WEBVTT - Orel Hershiser (9-8-26) 

0:00:00.430 --> 0:00:06.180
<v Speaker 1>And now, an exclusive interview with David Basset for Dodger Talk.

0:00:06.640 --> 0:00:07.920
<v Speaker 2>It's the Dodgers and Reds.

0:00:08.000 --> 0:00:10.340
<v Speaker 3>And back in the day, the Dodgers and Reds were

0:00:10.420 --> 0:00:14.520
<v Speaker 3>bitter NLS rivals. And a man that knows all about

0:00:14.580 --> 0:00:15.540
<v Speaker 3>that is.

0:00:15.480 --> 0:00:21.009
<v Speaker 4>The one and only Sportsnet LA broadcaster, former 1988 World

0:00:21.070 --> 0:00:24.909
<v Speaker 4>Series MVP Cy Young Award winner, and Sportsman of the

0:00:24.950 --> 0:00:28.170
<v Speaker 4>Year back when sports illustrated matter, when the Dodgers and

0:00:28.270 --> 0:00:31.530
<v Speaker 4>Reds were rivals in the NL West, and the one and.

0:00:31.530 --> 0:00:34.700
<v Speaker 3>Only Bulldog, Oral Hershiser, joins us. Thanks a lot for

0:00:34.729 --> 0:00:35.170
<v Speaker 3>the time.

0:00:36.220 --> 0:00:38.360
<v Speaker 1>I think right now I have to try and match

0:00:38.420 --> 0:00:43.120
<v Speaker 1>your enthusiasm and your introduction with the same intensity that the.

0:00:43.080 --> 0:00:45.700
<v Speaker 2>Dodgers and the Reds used to play on the field.

0:00:45.780 --> 0:00:50.960
<v Speaker 1>And the first memory is like, Riverfront Stadium, absolutely insane.

0:00:51.850 --> 0:00:53.190
<v Speaker 2>Not the best place.

0:00:53.970 --> 0:00:57.590
<v Speaker 1>First of all, you've got what they can't call anymore astroturf.

0:00:57.610 --> 0:01:01.810
<v Speaker 1>So we call it artificial grass, I guess, or cement

0:01:02.080 --> 0:01:04.300
<v Speaker 1>with red, green carpet.

0:01:05.819 --> 0:01:08.240
<v Speaker 2>It's really hard to play there, especially in the summer.

0:01:08.000 --> 0:01:11.540
<v Speaker 1>With the humidity and the ball used to travel. And

0:01:11.860 --> 0:01:14.260
<v Speaker 1>I did get a lot of good fans at times

0:01:14.360 --> 0:01:15.130
<v Speaker 1>on certain.

0:01:14.860 --> 0:01:16.110
<v Speaker 2>Giveaway nights or things.

0:01:16.170 --> 0:01:18.990
<v Speaker 1>But, you know, that organization at the time was starting

0:01:19.010 --> 0:01:23.970
<v Speaker 1>to go downhill from the big red machine. I remember

0:01:23.990 --> 0:01:26.690
<v Speaker 1>the battles there, though, because the fans are totally and

0:01:27.150 --> 0:01:30.540
<v Speaker 1>completely intense as far as getting into the games. And

0:01:30.560 --> 0:01:32.919
<v Speaker 1>the Dodgers with Tommy Lasorda at the helm as our

0:01:32.959 --> 0:01:34.959
<v Speaker 1>skipper and me just getting up to the big leagues

0:01:35.000 --> 0:01:36.860
<v Speaker 1>in September of 83 and then going into 84 and

0:01:36.860 --> 0:01:41.720
<v Speaker 1>85 and watching them transition as a team because, you know,

0:01:41.740 --> 0:01:42.540
<v Speaker 1>the Sabos and.

0:01:42.459 --> 0:01:44.820
<v Speaker 2>The Larkins and those kind of guys, the Paul O'Neills

0:01:44.860 --> 0:01:45.440
<v Speaker 2>were not there.

0:01:45.500 --> 0:01:48.780
<v Speaker 1>Dave Parker was still there, and Davey Concepcion was still there.

0:01:48.880 --> 0:01:50.860
<v Speaker 1>So we were seeing the tail end of some of

0:01:50.880 --> 0:01:53.420
<v Speaker 1>the older guys, some of the new young guys, and

0:01:53.440 --> 0:01:56.090
<v Speaker 1>they were just kind of passionate together. But the rivalry

0:01:56.130 --> 0:01:59.830
<v Speaker 1>and the intensity because of our manager, Tommy Lasorda, was huge.

0:02:00.230 --> 0:02:02.620
<v Speaker 3>I heard of those guys that were part of Tommy's

0:02:02.680 --> 0:02:06.380
<v Speaker 3>first team. The Big Red Machine was dominating the NL West,

0:02:06.600 --> 0:02:10.570
<v Speaker 3>and he forbid any Dodger player to have a red

0:02:10.650 --> 0:02:13.940
<v Speaker 3>T-shirt or anything red. Was that the case when you

0:02:13.980 --> 0:02:14.519
<v Speaker 3>came up, too?

0:02:15.020 --> 0:02:17.880
<v Speaker 2>Pretty much. I mean, it wasn't a verbal rule.

0:02:18.120 --> 0:02:20.360
<v Speaker 1>It was something if you happened to slip up and

0:02:20.419 --> 0:02:22.160
<v Speaker 1>pack the wrong T-shirt or pack.

0:02:21.940 --> 0:02:24.520
<v Speaker 2>The wrong thing, yeah, that was there. And you know what?

0:02:24.540 --> 0:02:26.960
<v Speaker 1>It even went down to the polo or anything that

0:02:26.980 --> 0:02:29.160
<v Speaker 1>you wore. Don't wear a red tie around Tommy. That

0:02:29.300 --> 0:02:32.550
<v Speaker 1>is not going to happen. But Tommy was notorious at

0:02:32.590 --> 0:02:36.250
<v Speaker 1>different times against these certain teams like the Yankees or

0:02:36.330 --> 0:02:39.650
<v Speaker 1>the Cincinnati Reds when he would go to church and

0:02:39.710 --> 0:02:43.150
<v Speaker 1>he'd watch the opposing manager who ended up at the

0:02:43.210 --> 0:02:47.120
<v Speaker 1>same church when they'd go– They'd be at the same service,

0:02:47.520 --> 0:02:49.600
<v Speaker 1>and then since they were Catholic, they would go over

0:02:49.639 --> 0:02:52.840
<v Speaker 1>and light candles over in front of different saints. And

0:02:52.880 --> 0:02:55.400
<v Speaker 1>Tommy would always wait to watch the manager of the

0:02:55.440 --> 0:02:58.210
<v Speaker 1>opposing team, if it was Sparky Anderson.

0:02:57.880 --> 0:03:00.690
<v Speaker 2>Or whoever it was, to go over and light his

0:03:00.750 --> 0:03:02.290
<v Speaker 2>candle and say his prayer.

0:03:02.530 --> 0:03:05.270
<v Speaker 1>And then that manager would leave, and Tommy would go

0:03:05.350 --> 0:03:08.050
<v Speaker 1>over and blow out the candle of the opposing manager.

0:03:08.490 --> 0:03:12.209
<v Speaker 3>That sounds like Tommy Lasorda. Oral Hershiser, part of that

0:03:12.270 --> 0:03:15.540
<v Speaker 3>Tommy Lasorda family, is our guest. All right, let's turn

0:03:15.580 --> 0:03:20.200
<v Speaker 3>our attention to 2026 Dodgers Reds. Not the same luster

0:03:20.380 --> 0:03:23.820
<v Speaker 3>or headline act, but the Dodgers have Tarek Skubal on

0:03:23.870 --> 0:03:27.190
<v Speaker 3>the mound. He feels like the Dodger fans have not

0:03:27.290 --> 0:03:30.370
<v Speaker 3>seen his best yet. What do you believe has been

0:03:30.770 --> 0:03:33.109
<v Speaker 3>holding him back from showing us his best?

0:03:33.790 --> 0:03:35.950
<v Speaker 1>Well, I think it's been fastball command in the first

0:03:36.010 --> 0:03:38.210
<v Speaker 1>inning for sure. And I think it's maybe a little

0:03:38.250 --> 0:03:40.330
<v Speaker 1>bit of adrenaline, a little bit of pushing himself that

0:03:40.350 --> 0:03:43.270
<v Speaker 1>he wants to show that ace ability, that Cy Young ability.

0:03:43.730 --> 0:03:46.490
<v Speaker 2>But you know what I look at as? He has

0:03:46.550 --> 0:03:48.650
<v Speaker 2>a very high floor.

0:03:49.250 --> 0:03:52.630
<v Speaker 1>If this is his floor, it's elite because all we're

0:03:52.660 --> 0:03:54.380
<v Speaker 1>doing is expecting him to.

0:03:54.320 --> 0:03:56.560
<v Speaker 2>Build his ceiling. And we might get to see his

0:03:56.600 --> 0:03:57.340
<v Speaker 2>ceiling tonight.

0:03:57.420 --> 0:04:00.500
<v Speaker 1>That would be fantastic, especially against the Reds, who struck

0:04:00.620 --> 0:04:02.820
<v Speaker 1>out 14 times yesterday, only walked once.

0:04:03.460 --> 0:04:07.030
<v Speaker 2>If you're not– that's like Scooble's recipe, right?

0:04:07.060 --> 0:04:10.410
<v Speaker 1>He's a seven-strikeout guy to one-walk kind of guy.

0:04:10.450 --> 0:04:12.150
<v Speaker 2>He leads Major League Baseball in that area.

0:04:12.520 --> 0:04:15.720
<v Speaker 1>His best secondary pitch is his changeup, but we haven't

0:04:15.780 --> 0:04:18.330
<v Speaker 1>seen the likes of the outstanding curveball, which he doesn't

0:04:18.350 --> 0:04:21.089
<v Speaker 1>throw very much, or the really solid slider. But if

0:04:21.130 --> 0:04:23.570
<v Speaker 1>he commands the top of the strike zone, we've been

0:04:23.630 --> 0:04:26.479
<v Speaker 1>seeing that with the Dodger staff lately against Washington and

0:04:26.500 --> 0:04:29.450
<v Speaker 1>now against Cincinnati. They've been doing a very good job

0:04:29.490 --> 0:04:31.390
<v Speaker 1>at the top of the strike zone with their fastball

0:04:31.430 --> 0:04:32.730
<v Speaker 1>to set up their off-speed stuff.

0:04:33.130 --> 0:04:36.770
<v Speaker 3>Oral, obviously the Dodgers have had some pretty good rotations

0:04:36.990 --> 0:04:39.650
<v Speaker 3>over the course of the time you've been on Sportsnet LA,

0:04:39.790 --> 0:04:42.560
<v Speaker 3>but there's a lot of talk now that these four

0:04:42.600 --> 0:04:46.220
<v Speaker 3>guys rival what the Braves had in the 90s with

0:04:46.420 --> 0:04:47.800
<v Speaker 3>Maddox and Glavin.

0:04:47.440 --> 0:04:48.520
<v Speaker 2>At the top with Smoltz.

0:04:48.960 --> 0:04:51.159
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I mean, you come back here and you think

0:04:51.200 --> 0:04:55.120
<v Speaker 1>about Kershaw, Greinke, and Ryu, and you go, okay, this

0:04:55.180 --> 0:04:56.100
<v Speaker 1>rotation is better.

0:04:56.640 --> 0:04:57.659
<v Speaker 2>It is definitely better.

0:04:57.700 --> 0:05:00.000
<v Speaker 1>And it's not better, I'm not saying something against Kirsch

0:05:00.060 --> 0:05:01.119
<v Speaker 1>or Grinke or Ryu.

0:05:01.250 --> 0:05:03.050
<v Speaker 2>I'm just saying there's four of these guys.

0:05:03.570 --> 0:05:06.230
<v Speaker 1>And they're all capable of winning Cy Youngs, and they all,

0:05:06.250 --> 0:05:08.469
<v Speaker 1>a few of them, have won the Cy Young. I

0:05:08.510 --> 0:05:10.830
<v Speaker 1>look at this rotation, and they all get it done

0:05:10.850 --> 0:05:14.170
<v Speaker 1>in different ways. They all come at you with different handedness.

0:05:15.089 --> 0:05:17.330
<v Speaker 1>You could start them in any order. And I think

0:05:17.390 --> 0:05:21.220
<v Speaker 1>the starting rotation in the playoffs will not be because of.

0:05:21.460 --> 0:05:22.600
<v Speaker 2>Who's better than who.

0:05:23.080 --> 0:05:25.460
<v Speaker 1>It'll be because of a matchup of who is the opponent.

0:05:25.860 --> 0:05:26.820
<v Speaker 2>Where is the game?

0:05:27.220 --> 0:05:29.960
<v Speaker 1>How many games is a possibility in the series? Who

0:05:29.980 --> 0:05:32.729
<v Speaker 1>can recover the quickest to come back after games one

0:05:32.760 --> 0:05:35.070
<v Speaker 1>and game two? So it's going to be interesting. There's

0:05:35.110 --> 0:05:37.830
<v Speaker 1>a lot of great options when you have this many pitchers.

0:05:38.390 --> 0:05:38.950
<v Speaker 2>And you know what?

0:05:39.410 --> 0:05:42.810
<v Speaker 1>If the bullpen can just cover like two innings or

0:05:42.930 --> 0:05:45.770
<v Speaker 1>two and a third in the playoffs, I think this

0:05:45.860 --> 0:05:48.580
<v Speaker 1>is the type of rotation that these guys can go six,

0:05:48.680 --> 0:05:51.880
<v Speaker 1>six and two thirds, seven innings. And so you are

0:05:51.940 --> 0:05:55.460
<v Speaker 1>really taking weight off of the bullpen. and you're taking

0:05:55.550 --> 0:05:58.750
<v Speaker 1>weight off of the offense. Because the offense we're getting

0:05:58.790 --> 0:06:02.150
<v Speaker 1>right now is we are winning in the high leverage situations.

0:06:02.430 --> 0:06:06.670
<v Speaker 1>We're not stacking hits, but we are stacking walks, and

0:06:06.710 --> 0:06:09.930
<v Speaker 1>we're getting our singles, and now we're making the impact

0:06:09.970 --> 0:06:12.380
<v Speaker 1>of once the table is set, we're getting it done.

0:06:12.500 --> 0:06:16.000
<v Speaker 1>So to win the last three games late with three-run homers,

0:06:16.460 --> 0:06:17.890
<v Speaker 1>That's kind of October baseball.

0:06:18.270 --> 0:06:20.830
<v Speaker 3>Hey, the table's set already for the game with Oral

0:06:20.870 --> 0:06:23.849
<v Speaker 3>Hershazer getting us ready. Thanks a lot for the time,

0:06:23.930 --> 0:06:28.570
<v Speaker 3>and don't have any flashbacks to Norm Charlton running over

0:06:28.610 --> 0:06:29.789
<v Speaker 3>your guy, Mike Socia.

0:06:30.050 --> 0:06:31.980
<v Speaker 2>Is Capital Grill one of the sponsors?

0:06:32.310 --> 0:06:35.620
<v Speaker 3>Well, it's funny you say that, Oral. A gift card

0:06:35.660 --> 0:06:38.440
<v Speaker 3>for you from Capitol Grill. You could visit Burbank or

0:06:38.520 --> 0:06:41.700
<v Speaker 3>any other place in America. An upscale, relaxed spot with

0:06:41.720 --> 0:06:44.930
<v Speaker 3>a great bar, great steaks, and a World Series MVP.

0:06:45.370 --> 0:06:46.589
<v Speaker 2>I love Capitol Grill.

0:06:46.670 --> 0:06:48.650
<v Speaker 1>Capitol Grill is one of the best restaurants that I've

0:06:48.670 --> 0:06:50.650
<v Speaker 1>ever gone when I was young and didn't have enough

0:06:50.690 --> 0:06:53.230
<v Speaker 1>meal money and would try and find where Tommy Lasorda

0:06:53.290 --> 0:06:55.690
<v Speaker 1>was eating. So Capitol Grill is a great place. And

0:06:55.730 --> 0:06:58.040
<v Speaker 1>I'm going to take my gift certificate. And give it

0:06:58.100 --> 0:07:01.740
<v Speaker 1>to the guy, Dr. Rick Krajewski, to have him go

0:07:01.800 --> 0:07:04.080
<v Speaker 1>out to eat because he works hard to make me

0:07:04.140 --> 0:07:06.700
<v Speaker 1>sound intelligent and come up with some of the stuff

0:07:06.720 --> 0:07:07.789
<v Speaker 1>that you just asked me today.

0:07:07.960 --> 0:07:08.730
<v Speaker 2>All right, perfect.

0:07:08.880 --> 0:07:11.710
<v Speaker 3>I am called the dream maker. They call me David Vasse,

0:07:11.750 --> 0:07:14.210
<v Speaker 3>but other people like to call me a dream maker.

0:07:14.290 --> 0:07:15.050
<v Speaker 3>And there you go.

0:07:15.070 --> 0:07:16.370
<v Speaker 2>We just make dreams come true.

0:07:16.670 --> 0:07:19.210
<v Speaker 1>I listen to Petros and Money. And I'm telling you what,

0:07:19.230 --> 0:07:20.530
<v Speaker 1>they don't think you're a dream maker.

0:07:21.570 --> 0:07:22.570
<v Speaker 2>Some say a nightmare.

0:07:22.910 --> 0:07:24.860
<v Speaker 3>Anyway, we got to get ready for the game.

0:07:24.890 --> 0:07:27.820
<v Speaker 2>The table is set with the Bulldog, Oral Hershiser.