Speaker 1: And now an exclusive interview with David Bassey for Dodger Talk.
Speaker 2: We're joined right now by one of the all time
Speaker 2: great Dodgers, a man that led the eighty eight Dodgers
Speaker 2: to the World Series, World Series, MVP Sports Illustrated back
Speaker 2: when there was a Sports Illustrated, the eighty eight Sportsman
Speaker 2: of the Year, and of course the nineteen eighty eight
Speaker 2: Cy Young Award winner and still and still the record
Speaker 2: holder of fifty nine consecutive scoreless sinnings, a Major League record,
Speaker 2: which actually is sixty seven because he pitched eight scoreless
Speaker 2: in Game one of the nineteen eighty eight NLCS. And
Speaker 2: that's the one and only Bulldog Oral Herscheizer. Great to
Speaker 2: be with you as always.
Speaker 3: You know what I need to take you on the
Speaker 3: road with me. That's some kind of introduction.
Speaker 2: Well, you deserve it, you accomplished it, and you definitely
Speaker 2: deserve more accolades in your future. But let's just get
Speaker 2: this out of the way right now. Everybody was hounding
Speaker 2: the Bulldog about Christopher Sanchez getting closer to your record.
Speaker 2: Number one. I know how you feel, but how did
Speaker 2: you feel about everybody asking you questions, especially when Philly
Speaker 2: was in La last week.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, it really starts to become news when
Speaker 3: you get that as far out as he did with
Speaker 3: he made it all the way up to fifty innings
Speaker 3: or so. And he's a tremendous young man and great
Speaker 3: picture and an unbelievable change up and a ground ball
Speaker 3: machine and a strikeout machine.
Speaker 1: Also better strikeout picture than I was, for sure.
Speaker 3: But yeah, the interviews started to come, and really it
Speaker 3: was going to be. If he'd have made it through
Speaker 3: the last outing and still been scoreless, I'm sure I
Speaker 3: would have started to get busy with interviews, but the
Speaker 3: interviews are you know, I accomplished something with my teammates.
Speaker 3: That scoreless streak is really a team record.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 3: I wasn't a big time strikeout pittuer. I don't know
Speaker 3: what I averaged per nine innings in it, maybe six
Speaker 3: or seven strikeouts. But you know, somebody had to pick
Speaker 3: up the ground ball and throw it the first somebody
Speaker 3: had to catch the fly ball in the gap. Somebody
Speaker 3: had to turn a double play when all of a
Speaker 3: sudden I had first and third one out. So it's
Speaker 3: a team record. I know it gets attributed to one person,
Speaker 3: but it's definitely a big team record, and when I
Speaker 3: think back to eighty eight and what went on, it
Speaker 3: is more rewarding to think about my teammates and winning
Speaker 3: a World championship than the individual record.
Speaker 2: That's amazing, And I know that's not something we think about,
Speaker 2: but you being a guy that as a group in
Speaker 2: nineteen eighty eight accomplished something special makes a lot of
Speaker 2: sense that you're shining a light not on yourself but
Speaker 2: on your teammates.
Speaker 3: Well, you know, Saxy and Moose and Gibbie and Soosh
Speaker 3: and Hatch and Hat should have wanted.
Speaker 1: To paybe the co World Series MVPs.
Speaker 3: He was amazing, you know, Mickey meeting Mickey Mantle and
Speaker 3: hitting home runs after he wasn't a home run hitter,
Speaker 3: So you know, John Shelby, Mike Davis. I can go
Speaker 3: down the whole list of them, you know, but Franklin stubbed.
Speaker 1: I mean, those guys, that was quite a year.
Speaker 3: We weren't supposed to win, and we probably shouldn't have won,
Speaker 3: but we rose to the occasion in the key moments.
Speaker 3: So we went to the brink with the Mets in
Speaker 3: Game seven, and we went to the brink. Really, I
Speaker 3: felt like even against the Bash Brothers with Oakland. I
Speaker 3: mean you looked across the field and you saw Bobby Welch,
Speaker 3: and you saw Dave Stewart, and you saw Dave Parker
Speaker 3: and the Bash Brothers with McGuire and Conseco, and it's unbelievable.
Speaker 3: While why said short, fantastic team that we had to beat,
Speaker 3: and we felt like we were the underdog even when
Speaker 3: we were heading that series, and probably even felt like
Speaker 3: an underdog even after we won it.
Speaker 2: Hey, one of the two images that will always remember,
Speaker 2: there's actually three in eighty eight you coming off the
Speaker 2: field in San Diego after going extra innings to break
Speaker 2: Don Drysdale's record. The other is you taking a kneel
Speaker 2: on the mound after striking out Howard Johnson in Game
Speaker 2: seven of the eighty eight NLCS, and of course Rick
Speaker 2: Dempsey and the rest of your infield hoisting you up
Speaker 2: in Oakland.
Speaker 3: Yeah, when you talked about taking the knees like I
Speaker 3: was the first team.
Speaker 1: People have kidded me about that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, there's a lot of images there, and there's a
Speaker 3: lot of good things that happened. I remember getting tapped
Speaker 3: on the shoulder and say that camera say it, and
Speaker 3: it was I'm going to Disneyland, and then that camera
Speaker 3: say it, I'm going to disney World. And then we
Speaker 3: had to go to Disneyland and Disney World for Truth
Speaker 3: and Advertising. So my kids got this backstage treatment there
Speaker 3: and they never got it the rest of their life,
Speaker 3: just those two visits.
Speaker 1: But you know, there was some great images and great
Speaker 1: memories from that year.
Speaker 2: Orrel Hersheiser is our guest. You'll hear them again tonight
Speaker 2: with Joe Davis on Sportsnet LA. And last night I
Speaker 2: thought you just handled everything with so much class, But
Speaker 2: did you feel like you did have to say something
Speaker 2: on your own broadcast last night to acknowledge what Sanchez
Speaker 2: did and just how much attention you were getting.
Speaker 3: Joe brought it up in the first couple innings, you know,
Speaker 3: kind of like a congratulations, and we were going over
Speaker 3: some of the scores around the league and what the
Speaker 3: Padres had done. I was actually pulling for the Padres
Speaker 3: a little bit because Walker Bueher was on the mound
Speaker 3: and all of a sudden, you know, Sanchez gives up
Speaker 3: the run and I think it was one to one
Speaker 3: at that time, and then I think somebody gave up.
Speaker 1: I don't know was Walker.
Speaker 3: I haven't checked the box score, but he gave up
Speaker 3: a home run and all of a sudden they got ahead.
Speaker 3: So I, you know, I don't know about handling something
Speaker 3: with class or handling something with your true feelings.
Speaker 1: I think that people the hardest question is are you
Speaker 1: rooting for him? And that's a hard question because a
Speaker 1: record is a record. But you're not.
Speaker 3: Gonna wish Ill Will on somebody. You know, the only
Speaker 3: time I would root against Christopher is when he's playing
Speaker 3: the Dodgers. So when he's playing the Padres and you're
Speaker 3: just watching, you're an observer and you know you're part
Speaker 3: of the equation because you had done something, and Don
Speaker 3: Drysdell had done something, and others had done something. So
Speaker 3: I thought about it as while it pretty much changed
Speaker 3: my life, the World Championship changed my life more than
Speaker 3: the fifty nine scoreless, But why am I going to
Speaker 3: root negatively against somebody that has a chance to change
Speaker 3: their life and do something special? And whether he broke
Speaker 3: it or not, it wasn't going to change my present tense.
Speaker 3: It wasn't going to change my life at all. So
Speaker 3: I had very neutral feelings about what was going on.
Speaker 3: I know that people around me would kind of say
Speaker 3: friends and family, especially doctor Kurjuski. They would kid me
Speaker 3: an awful lot about, oh, he gave up a run,
Speaker 3: and I actually have to be where we're doing this interview.
Speaker 3: It happened to be in this booth and I was
Speaker 3: changing my shirt into the one I was gonna wear
Speaker 3: for the broadcast, and I wasn't even watching the screen,
Speaker 3: but the game happened to be on because it was
Speaker 3: kind of rotating around the league showing highlights, and they
Speaker 3: were having that live, and so Rick Go's base head
Speaker 3: base had it was it Merrill that got the hit.
Speaker 3: Rick's like, well, you're gonna owe him an awful lot
Speaker 3: of dinners. You might want to send him a bottle
Speaker 3: of champagne.
Speaker 1: So he was definitely kidding me about.
Speaker 2: It all right, before I let you go oral herscheizer.
Speaker 2: Last night, you and Joe Davis, along with all of
Speaker 2: us were treated to a spectac game by the most
Speaker 2: spectacular player in baseball history. What was it like for
Speaker 2: you guys to sit back and watch what Otani did
Speaker 2: last night?
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's it's spectacular to know somebody's a two way player.
Speaker 3: It's spectacular to know that they can do it on
Speaker 3: alternating nights, and one night he's a pitcher and another night
Speaker 3: he's a hitter. But to do it all at that
Speaker 3: elite level on the same night is just remarkable to see.
Speaker 3: And we were kind of smelling a no hitter there
Speaker 3: until Moreno snuck that ball down the right field line.
Speaker 1: But what show he has done.
Speaker 3: I think Will Smith capsulized perfectly today in an article
Speaker 3: where he was quoted as saying the best player to
Speaker 3: ever walk the face of the earth. And I think
Speaker 3: we probably are experiencing that. I don't think we're going
Speaker 3: to ever see anything like this in our lifetime and
Speaker 3: maybe my kid's lifetime and maybe grandkids lifetime.
Speaker 1: Who knows. He might be a one of a kind forever.
Speaker 2: Bad news for your old teammate, Rick Dempsey number seventeen.
Speaker 2: It's associated with Otani.
Speaker 3: Now, okay, I'll make sure I mentioned that Rick next
Speaker 3: time I call him.
Speaker 2: Thanks a lot for the time, always handling everything with
Speaker 2: class and dignity. Thanks a lot for the time, bulldog,
Speaker 2: Am I allowed to call you that?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 1: You are all right?
Speaker 2: Another victory here in the booth of sports Net LA