the end all be all either way, whatever
Speaker 3: result happens. As we've learned throughout the regular season, doesn't
Speaker 3: really have a correlation to the postseason. But yeah, from
Speaker 3: a media, fan, player perspective, coaching perspective, this can be
Speaker 3: a fun series. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I remember last year the Brewers beat you all seven
Speaker 1: times in the regular season, and you guys swept them
Speaker 1: in the postseason. So is that also a tricky mind
Speaker 1: trap for your players to know what happened last year?
Speaker 2: And I don't know.
Speaker 1: It seems like you guys overcame so much last year.
Speaker 1: Does that sometimes work against the urgency you were talking about.
Speaker 3: Well, we certainly have urgency again, which I'm happy to see.
Speaker 3: And I think that it's one of those things where
Speaker 3: this year is different than last year. The Brewers are
Speaker 3: an even better team, They're a hungrier team, and I
Speaker 3: think for me from a leadership standpoint, is to make
Speaker 3: guys recognize that this is a different year and it's
Speaker 3: going to be a different way to go about it.
Speaker 3: We still got to play good baseball and you know,
Speaker 3: keep our focus keen and heightened and sharp. But like
Speaker 3: I said, you still got to go play baseball. And
Speaker 3: I do like the way in this Kansas City Series.
Speaker 3: I think that the fans could see our focus heightened,
Speaker 3: a sense of urgency and even the way I manage,
Speaker 3: you know, pinch hitting at times where I normally wouldn't do,
Speaker 3: making some pitching change that I probably wouldn't do because
Speaker 3: I got to kind of mirror that urgency I'm talking about.
Speaker 1: Yeah, do you feel like you set the tone by
Speaker 1: the way you manage those type of games?
Speaker 3: I think so, you know, because I think that there's
Speaker 3: a point, and I mentioned this a few days ago,
Speaker 3: is that I've seen enough of a sample in the
Speaker 3: players what they can what they can't do. And now
Speaker 3: it's not the playoffs, but I do think that it's
Speaker 3: healthy for us to get of that mind and it
Speaker 3: only makes you play better.
Speaker 1: All Right, I got to ask you, since we always
Speaker 1: have this blank canvas every week, we have time to
Speaker 1: dive into some topics that are out there, and the
Speaker 1: manager's meeting is presented by Downy Hyundai. There's been a
Speaker 1: lot of talk about the ABS, and I feel like
Speaker 1: it's been misrepresented. You guys do have a plan. You've
Speaker 1: explained it, Aaron Bates, have explained your strategy. But when
Speaker 1: it comes to a player like Andy Paz who seems
Speaker 1: to get a little emotional in those moments, how do
Speaker 1: you rain him in. Is there a conversation that says,
Speaker 1: you know what, Andy, maybe you're not going to be
Speaker 1: allowed to challenge.
Speaker 3: I think that's fair and we all see it, and
Speaker 3: it is an emotional decision by Andy in that moment
Speaker 3: in and at bat. We've talked, you know, at length
Speaker 3: to all of our players about the leverage and when
Speaker 3: you should do it when you don't. You know, every
Speaker 3: at bat is important, but there's still a risk and
Speaker 3: a cost for a challenge, and so I think that
Speaker 3: right now we're going to kind of put the challenges
Speaker 3: from him on the back burner and do the work
Speaker 3: in the sense of after games go through, what he
Speaker 3: thought could have been a strike could have been a
Speaker 3: ball was closed, and so he can kind of recalibrate
Speaker 3: on the strike zone. But and he's had a great
Speaker 3: year offensively, defensively, and he's a young player who's still
Speaker 3: getting better each time out. But this is a learning
Speaker 3: curve for him that we as the coaches, got to
Speaker 3: do a better job and kind of educating him more.
Speaker 1: How pivotal is the ABS going to be in October?
Speaker 3: It's going to be very pivotal, and you got to
Speaker 3: really lock it in because what you don't want is
Speaker 3: something like that, an irresponsible emotional challenge or non challenge
Speaker 3: in a leverage spot to cost your game. And so
Speaker 3: I do think that it's great because it's made umpires
Speaker 3: better and kind of you know, no one wants to
Speaker 3: be embarrass when you miss a ball by you know,
Speaker 3: a ball strike called by two and a half inches.
Speaker 3: You know everyone sees it. That doesn't feel good for them.
Speaker 3: So I think in general it's made them better and ultimately, players, coaches,
Speaker 3: fans want to get the call right and then it
Speaker 3: kind of goes into the strategy on when you use
Speaker 3: those challenges. But you know, this gear is going to
Speaker 3: be different than any other year as far as the ABS.
Speaker 3: So we just got to be really locked in on
Speaker 3: our process when we get to the postseason.
Speaker 1: Can you set the record straight, Is it your preference
Speaker 1: to have both challenges in the last three innings for
Speaker 1: your catcher and your pitcher or is it for the
Speaker 1: hitters in pivotal situations?
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know what, I just don't think it's hard
Speaker 3: and fast. I think that you know, you can win
Speaker 3: or lose a game in the first inning, you know,
Speaker 3: bases loaded three to two and there's a borderline pitch
Speaker 3: that's called and you know, if you're really certain that
Speaker 3: it was a ball, but it was called to strike,
Speaker 3: I think it's worthy of a challenge. So it's hard
Speaker 3: to kind of put players in that corner. But again,
Speaker 3: you really got to make sure that you know the
Speaker 3: squeeze is worth it.
Speaker 1: I'm going to put a smile on Dave Robert's face
Speaker 1: because we're going to back out of here pretty soon.
Speaker 1: One final question, you talk about the tone. What's Freddie
Speaker 1: Freeman doing as far as setting the tone playing tonight
Speaker 1: after the way he went down those steps.
Speaker 3: Well, you know, he is a consummate professional. He loves
Speaker 3: to post. He's a guy that plays every day and
Speaker 3: I just love it. I love him because he understands
Speaker 3: that his job is to be out there every day
Speaker 3: for the Dodgers and earn his keep right with his contract. So, yeah,
Speaker 3: we dodged a big one yesterday. From my vantash point,
Speaker 3: you see him, then you don't. And so there's a
Speaker 3: lot of things while I was holding my breath running
Speaker 3: across the field that went through my mind, and I
Speaker 3: think that we came out of it in the best
Speaker 3: possible scenario, in the sense that he has some overall
Speaker 3: body soreness, but nothing further than that, so he'll be
Speaker 3: in there today. Gave me a text today and said
Speaker 3: he's ready to go, but he'll be down tomorrow. But yeah,
Speaker 3: you know a guy like that, he plays hurt all
Speaker 3: the time, so.
Speaker 2: He texts you before you could text him. That's right. Yeah,
Speaker 2: well a truth be told.
Speaker 3: I did say, hey, man, when you wake up and
Speaker 3: you make sure you're in one piece, let me know
Speaker 3: if you can go or not.
Speaker 2: All right, Dave, thanks a lot for the time.
Speaker 1: I always enjoy spending this time with you every week,
Speaker 1: and it's great to dive into some of these things
Speaker 1: that fans need a little clarity on.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, Dave.
Speaker 3: Always fun catching up with you, and I do love
Speaker 3: this chat, this conversation, so it kind of gives, you know,
Speaker 3: fans a little peek behind the curtain on some of
Speaker 3: my perspectives.
Speaker 1: Hey, the bling behind Dave Roberts is blinding when we
Speaker 1: do these interviews because he's been a winner ever since
Speaker 1: he was playing in center field, and he's carried that
Speaker 1: forward as the manager.