Speaker 1: And now an exclusive interview with David Bassey for Dodger Talker.
Speaker 1: People try to come between us, but Alex Call will
Speaker 1: never allow that to happen. The day after Father's Day
Speaker 1: at Target Field, Alex Call joins us, thanks a lot
Speaker 1: for the time, Alex appreciate it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Dave, happy to be here.
Speaker 1: See that's when you know you started to arrive when
Speaker 1: other media people try to be a wedge between us.
Speaker 2: Whatever you say there.
Speaker 1: How did you enjoy Father's Day yesterday at Dodger Stadium?
Speaker 1: Being there with your son, being able to you know,
Speaker 1: have that moment before the game.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's nice. You know, it's kind of tough on
Speaker 2: a travel day. We didn't you know, kind of up
Speaker 2: before he wakes up, and then having to leave after
Speaker 2: the game before we can really have like a full day.
Speaker 2: But to have him out on the field and my
Speaker 2: wife and my daughter to just special, you know, it
Speaker 2: makes it you know a little bit extra that day
Speaker 2: and just so grateful to be a dad. I love
Speaker 2: those love my family, love my kids, you know, and
Speaker 2: hope everyone had a happy Father's Day.
Speaker 1: How do you balance being a dad of two young
Speaker 1: kids and being able to focus on being part of
Speaker 1: the world champion Dodgers.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a real task. I mean, first and foremost,
Speaker 2: you know, I am a father, you know, a Christian,
Speaker 2: someone who just wants to be a blessing to others,
Speaker 2: you know. But also I get to the opportunity to
Speaker 2: play baseball, a game that I love, and just have
Speaker 2: fun with it. So and with being a baseball player there,
Speaker 2: it's it's a job. It's a job. You gotta work,
Speaker 2: you gotta you gotta prepare, you gotta be ready, and
Speaker 2: that takes a lot of time and effort and discipline.
Speaker 2: But so does being a dad. So does being a husband,
Speaker 2: and so does anything with life that you want to
Speaker 2: be good at. So there's a balance. I try to
Speaker 2: leave the baseball at the field as much as I
Speaker 2: can and take care of business there, and then when
Speaker 2: I'm at home, it's just full dad.
Speaker 1: I remember back when Adrian Gonzalez was playing for the Dodgers,
Speaker 1: he gave me some tips on how to balance all that.
Speaker 1: When you're in the hotel room, he said, just FaceTime
Speaker 1: your kids, your family and leave it by the TV.
Speaker 1: And while you're just hanging around in the hotel room,
Speaker 1: you FaceTime your family. Have you ever given that a shot.
Speaker 2: Yeah, sometimes it's just like you just want to know
Speaker 2: that you know their presence is there, and yeah, I've
Speaker 2: done that where we just FaceTime. Sometimes there's not a
Speaker 2: whole lot of conversation where it's just like, hey, we're
Speaker 2: just kind of living our life and I'm doing what
Speaker 2: I'm doing. But yeah, anytime you can connect the family,
Speaker 2: that's what it's most important.
Speaker 1: Alex call is our guest in front of first pitch
Speaker 1: between the Dodgers and Twins in Minneapolis, Alex, your manager
Speaker 1: Dave Roberts voice some of his frustrations with the entire
Speaker 1: group as far as the plan and the approach of
Speaker 1: the offense. Do you feel like you guys can be
Speaker 1: better at that?
Speaker 2: I mean, I think overall there's always room to improve.
Speaker 2: I think baseball there's ebbs and flows, and whenever you're
Speaker 2: you know, not performing the best, sometimes you have to
Speaker 2: just keep going number one. But too sometimes you have
Speaker 2: to look in the mirror and say, hey, what can
Speaker 2: we do better? And you know, anytime you want to
Speaker 2: just take the focus level up a couple extra notches,
Speaker 2: not try harder by any means, because that doesn't always work,
Speaker 2: but just hey, just have a little bit of extra focus.
Speaker 2: I mean, we were approaching the halfway point of the season.
Speaker 2: You know, guys are grinding, guys are working through things, injuries.
Speaker 2: You know, it is what it is. We play a
Speaker 2: lot of baseball and we have to do it every day,
Speaker 2: so it just happens. But at the end of the day,
Speaker 2: we want to be our best and we want to
Speaker 2: bring our best out every night, and so just ratching
Speaker 2: it up one extra notch, can you know, maybe just
Speaker 2: kind of get things going back in the right direction.
Speaker 1: How much? Knowing that you guys have a little extra
Speaker 1: room margin of error because of the standings and how
Speaker 1: far you're ahead right now plays into all that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, I don't think about it too much
Speaker 2: because at the end of the day, we want to
Speaker 2: play our best ball at all time. You know, we
Speaker 2: want to go out there and give a great effort.
Speaker 2: We want to go out there and win these games
Speaker 2: because they matter. You know, we want to have home
Speaker 2: field advantage. And you know, I think it is nice
Speaker 2: like when things go bad, you can still kind of
Speaker 2: be like, wow, I mean, we still got a nice cushion.
Speaker 2: But you know, things change quick in baseball. You know,
Speaker 2: injuries happen. You know, teams get hot teams, can you know,
Speaker 2: but the same thing goes for us, So a lot
Speaker 2: of things can change, so if you never want to
Speaker 2: be complacent in it. But there's also like, hey, we're
Speaker 2: a great team, we got great players, we know how
Speaker 2: to put it all together, and we've shown that many
Speaker 2: times this year. And you know, just to wake up sometimes.
Speaker 1: Before I let you go, Alex call I always love
Speaker 1: to share with fans just how you use the technology
Speaker 1: to prove pair for each and every at bat, which
Speaker 1: Twins left hander? Have you put the VR set on
Speaker 1: for today?
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a little bit early for that, but be
Speaker 2: assured that will happen. I'll watch. I'll watch my friend Banda.
Speaker 2: You know, I played with him in Washington and I
Speaker 2: played with him with the Dodgers obviously, so I had
Speaker 2: I think I had a double against him last year,
Speaker 2: so hopefully we can do again this year. But rest assured,
Speaker 2: all the lefties and all the bullpen they'll be covered.
Speaker 2: I'll take a look at him and we'll be ready.
Speaker 1: All right, Alex, thanks a lot for the time. Happy
Speaker 1: day after Father's Day, and we look forward to a
Speaker 1: great road trip for you and the Dodgers, thanks Dave,
Speaker 1: and don't let any media members come between us, all right,
Speaker 1: never