Speaker 1: The quest for the three peat has begun.
Speaker 2: Only four teams in Major League Baseball history have won
Speaker 2: three consecutive titles. The Dodgers are the favorites to become
Speaker 2: the fifth.
Speaker 1: This is World Champion Dodger Talk.
Speaker 2: Here we go again. We're Gay running back.
Speaker 3: To get him on the show called eight six six,
Speaker 3: nine eighty seven two five sevendy and be sure to
Speaker 3: follow Dodger Talk wherever you catch short podcasts.
Speaker 1: Here's your host, David Vase, last.
Speaker 2: Day, Welcome the Dodger Talk. David Vase with you until
Speaker 2: eleven thirty tonight here on AM five to seventy LA Sports.
Speaker 2: After the Dodgers come from behind score three runs to
Speaker 2: beat the Orioles six to five. We have phone lines
Speaker 2: open at eight sixty six nine, eight seven two five seventy.
Speaker 2: I still see those break lights in the parking lot,
Speaker 2: so come on. I'll keep your company all the way
Speaker 2: back home on Dodger Talk. After a very exciting win
Speaker 2: for the Dodgers that made it a lot closer than
Speaker 2: what it should have been. And by the way, coming
Speaker 2: up at eleven fifteen, we are going to have an
Speaker 2: extremely special guest on the show, the one and only
Speaker 2: Johnny b Dusty Baker is going to join us on
Speaker 2: Dodger Talk, so looking forward to that as well. Jose
Speaker 2: Moda is going to join us in ten minutes, and
Speaker 2: we have time for your phone calls at eight six
Speaker 2: six nine eight seven two five seventy. Like I mentioned
Speaker 2: during the Clubhouse show, the Dodgers really made this more
Speaker 2: interesting than what it should have been. In the first
Speaker 2: five innings, they left eight men on base. This game
Speaker 2: should have been seven to nothing after the fourth inning.
Speaker 2: Trey Gibson should never have even touched the fifth inning,
Speaker 2: but the Dodgers let him off the hook several different times,
Speaker 2: none bigger than in the third inning. As the Veterans
Speaker 2: got on baby and loaded the bases for the rookies.
Speaker 2: The seven eight nine hitters Ryan Ward, Dalton Rushing and
Speaker 2: Alex Friedland and Trey Gibson proceeded to strike them out
Speaker 2: in order and the Dodgers did not score a single run.
Speaker 2: So that was frustrating. A frustrating night for Dalton Rushing
Speaker 2: up until the ninth inning, struck out three times and
Speaker 2: when he goes down two he swings at a pitch
Speaker 2: down in the dirt. You're thinking, I hope he doesn't
Speaker 2: let his emotions get the best of him here, because
Speaker 2: at times he has. But you know, as Taoscar Hernandez
Speaker 2: said to me earlier on this homestand about Andy Paez,
Speaker 2: and why Andy Paez has been able to take his
Speaker 2: game to this level to be the leading vote getter
Speaker 2: among outfielders in the National League is because of maturity
Speaker 2: and understanding what it takes to get through a major
Speaker 2: league season, understanding at bat too, at back hitch to pitch,
Speaker 2: the maturity and not letting your emotions get the best
Speaker 2: of you. And Dalton Rushing took a huge step in
Speaker 2: maturity tonight, regrouping, calling a time out, regrouping, being able
Speaker 2: to compose himself. And you know, he even said to
Speaker 2: us after the game, a ninety eight fastball was the
Speaker 2: last pitch he thought Ryan Helsley was going to throw him.
Speaker 2: He threw it and he was ready for it, ninety
Speaker 2: eight on the inner half, and he didn't miss it.
Speaker 2: And you gotta love his confidence because in the process
Speaker 2: of that answer, he said, I bet I won't see
Speaker 2: another fastball the rest of this series. So that's Dalton
Speaker 2: Rushing as well. But that's what has allowed him to
Speaker 2: get to the big leagues. He believes he is one
Speaker 2: of the best, and you got to have that belief.
Speaker 2: And nobody wanted that moment more than Dalton Rushing and
Speaker 2: he got it, and his teammates were, you know, obviously
Speaker 2: cheering him on from the dugout, and certainly everybody that
Speaker 2: knows Dalton. I know people on the outside and the
Speaker 2: internet and social media want to turn this guy into
Speaker 2: some sort of villain. He couldn't be further from that.
Speaker 2: He cares, He leaves everything out on the field. Yeah,
Speaker 2: does he sometimes let his emotions get the best of him.
Speaker 2: I think he did the first month of the season.
Speaker 2: I don't think he's done very much of that since.
Speaker 2: I think he has shown a lot of maturity and
Speaker 2: growth since the first few weeks of the regular season.
Speaker 2: So I feel like, again, the social media, the Internet,
Speaker 2: all that stuff sometimes tries to turn a narrative that
Speaker 2: isn't really true. It's not that's more perception than it
Speaker 2: is reality. So very happy for Dalton Rushing to have
Speaker 2: that chance. But like I said, this game should have
Speaker 2: been over before the fourth inning, and it wasn't. Also,
Speaker 2: you know, another big game for Mookie Betts. Don't look now,
Speaker 2: the Dodgers have the best record in ball and Mookie
Speaker 2: Betts is barely starting to get hot and he's hitting
Speaker 2: three point fifty seven in his last seven games. This
Speaker 2: could have been his best offensive game since he hit
Speaker 2: two home runs back on May twenty seventh. That's so
Speaker 2: almost a month ago. Tonight, three hits, a double, and
Speaker 2: he also hit a big home run in the ninth inning.
Speaker 2: It's not so much about just a home run. It
Speaker 2: was a big home run in the ninth inning to
Speaker 2: cut the lead to one run and really give that
Speaker 2: dugout some belief. When a guy like Mookie Betts is
Speaker 2: doing that, that gives the rest of the dugout a
Speaker 2: lot of confidence, especially after Freddie Freeman made the first
Speaker 2: out of that ninth inning. And oh, by the way,
Speaker 2: the Dodgers do all of this without sho Hao Tani,
Speaker 2: who was not at the ballpark today because the Dodgers
Speaker 2: announced he and his wife are expecting their second child
Speaker 2: and he may or may not be in the lineup tomorrow,
Speaker 2: but Dave Roberts said he'll be back, if not tomorrow
Speaker 2: then Sundays. So congratulations to show Otani and his wife.
Speaker 2: We all hope everything went well, but yeah, certainly a
Speaker 2: big win without o'tani and a big win that almost
Speaker 2: got away from the Dodgers. This would have been a
Speaker 2: frustrating loss for the Dodgers because they should have won
Speaker 2: this game going away early on, and the game was
Speaker 2: finding those guys. It was finding Ryan Ward, it was
Speaker 2: finding Dalton Rushing, it was finding Alex Freeland, and they couldn't.
Speaker 2: They couldn't deliver in the big moments with runners on base.
Speaker 2: But don't discount the run that Alex Freeland scored in
Speaker 2: this game in the second inning, Dino ebol and aggressive
Speaker 2: send on a base hit by Andy pie has and
Speaker 2: Freeland had a great slide head first and really had
Speaker 2: to maneuver himself to touch home plate. So that was
Speaker 2: a big play, especially when you look back and it's
Speaker 2: a one run victory. Plays like that early on decide
Speaker 2: games late. So did Andy pie haz Is throw to
Speaker 2: second base on the very first batter of the game,
Speaker 2: Taylor Ward trying to stretch a single into a double,
Speaker 2: Those type of things in a one run game. Loom
Speaker 2: large eight six six nine eight seven two five seventy
Speaker 2: is the phone number the Dodgers beat the Orioles tonight
Speaker 2: six to five. Tonight's game brought to you by Modello
Speaker 2: Modello The Mark of a Fighter. Let's go out to
Speaker 2: Tia Rachel from Pico Rivera lead us off on Dodger
Speaker 2: Talk tonight. Hi, Tia Rachel, how are.
Speaker 4: You, David? So nice to talk to you. I've been
Speaker 4: listening to you for so many hours and so many days,
Speaker 4: and it's a wonderful to have.
Speaker 2: And you're not tired of me. You're not sick and
Speaker 2: tired of me, Tia Rachel.
Speaker 4: I'm tired of you, But I want to tell you.
Speaker 4: My girlfriend and I listen to you, and we listen
Speaker 4: and watch the games all the time. We get together,
Speaker 4: and I'm gonna tell you we love our guy today, Rushing.
Speaker 4: We are so proud of him. We watched him come
Speaker 4: on board, and today he did it for us. We
Speaker 4: are his fans. We are gonna watch him grow and
Speaker 4: he is our favorite player right now. And we are
Speaker 4: so happy that we were here watching the game and
Speaker 4: listening to you, and we we haven't given up. We
Speaker 4: never gave up on him, and today he proved us,
Speaker 4: proved to be one of the best guys ever. We're
Speaker 4: gonna be here the next time he does this.
Speaker 2: All right, don't move, you guys, gotta stay right where
Speaker 2: you are until Russian comes up tomorrow night.
Speaker 5: Do not move, got it?
Speaker 4: You got it? And Dave, we love watching listening to
Speaker 4: you after the game. We're looking at the game and
Speaker 4: we listen to you. Thank you, Picico Rivetta, I loved you,
Speaker 4: and we love dayton By. Yes, yes, I love it.
Speaker 2: Thank you. I love Pico Rivera too. Thank you, Tia Rachel.
Speaker 2: Thank you to the crew out there. We love the passion.
Speaker 2: Eight sixty six nine eight seven two five seventy and
Speaker 2: they're gonna see Dalton rushing in there again. Uh the
Speaker 2: rest of the weekend because Will Smith got a quarter
Speaker 2: zone injection and is not going to be available or
Speaker 2: activated this weekend. So uh, there's even some doubt that
Speaker 2: Will Smith will travel with the team when they leave
Speaker 2: for Minnesota after the game. Maybe he just joins the
Speaker 2: team when they arrive in San Diego for a three
Speaker 2: game series on Friday. Let's go out to Angelo from Lancaster.
Speaker 2: You're on Dodger Talk. How you doing Angelo?
Speaker 6: Hey, dB, how you doing tonight?
Speaker 2: I'm doing good. I'm excited to talk to one of
Speaker 2: my favorite players. Dusty Baker later in the show, I'm
Speaker 2: excited to see Dalton Rushing get a well deserved moment
Speaker 2: that he was able to control. So I'm feeling great
Speaker 2: on this Friday.
Speaker 6: Yes, what a great grinding win tonight it was.
Speaker 2: And like I said before, you know, even when the
Speaker 2: Dodgers lose a game like tonight, I feel like, and
Speaker 2: this is not arrogant, this is not being a homer,
Speaker 2: but I feel like the other team just survives the Dodgers.
Speaker 2: And Ryan Helsley and the Orioles could not survive the
Speaker 2: Dodgers in the ninth inning. The game was a little
Speaker 2: too long for them tonight.
Speaker 7: We don't quit.
Speaker 6: We don't quit, and that's why they're.
Speaker 2: Back to back champions. They never quit in that game
Speaker 2: in Toronto after Bob Bashett hit that three run home run.
Speaker 2: You know, Max Munsey has explained this to me many
Speaker 2: times before. Miguel Rojas has explained this to me many
Speaker 2: times before. Freddie Freeman has explained this to me many
Speaker 2: times before. All Right, we're down, but we're not out.
Speaker 2: Pick yourself up and stay in the moment and go
Speaker 2: pitch to pitch at back to a bat. Even in
Speaker 2: a game in June, So thank you for the phone call. Angelo.
Speaker 2: The Dodgers certainly don't give up. And for all of
Speaker 2: you that think they're just coasting to October, tonight's a
Speaker 2: great example of how they are not coasting to October.
Speaker 2: You don't have baseball's best record with basically so many
Speaker 2: injuries on and off the first half of the year,
Speaker 2: and have forty nine wins in a nine and a
Speaker 2: half game lead in the NLST. It takes contributions from
Speaker 2: Alex call who was pinched running for Max Munsey. Monsey
Speaker 2: had a great at bat to get on base call,
Speaker 2: great base runner, was able to score the tying run.
Speaker 2: And then you have Ryan Ward, who's getting his first
Speaker 2: taste a big league action, had a very good at
Speaker 2: bat to keep the line moving for Dalton Rushing. Let's
Speaker 2: go out to Lars, who is at the ballpark. Lars,
Speaker 2: I'm going to trust that you stayed until Dalton Rushing
Speaker 2: delivered the win.
Speaker 6: I did, and I have proof on my phone of it.
Speaker 6: I got an incredible video and you'll hear the the
Speaker 6: second it came off the bat, I knew we were
Speaker 6: scoring at least one there, and then as as Teo
Speaker 6: was dumping the water on him. My phone died and
Speaker 6: I thought, oh no, I've lost the video. But I
Speaker 6: got back to my car and recharged and it's still
Speaker 6: on there. So thankfully that saves. I can show it
Speaker 6: to my five year old in the morning. He will
Speaker 6: be thrilled.
Speaker 2: I love that. I love that. Lars. What did you
Speaker 2: think after the Dodgers were down? Did you feel like
Speaker 2: they should have been up like I did about seven
Speaker 2: runs after the fourth inning.
Speaker 6: Absolutely, yeah, I wanted to give Roki a shout out.
Speaker 6: He faced the minimum into the fifth. He had two
Speaker 6: outs in the fifth and it faced the minimum and
Speaker 6: then gave up a walk and then got out of that.
Speaker 6: So it's frustrated that he lost it. But on the
Speaker 6: offensive side, yeah, I feel like we get lulled to sleep.
Speaker 6: Sometimes we had runs to the first two innings, load
Speaker 6: the bases with no outs and have three consecutive strikeouts
Speaker 6: swinging and that's just the case. We have to make contact,
Speaker 6: hit a fly ball, score at least one and usually
Speaker 6: get a crooked number that inning. And also you talked
Speaker 6: about Dalton Russian. Couldn't agree with you more. What a
Speaker 6: class act we've been to spring training the last four years.
Speaker 6: But the last two we had a real nice chance
Speaker 6: to talk to him. He signed a baseball for my son.
Speaker 6: The last two years really wonderful with the fans and
Speaker 6: the kids especially.
Speaker 1: He's a mooky.
Speaker 2: He's got a big heart. He's got a big heart.
Speaker 2: He wears his emotions on his sleeve. Sometimes it gets
Speaker 2: the better of him. But he's a great guy. And
Speaker 2: you know, not everybody's going to be cookie cutter, you know,
Speaker 2: just very stoic. Some guys are going to be emotional.
Speaker 2: I don't know if he can live that way the
Speaker 2: whole year, but we'll find out together. But yeah, and
Speaker 2: Mookie Betts, do not count this guy out. That would
Speaker 2: be a mistake.
Speaker 6: And how great was his whole family. There was great
Speaker 6: to see his son thrown out the first pitch and
Speaker 6: the whole family dancing before the game, and for him
Speaker 6: to come up big like that three for five and
Speaker 6: that monster home run just when we needed it. Really
Speaker 6: proud of him and the whole Dodgers for saying it out.
Speaker 6: Let's make sure the fans state of the end two
Speaker 6: and keep seeing these wins. It was just incredible and
Speaker 6: shot up right, Laars.
Speaker 2: I'm glad you were able to hang out and stay
Speaker 2: the rest of the night and show that video to
Speaker 2: your five year old tomorrow. Thanks a lot for calling in.
Speaker 2: Eight six six nine eight seven two five seventy is
Speaker 2: the phone number. Dodgers beat the Orioles tonight, scoring three
Speaker 2: runs in the ninth inning, six to five the final score.
Speaker 2: And you could celebrate this win tomorrow in Downy because
Speaker 2: I'm going to be with manager Dave Roberts from eleven
Speaker 2: thirty to twelve thirty at Downy Hunday, seventy five point
Speaker 2: fifty Firestone Boulevard in Downy. Dave is going to do
Speaker 2: meet and greet, kiss babies, take photos, shake your hand,
Speaker 2: hang out from eleven thirty to twelve thirty. Come on
Speaker 2: out celebrate the three time World Series winning manager Dave
Speaker 2: Roberts tomorrow from eleven thirty to twelve thirty out there
Speaker 2: at Downy Hunday. We're gonna have prizes, We're gonna have tickets,
Speaker 2: We're gonna do a Q and a so a lot
Speaker 2: going on. The party is in Downy tomorrow at Downey Hyundai.
Speaker 2: All right, let's check in with Jose Moda.
Speaker 1: It's tough to go around the horn with Jose Mota.
Speaker 2: Jose Mota, I don't know if you feel the same
Speaker 2: way that me and a few other fans do, but
Speaker 2: the Dodgers should have been blowing the Orioles out by
Speaker 2: the fifth inning. Did you feel that way.
Speaker 5: Too, Well, there's no doubt, David, when you look at
Speaker 5: the numbers that mister Gibson brought and the amount of wants,
Speaker 5: the low amount of strike as you go, well, this
Speaker 5: game should be quite open by a midgame. But it
Speaker 5: tells you about baseball and the joss he made. Yes,
Speaker 5: bases loaded, the young players come up, he says, you
Speaker 5: know what, no more Fastibal. So I'm seeing reactions out
Speaker 5: the break the ball, and he went out there and
Speaker 5: got the job done. But yes, I definitely feel like
Speaker 5: it would have been a more open game. But you know,
Speaker 5: baseball has a way of showing you, Dave, it's not easy.
Speaker 5: Nothing is subscripted. You gotta fight for everything. Those guys
Speaker 5: work hard every single day because they're different. Results come
Speaker 5: in different ways and wins. But I'm so glad things
Speaker 5: happened the way they did.
Speaker 2: In the sixth inning. With all that being said, Osaiah,
Speaker 2: I felt like when you let a team like the
Speaker 2: Orioles hang around when you could have put them away.
Speaker 2: It gets dangerous. A runner gets on a hit, you know,
Speaker 2: a bleeder like we saw in the sixth inning, all
Speaker 2: of a sudden, bang a two run home run and
Speaker 2: then bang a game tying home run by a guy
Speaker 2: that hits a lot of them. And Pete Alonzo, I
Speaker 2: didn't I wouldn't say I put it all on Rokie,
Speaker 2: but I just felt like the Dodgers left the door
Speaker 2: open for something like that to happen.
Speaker 5: You're right, and I think I'm going to put it
Speaker 5: more on Rokie. I think for the next step for him,
Speaker 5: it's gonna have to be that when the lineup turns around,
Speaker 5: you got to be able to get away sometimes just
Speaker 5: from a plan of pitching and just pitch reactively to
Speaker 5: what you're seeing from them. He missed a couple of spots.
Speaker 5: He missus Ladder and On Henderson, missus faustball. And I'm
Speaker 5: Pete a lonzo who's legs over seven hundred beauticle field
Speaker 5: down your stadium. But I think there's more to Rookie
Speaker 5: to be able to have him respect this fastibal a
Speaker 5: little bit more. Dave, I've not seen that all the time.
Speaker 5: He has to be able to push guys up to
Speaker 5: play occasionally because he wants any needs to implement more
Speaker 5: of the secondary and his third pitch in the fourth
Speaker 5: pitch as a game progressive because now they've seen you
Speaker 5: a couple of times, but as part of the growing process.
Speaker 5: I don't want to jump the gun here, but certainly
Speaker 5: there's way more in that tank to know that he
Speaker 5: could have done a better job thrown up another zero
Speaker 5: officially after two hours. You gotta have the killer instinct
Speaker 5: to put guys away and say you're not scoring anymore,
Speaker 5: and don't be looking at the bullpen either.
Speaker 2: Jose Mode is joining us after the Dodgers come from
Speaker 2: behind to beat the Orioles six to five. How about
Speaker 2: that ninth inning, Jose, we're bearing the lead here, Dalton rushing,
Speaker 2: Max Muncie, Ryan Ward, Mookie Betts. That was a pretty
Speaker 2: good rally the Dodgers put together against Helsley.
Speaker 5: Plan against Helsey. They know him from the Cardinals' days.
Speaker 5: He struggled binily after he got traded to the Mets,
Speaker 5: and Dave what I wanted to say he was and
Speaker 5: I kept saying there in the broadcast, what have they
Speaker 5: learned from what they did earlier? They're getting themselves out.
Speaker 5: Ask Dusty Baker about this, I mean getting himself out.
Speaker 5: How many times did I hear them from Dusty? Like,
Speaker 5: allow the guy to control the zone, but you control
Speaker 5: what you want to hit, so you gonna always find
Speaker 5: something to to hit, find a way to put the
Speaker 5: best swing together. Sometimes try a little bit less. And
Speaker 5: I am so glad that a mispitch, by the way,
Speaker 5: mislocation where Basadi was heading up outside, he missed it inside.
Speaker 5: But the quick bat by rushing just zoning in down
Speaker 5: on the zone, not getting beat upstairs like he did
Speaker 5: the at that before, allows them to go out there
Speaker 5: and get the best one in that baseball for them
Speaker 5: to win the ball game. It's good adjustments al throughout.
Speaker 5: Napoleon Warren Ward.
Speaker 2: Yes, Hey, speaking of Besiah, what did you think about
Speaker 2: the throw from right field? Cal already had tied the score,
Speaker 2: but it felt like Basia was trying to catch it
Speaker 2: on a short hob Did you feel like he gave
Speaker 2: up on it? Do you feel like he should have
Speaker 2: been able to stop that ball before it went into
Speaker 2: the camera.
Speaker 5: Well, you have to stop that ball somehow, And I
Speaker 5: don't know if Mandy you got lost in the scoring
Speaker 5: think that the game was over then, But you've got
Speaker 5: to be able to just do a better job in
Speaker 5: correcting that, because obviously guys are busting. They put in
Speaker 5: Tyler O'Neill a goal glover and right field for a reason.
Speaker 5: Not the best of throws when it comes down to
Speaker 5: just the distance of the hop. But you've got to
Speaker 5: be able to just throw your body in front of
Speaker 5: that to say nobody else is going to score here.
Speaker 5: But that's what good teams do against teams like the Orioles,
Speaker 5: all the pressure they feel that need to beat this team.
Speaker 5: Sometimes you overplay it, you overtry, and things like these
Speaker 5: do happen a little bit more. But for the young
Speaker 5: team though, mistakes and mistakes, the mental ones cost way more.
Speaker 5: The physical ones add update. But overall this all comes
Speaker 5: from who you're playing against, because the other team is
Speaker 5: allowing you and not allowing you at the same time.
Speaker 5: You got to earn every single lot against the Dodgers.
Speaker 2: All right, Jose, thanks for checking in, Looking forward to
Speaker 2: seeing you back out here tomorrow, and one of your favorites,
Speaker 2: Dusty Baker, is going to join us on the other side.
Speaker 5: I can't wait here From Johnny b man, go get him.
Speaker 2: Thanks, Jse, We'll see you out here tomorrow. There he
Speaker 2: goes Jose Mota, part of the Dodgers Spanish radio broadcast.
Speaker 2: On the call for that exciting ninth inning as the
Speaker 2: Dodgers come from behind to beat the Orioles six to five,
Speaker 2: and when we continue on Dodger Talk, a man that
Speaker 2: knows a lot about walk off wins, come from behind
Speaker 2: victories and dramatic, dramatic moments. The one and only Dusty
Speaker 2: Baker is going to join us next on Dodger Talk
Speaker 2: after the Dodgers beat the Orioles six to five on
Speaker 2: five seventy LA Sports.
Speaker 3: Dodger Talk is available on AM five seventy LA sports
Speaker 3: dot com, hand on the iHeartRadio app. Back to more
Speaker 3: Dodger Talk with Dodger insider David Basse.
Speaker 2: Now two hit Hi drive the left of Dad back
Speaker 2: to the wall. This one is gone home run Monkey
Speaker 2: bets home run number eight and that touched the.
Speaker 1: Lead to one run.
Speaker 2: It's five to four. Don't go away. They may not
Speaker 2: be through yet.
Speaker 7: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Rick Monday has seen some of those type of come
Speaker 2: from behind victories many times in his playing career and
Speaker 2: broadcasting career. And he was right. The Dodgers scored two
Speaker 2: more runs and beat the Orioles tonight six to five.
Speaker 2: The Dodgers will come back tomorrow with Yamamoto on the
Speaker 2: mound and certainly a very exciting win for the Dodgers
Speaker 2: thanks to Dalton Rushing's big hit in the ninth inning
Speaker 2: to score two as the Dodgers walk it off against
Speaker 2: the Orioles and Mookie Betts a big night for him
Speaker 2: as well, three hits, including that home run with one
Speaker 2: out in the ninth inning to get the rally going.
Speaker 2: Daniel's Jewelers presents the home Run Forecast. For your chance
Speaker 2: to win a fifty dollars Daniels Jeweler's gift card, visit
Speaker 2: AM five seventy la sports dot com. He's the keyword
Speaker 2: home run and to your name you could win. Daniels
Speaker 2: Jewelers Own the Dream. There's certain people in the world
Speaker 2: that don't know just the effect they have on others.
Speaker 2: Even if you meet them for a minute, they make
Speaker 2: you feel like you've known them for a lifetime. And
Speaker 2: that's certainly the case with our next guest, and he
Speaker 2: is I mean, I could go through his whole baseball
Speaker 2: resume here but I'm just gonna get it really quick.
Speaker 2: He's won of nineteen people to win a World Series
Speaker 2: as a player and a manager. He was part of
Speaker 2: the first quarteta teammates to hit thirty home runs. You know.
Speaker 2: That was with the Dodgers in nineteen seventy seven. He
Speaker 2: was on deck when Hank Aaron hit his seven hundred
Speaker 2: and fifteenth home run. He was standing out there in
Speaker 2: left field for eight years at Dodger stating with bubblegum
Speaker 2: at his feet because fans loved him so much they
Speaker 2: were throwing him bubblegum. And how about this In the
Speaker 2: day and age where it's acceptable to strike out two
Speaker 2: hundred times, this guy not only never struck out one
Speaker 2: hundred times in the season, he never struck out ninety
Speaker 2: times in a season. And oh, by the way, one
Speaker 2: two and eighty three games, managed over four thousand games,
Speaker 2: and was three time manager of the Year. And he
Speaker 2: was my favorite Dodger growing up. And that is the
Speaker 2: one and only Johnny b Dusty Baker, who's got a
Speaker 2: brand new book out. It's out there now you can
Speaker 2: buy to Barnes and Noble Amazon. It's titled Crossroads, a
Speaker 2: Memoir in Baseball and life and what a life Dusty
Speaker 2: Baker is sharing with us. Dusty, awesome to have you
Speaker 2: on the show and you mean so much to me,
Speaker 2: and it's it's such a great read to just read
Speaker 2: your life and what made you the person that you are.
Speaker 2: So thank you for coming on.
Speaker 7: Man, no problem, Man, I didn't. I didn't have any idea,
Speaker 7: you know, some of the effects that I would have
Speaker 7: on people, because people have come up to me and
Speaker 7: they say, Man, that was that was good for you
Speaker 7: to say that, to say this and going down to
Speaker 7: go feed the homeless after reading what you said, or
Speaker 7: I'm going to donate some money over to the church
Speaker 7: or something. And I was like, Man, I didn't write
Speaker 7: it for that purpose. I wrote it, you know, to
Speaker 7: make let people know that I was human and that
Speaker 7: I had been through some of the same things that they,
Speaker 7: you know, had been through. And some of the younger
Speaker 7: people are going to go through what I've been through,
Speaker 7: and you know, maybe it might help them help them
Speaker 7: handle things.
Speaker 2: Dusty. I was wondering some of the personal things that
Speaker 2: you wrote about the death of your father, going back
Speaker 2: to Africa and seeing the castle where slaves were put in,
Speaker 2: and just the emotions that you shared. Was it difficult
Speaker 2: to rehash some of those old memories and feelings.
Speaker 7: That's a good question, you know, sometime it was. I
Speaker 7: mean it was easy when you're writing about the good times,
Speaker 7: but you know when you have to go back and
Speaker 7: then rekindle and bring back the you know, those emotions
Speaker 7: that you know you had suppressed over so many years.
Speaker 7: And yeah, I mean that was the toughest part of it,
Speaker 7: other than reading the same things over and over and
Speaker 7: over and make sure you got it right. But yeah, exactly,
Speaker 7: that was the hardest part, you know, of writing this was,
Speaker 7: like I said, you know, going back, because there were
Speaker 7: times I'd like wake up in the middle of the
Speaker 7: night and I'm like, man, did I you know, why
Speaker 7: did I say that? Or did I say that right?
Speaker 7: And I said, no reason, I said it because it
Speaker 7: was true. So, like I said, a lot of people
Speaker 7: going through, you know, a lot of things in this
Speaker 7: world and hopefully, you know, hopefully I can help them out.
Speaker 2: So I love that you wrote that you can't just
Speaker 2: ignore history because then history will repeat itself. Being a
Speaker 2: Cali kid and being drafted by the Braves and having
Speaker 2: to go into the Deep South and play for the Braves.
Speaker 2: How did it feel to rehash those memories and the
Speaker 2: adversity that you and some of your black teammates had
Speaker 2: to go through, including the great Hank Aaron.
Speaker 7: Well, you know something, it wasn't all bad, you know,
Speaker 7: I mean, you know, some of it wasn't very pleasant.
Speaker 7: Some of us actually horrible, but real you know, a
Speaker 7: person realizes and then they adapt to the environment and
Speaker 7: where you are at that point in time, and so
Speaker 7: you know, there's not a whole bunch I could have
Speaker 7: done about, you know, the places that I couldn't go
Speaker 7: in or whatever. So I just made the most of
Speaker 7: going to mostly the black places or places where I
Speaker 7: was accepted, and I made it fun and it helped
Speaker 7: that I had, uh, you know, a couple of players
Speaker 7: on the team that.
Speaker 8: Were older, well, everybody was older almost every team I
Speaker 8: was on. I was called a kid from the very
Speaker 8: very beginning. But to have Hank Aaron, Ralph Guard and
Speaker 8: especially you know Cido Gaston, who was a little bit
Speaker 8: older than Ralph and myself, you know, to help us
Speaker 8: do these things, you know.
Speaker 7: To tell us where to go or where not to go,
Speaker 7: or which part of town to go in white or black,
Speaker 7: because sometimes you know, you'd go to this part of
Speaker 7: town and they could tell you weren't from there, or
Speaker 7: you go over in the other part of town, they
Speaker 7: definitely that you're out from there. And so, you know,
Speaker 7: it helped a lot to not only have players on
Speaker 7: your team that helped you, but also guys on other teams,
Speaker 7: you know, because we'd go to like Saulisbury, North Carolina.
Speaker 7: We'd go to you know, people go to green Greenville,
Speaker 7: North uh, South Carolina, and the guys on the team
Speaker 7: would take us out and tell us where to go
Speaker 7: to and and we do the same, you know when
Speaker 7: they came to visit us in our town.
Speaker 2: That's the voice of Johnny b one of the coolest
Speaker 2: dudes you'll ever meet. He's got a great new book
Speaker 2: out about his incredible life in baseball and Beyond Crossroads
Speaker 2: is the title. It's available right now. And Dusty, how
Speaker 2: much did playing for the Dodgers open up some of
Speaker 2: the doors to some of the incredible heads of state, musicians,
Speaker 2: actors that you had became friends with?
Speaker 7: Well, you know, when I played with Atlanta, you know,
Speaker 7: that's when I really met you know, most of the
Speaker 7: heads of states, and you know, I'm I met most
Speaker 7: of the black leaders because Hank Aaron was you know,
Speaker 7: was going for the record, so a lot of people
Speaker 7: wanted Hank around or they were coming around in Atlanta.
Speaker 7: You know, there was Maynard Jackson, There's Andrew Andrew Young,
Speaker 7: there was Jimmy Carter, let me see Ted Abernathy and
Speaker 7: just many many more, you know, and a lot of
Speaker 7: entertainers in the South especially, you know, Gladys Knight and
Speaker 7: James Brown and all these people were coming around to
Speaker 7: see Hank, and I happened to be there. Then when
Speaker 7: I got to La then you saw a different side
Speaker 7: of entertainment. You know. You saw at that time, you
Speaker 7: saw Hollywood, you saw singers and dancers, and uh, you know,
Speaker 7: I had a good life. And you know one of
Speaker 7: the prime stories that I had is when I used
Speaker 7: to go to the barbershop, the same barbershops some of
Speaker 7: the guys like the Gap band, you know, like he
Speaker 7: used to go there and Miles Davis, you know, used
Speaker 7: to go to this barbershop and that was my dad's favorite.
Speaker 7: And I didn't really understand that music when I was young.
Speaker 7: With the older I got, I was like, man, you know,
Speaker 7: now I see why it's attracted his music to my dad,
Speaker 7: and so like at the time, you don't really think
Speaker 7: about that. You know, you don't think about if you're
Speaker 7: a star, because you know, when you're talking to these
Speaker 7: other stars and you realize that they're people just like
Speaker 7: you are, you know, like I came up with some
Speaker 7: good friends out of that, you know, like Ronnie Laws,
Speaker 7: Craig P. Cooper. I mean, these guys I'm still in contact,
Speaker 7: you know with now, and so you realize that they
Speaker 7: need genuine people, just like you need genuine people to
Speaker 7: surround you.
Speaker 2: I mean people now. I mean, these Dodgers are very
Speaker 2: popular in LA, but growing up in LA, my whole life,
Speaker 2: you guys were rock stars. But you're a great person
Speaker 2: to ask this because, like we mentioned, like you've wrote about,
Speaker 2: I mean, you've you've met a lot of great people,
Speaker 2: but kept your feet grounded. How How did you not
Speaker 2: allow LA to swallow you up? And you still remain
Speaker 2: focused that baseball was number one and if you didn't
Speaker 2: perform in baseball, nobody would would care about this other stuff.
Speaker 7: I Mean LA was tough, you know, because it's hard
Speaker 7: not to get swallowed up. I mean there was a
Speaker 7: time when I was becoming on that road to get
Speaker 7: swallowed up. And you know, the thing about it is
Speaker 7: you just have to maintain your your you know, beliefs
Speaker 7: and think about how you were raised and especially when
Speaker 7: you're raised in the church, and you know this is
Speaker 7: all temporary. Because the one thing about LA New York Chicago,
Speaker 7: I mean it's it's temporary, you know, for the time
Speaker 7: that you're there. I mean, you know there's people that
Speaker 7: still remember you to this or that, but there's always
Speaker 7: new stars coming out, like almost every day. And it
Speaker 7: was great for me to play in LA because I
Speaker 7: felt like I was born in my career in Atlanta,
Speaker 7: but I turned to man in my career in LA.
Speaker 7: And the fact that we won, and also the fact
Speaker 7: that I grew up a Dodger fan, you know, liking
Speaker 7: Tommy Davis. He was my hero. That's why I wear
Speaker 7: number twelve, and so, you know, because of Tommy Davis.
Speaker 7: And so you know, we all need heroes. And you
Speaker 7: hope that your hero is a Greek citizen and then
Speaker 7: leaves you in the right direction.
Speaker 2: Well, my hero is and that's Dusty Baker. Not they
Speaker 2: say you don't want to meet your heroes, but meeting
Speaker 2: Dusty Baker it's everything that it sounds like. And along
Speaker 2: those same lines, Dusty, I heard so many stories about
Speaker 2: how Tommy Lasorda would bring in you know, Captain Intnil
Speaker 2: Sinatra through your clubhouse, Don Rickles, what was that like.
Speaker 7: Well, hey, that's Tommy. I mean Tommy always had stars
Speaker 7: these two things. He always had stars around, and he
Speaker 7: always had food around. I mean, and once I became
Speaker 7: a manager, that's one of the ways that I tried
Speaker 7: to unite my team was to have food around. You know,
Speaker 7: you bring in different food from different cultures and after
Speaker 7: a while you're like that's pretty good or wow, man,
Speaker 7: I didn't know I was like that, So, I mean
Speaker 7: that was real cool. Uh. You know, having stars around,
Speaker 7: I mean guys would you know, come around like uh,
Speaker 7: I see them now on TV. You know they were
Speaker 7: little kids then, or Marcus Allen would come around and
Speaker 7: steal my hats out of my you know, out of
Speaker 7: my uh, out of my locker, and uh. I have
Speaker 7: a lot of pictures on my wall here, you know,
Speaker 7: like Tony Orlando and Don and I have like some
Speaker 7: letters that that Tommy got for me. I got a
Speaker 7: Frank Sinatra letter, I got Don Rickles letter, I got
Speaker 7: a Bob Hope letter, I got a Barack Obama letter. Uh,
Speaker 7: you know a number of these letters, and you know
Speaker 7: some of I met, you know, through Tommy and some
Speaker 7: of them because you know, the people in LA, they
Speaker 7: love their team and they love to come around the team,
Speaker 7: and we love to have them come around. And so
Speaker 7: it was a it was a very very very good,
Speaker 7: uh you know, the time of my life and and
Speaker 7: hopefully the other people enjoyed as much as we did.
Speaker 2: Now, just knowing some of the guys that you played with,
Speaker 2: is it fair to say that Davey Lopes and Reggie
Speaker 2: Smith were probably two of your best friends on the
Speaker 2: team when you played with the Dodgers or were there more?
Speaker 7: There was more? I mean, you know those guys. I
Speaker 7: was close to them, I mean big time. Davy David
Speaker 7: was my daughter's godfather. But you know we had Lee
Speaker 7: Lacy who I was hanging with, and Steve Garvey, you
Speaker 7: know who I was hanging with, and you know, just
Speaker 7: you know, now Downing was there. I mean they we
Speaker 7: had some we had some outstanding uh players, We had
Speaker 7: some young players, Rudy Law, Steve how Bobby Welch was
Speaker 7: probably one of my best best friends because I would
Speaker 7: try to pass on to them the things that Hank
Speaker 7: Aaron and Atlanta Cepida passed on to me when I
Speaker 7: was a young player. And so we always had some
Speaker 7: fine young players. You know, you got Canny Mallama, Jeffrey Leonard.
Speaker 7: I mean you look at Brock, you look at Marshall,
Speaker 7: you look at Steve Sachs on Fosia. I mean we
Speaker 7: were turn them out. I mean I still thought the
Speaker 7: Suckliffe and all these guys were young, young players, including
Speaker 7: Dave Stewart. You know, I'm just naming a few players.
Speaker 7: And we were close as a unit, and we took
Speaker 7: care of the young players, and we took care of each.
Speaker 2: Other, no doubt. That was a family for sure. Dusty
Speaker 2: Baker is our guest, and Dusty the Knicks just celebrated
Speaker 2: their championship with the parade first time in fifty three years.
Speaker 2: The Dodgers, after twenty four, had their first parade since
Speaker 2: eighty eight. What do you remember the most about the
Speaker 2: eighty one parade, because I'm sure they were much different
Speaker 2: than they are now.
Speaker 7: Well, I mean that was my first parade, and you know,
Speaker 7: you you remember all the guys on the team, you know,
Speaker 7: you think back and you think about Manny Mota and
Speaker 7: somebody guys at Pejo Guerrero young player Steve Jeger had
Speaker 7: a great great rose Ronseai. And so I'm just happy
Speaker 7: that my teammates picked me up because I didn't have
Speaker 7: a very good World Series, but you know, they picked
Speaker 7: me up. And I think about the Knicks when when
Speaker 7: I hurt my hand the day before the World Series
Speaker 7: and Tommy told me that I had to play because
Speaker 7: the team wasn't the same if I wasn't on the field.
Speaker 7: I said, Tommy, I can't even swing. But I think
Speaker 7: back when I think the back upon it, and you're
Speaker 7: talking about the Knicks, I think about Willis Reed when
Speaker 7: he couldn't even walk, but he went out there to
Speaker 7: play to support his team. I wasn't nearly the player
Speaker 7: Willis Reed was to his team. But similar situation that
Speaker 7: sometimes take one for the team and then sometime the
Speaker 7: team picks you up. And I feel like all my
Speaker 7: teammates picked me up and.
Speaker 2: They everybody loves Dusty Baker. You've picked up so many
Speaker 2: people in your life and it's okay if they picked
Speaker 2: you up once in a while. You just celebrated your
Speaker 2: seventy seventh birthday, Dusty, did you have a big part?
Speaker 7: No, not really. I actually had a book signing, yeah,
Speaker 7: kind of. We had a book signing party at Kevin
Speaker 7: Johnson kJ. You know, he used to play for the
Speaker 7: Phoenix Suns at his mother's bookstore and it's called Underground
Speaker 7: Books and and there must have been two or three
Speaker 7: hundred people there in this auditorium that he owns right
Speaker 7: downtown in the same neighborhood where he grew up in
Speaker 7: Oak Park, So it's really pretty cool. And afterwards we
Speaker 7: went to his restaurant, you know, we went to Dinner Fixings,
Speaker 7: which they have one down to Staples Center as well
Speaker 7: in La. You know. We had a great, great meal
Speaker 7: afterwards and went on home, went to bed.
Speaker 2: I know your life has taking you so many different places, Dusty,
Speaker 2: but I know I speak for LA and Dodger fans.
Speaker 2: This will forever be your home. I know other cities
Speaker 2: you brought success and championships to, but this is this
Speaker 2: is for all of us down here, Dusty Baker's home.
Speaker 2: Left Field is your home. Oh man. This is an
Speaker 2: incredible book and I think makes all of us understand
Speaker 2: how you became the person that you are and just
Speaker 2: how you've been able to touch so many lives and
Speaker 2: it's really special. So thank you for sharing your life
Speaker 2: with all of us.
Speaker 7: You know, when I think Becka, I started laughing because
Speaker 7: Rick Munday he gave me the name doctor Skull and
Speaker 7: he still calls me Skall to this day.
Speaker 2: Why did he give me that nickname?
Speaker 7: Well, I used to tell everybody I was going to
Speaker 7: scall the ball. I was gonna scall somebody. I guess
Speaker 7: I was saying it so much. Rick. I didn't even
Speaker 7: know how much I was saying it, but maybe I
Speaker 7: said so much. And that's why Rick Mundy call me doctor.
Speaker 2: Well, I'm sure he's listening to this. And I know
Speaker 2: Rick Monday loves you, and you, Reggie Smith and Rick
Speaker 2: Munday helped get that Infield over the Top in nineteen
Speaker 2: seventy seven and all those years after, especially in eighty one.
Speaker 2: So you know what you mean to this city, Dusty, thank.
Speaker 7: You, and and I just want to, you know, just
Speaker 7: shout out. I forgot to mention Kenny Landro because Lando
Speaker 7: was one of them, and Darryl Thomas. We had some
Speaker 7: we had some characters. We had some guys that came
Speaker 7: to play, and like I said, you know, we were family.
Speaker 7: And you know, Tommy had a lot to do with
Speaker 7: as was our coaches, because uh, you know, we all
Speaker 7: cared about each other. And one time I was at
Speaker 7: a banquet and I had Bill Russell, you know, big
Speaker 7: Bill Russell, you know who I thought, was this mean,
Speaker 7: menacing guy? I asked him. I said, hey, man, you
Speaker 7: know what was the secret to the Celtics' success? Because
Speaker 7: you know I didn't like the Celtics. I was a
Speaker 7: Laker fan. Harry West and Yell Goodrich and Will Chamberlain
Speaker 7: all it. And so he told me that they loved
Speaker 7: each other. And I never forgot that. I mean, it
Speaker 7: shocked me when I think about on the good teams
Speaker 7: and I was on especially Dodger teams. You know, we
Speaker 7: loved each other. Sometimes we fought, but you know, you
Speaker 7: fight with your brother, but nobody else better touch your brother.
Speaker 7: And yeah, that's how we were as a family.
Speaker 2: Heard some of those stories. Dusty Rick Monday's told me
Speaker 2: this before. The feeling was we could fight amongst each other,
Speaker 2: but if you go after one of our guys, then
Speaker 2: you have a problem.
Speaker 7: That is exactly right. I couldn't said any better, Miselle.
Speaker 7: All right, man, I'll see you later, See you later, Adios.
Speaker 2: There he was, Dusty Baker. He has a great memoir out.
Speaker 2: It's available, get it wherever you buy your books. Trust me,
Speaker 2: it's a great summer read about a great man that
Speaker 2: has led in extraordinary lives. So thank you to Dusty
Speaker 2: Baker for joining us tonight on Dodger Talk, and thank
Speaker 2: you for joining us on Dodger Talk as well. Tomorrow.
Speaker 2: Yamamoto will be on the mound. He's seven and four
Speaker 2: with an ERA of two point fifty two. Remember Yamamoto
Speaker 2: last year, last September, came this close to pitching a
Speaker 2: no hitter against the Orioles. And we all know Yamamoto
Speaker 2: came this to pitching a no hitter in his last
Speaker 2: start against the White Sox. So we'll see whether or
Speaker 2: not we have some drama tomorrow night. Trevor Rodgers is
Speaker 2: on the mound for Baltimore. Our coverage begins at six o'clock,
Speaker 2: first pitch at seven ten. Thanks to Colin Ye back
Speaker 2: at our Burbank studios. Thanks to Dwayne McDonald out here
Speaker 2: at the ballpark, and thanks to you for listening. If
Speaker 2: you want to go back and listen to Dusty Baker again.
Speaker 2: You know where to find it, the iHeartRadio app. That's
Speaker 2: where you can find all of our Dodger conversations and
Speaker 2: all of our Dodger talk shows. And don't forget tomorrow
Speaker 2: from eleven thirty to twelve thirty, come on out to
Speaker 2: Downy Hunday and meet Dave Roberts. He is going to
Speaker 2: do a meet and greet, take photos, shake hands, kiss babies,
Speaker 2: do all that Dave Roberts stuff. Seventy five fifty Firestone Boulevard.
Speaker 2: I'll be out there as well with the managers. So
Speaker 2: look forward to seeing you out there at Downy Hunday
Speaker 2: once again. The final score tonight Rogers come from behind
Speaker 2: and beat the Orioles six to five. Have a great
Speaker 2: rest of your night. Be safe, We'll see tomorrow and
Speaker 2: Downy Moro SLA