Speaker 1: And now an exclusive interview with David Bassey or Dodger
Speaker 1: talk well, at this stage of his career, I can
Speaker 1: only get to so many accolades. A National League MVP,
Speaker 1: a World Series MVP, but more importantly a winner, three
Speaker 1: time World Series champion. Freddie Freeman thanks a lot for
Speaker 1: the time. And spring training has arrived. When I see
Speaker 1: that Freddie Freeman smile light up the entire camp.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's it's awesome. It's good to be back, you know,
Speaker 2: you get to see all the guys again, go through
Speaker 2: the grind to start the road to three peats. It's fun.
Speaker 2: It's a beautiful day today and guys are getting to
Speaker 2: work in and we're getting ready to go.
Speaker 1: A year ago, at this time, you were trying to
Speaker 1: come back from ankle surgery. How much happy are you
Speaker 1: now just having a normal off season.
Speaker 2: Yeah, this is nice. I'm not having to tape bankles,
Speaker 2: get here at five forty five in the morning to
Speaker 2: start treatment, to try and make it out here for practice.
Speaker 2: This is nice. It's nice to have a normal off season,
Speaker 2: get my work in restrictions. It's definitely nice. I like
Speaker 2: these kind off seasons and spring trainings.
Speaker 1: So how much preparation. Do you have to do still
Speaker 1: with the maintenance of your ankle.
Speaker 2: I haven't been in the training room yet. Oh yeah,
Speaker 2: so I feel good. I really do feel good. Everything
Speaker 2: feels good, so I don't need the trainers yet.
Speaker 1: Freddy, I know one of the staples of you working
Speaker 1: out during the off season is never having somebody in
Speaker 1: right field shagging for you. What's the what's the game
Speaker 1: plan for you at this stage of your career in
Speaker 1: spring training?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Same, like what you just said. So the last
Speaker 2: the first few days have been really good. Swings in
Speaker 2: a good spot based swings, kind of getting into place.
Speaker 2: Balls are going to left center, live p li VP's
Speaker 2: have been going well. Ltting balls, travel tracks, he pitches,
Speaker 2: trying to slow everything down. Everything it's exciting, so you
Speaker 2: get a little jumpy here, so you got to make
Speaker 2: sure you slow the slow the game down a little
Speaker 2: bit of the same thing. But VP's been going good,
Speaker 2: hitting balls the left center. If I hit all the
Speaker 2: right field, you'll probably see you see you see myself,
Speaker 2: yell at me myself in the cages. But things are
Speaker 2: going well. It's a good start so far.
Speaker 1: Everybody always wants to know what makes Freddy Freeman great
Speaker 1: when the season starts. So how do you approach spring training?
Speaker 2: I like to play, so I'm a guy that will
Speaker 2: get I think we just mapped it out yesterday. I'll
Speaker 2: get forty seven played appearances going into the season. So
Speaker 2: that's the game plan. I like to play. Get the
Speaker 2: feet under me, get the legs under me, shock the
Speaker 2: body when playing back to back to back sometimes in spring,
Speaker 2: but right now, it's just getting the work in, grinding.
Speaker 2: You know, you're timing, trying to get your timing as
Speaker 2: quick as you can. I mean, I was facing my
Speaker 2: seventy one year old dad five days ago, so trying
Speaker 2: to face Roki and Edwin and all those guys and livps.
Speaker 2: So you're just trying to get your working, get your
Speaker 2: timing going, and then get into the games and start
Speaker 2: getting some feel good swings and hits and build your
Speaker 2: confidence going in the season.
Speaker 1: You always come into camp ready. Yeah, but when you
Speaker 1: looked around the clubhouse that first day of full squad,
Speaker 1: how impressed were you by your teammates that seem to
Speaker 1: be ready day one and the work they put in
Speaker 1: as well.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that's kind of how it is in
Speaker 2: today's game. Everyone's coming in ready to go. And I
Speaker 2: think if you if you started games today, you'd see
Speaker 2: all of us be ready to go and ready to
Speaker 2: go right now. So I think that's huge.
Speaker 1: Guys.
Speaker 2: The mentality has changed in the game in baseball in
Speaker 2: the last twenty years of how you come into spring training.
Speaker 2: Most of us are ready to go by day one,
Speaker 2: So I think that's good. We got a hungry group.
Speaker 2: We know what we're looking forward to, and they grind
Speaker 2: the chances of three feet everyone coming for us. So
Speaker 2: we came in ready. The hunger's here. Everyone's doing a
Speaker 2: great job in the first few days of camp and
Speaker 2: you know, getting ready to start this spring training season
Speaker 2: so far.
Speaker 1: Last year, you guys took everybody's best shot during the
Speaker 1: regular season, but you never waivered. You never overemphasized one
Speaker 1: win or one loss. Do you feel like that serves
Speaker 1: you guys well going into this season.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I think we have a bunch of veteran guys,
Speaker 2: so we know we're going to go through the ups
Speaker 2: and down and you know, obviously there's worse ways to
Speaker 2: lose during the course of a season, but we're not
Speaker 2: gonna win every game. That's just kind of how it goes,
Speaker 2: So you take the hits when you take the hits.
Speaker 2: Like last August, we weren't playing that good of baseball,
Speaker 2: and then we got some guys back off the il
Speaker 2: and we started playing good, and we played good in
Speaker 2: the postseason. So I know when fans are watching, they're
Speaker 2: hanging on in episode or we believe me, we are
Speaker 2: not happy if we lose a game. But and you
Speaker 2: just got to know, it's a one sixty two grind.
Speaker 2: You know, some days, Doc there's not relievers available, and
Speaker 2: most fans and people don't know who's available and who's
Speaker 2: not available. So we do a great job of trying
Speaker 2: to keep everyone healthy as through the course of the
Speaker 2: year as best as we can while we're trying to
Speaker 2: win baseball games. And I think the fans that watch
Speaker 2: us play know that, you know, we give out our
Speaker 2: all every day. You guys are out there seeing us
Speaker 2: work at two o'clock in the afternoon getting ready for
Speaker 2: seven o'clock games. We love it. We grind, but you
Speaker 2: can take things from wins and then you can also
Speaker 2: just move on from wins and losses a bit differently
Speaker 2: during the course of season. So but the thing is
Speaker 2: is I've always tried to harp on you got to
Speaker 2: win that game that night because you can sell it.
Speaker 2: Last year we had one less win than the Blue
Speaker 2: Jays during the course of the World Series regular season,
Speaker 2: so we didn't have home field advantage. So there is
Speaker 2: those things that you got to be mindful of. And
Speaker 2: you know, don't ever take a pitch off. We don't.
Speaker 2: But if you do lose a game, sometimes you just
Speaker 2: push it this side and worry about.
Speaker 1: The next one. Freddy Freeman coming off back to back
Speaker 1: World Series championships, two consecutive World Series with walk off
Speaker 1: home runs. I'm curious. I know you're a big baseball fan,
Speaker 1: your boys are big baseball fans. How much did you
Speaker 1: replay Game six in Game seven? Or did you kind
Speaker 1: of stay away from it? Oh?
Speaker 2: I mean, I don't know how many times someone has
Speaker 2: come up to me and said, what a great series.
Speaker 2: That was such a fun series to watch, And I'm like,
Speaker 2: it wasn't a fun series to play. Okay, there was
Speaker 2: about eighty different times we could have lost Games six
Speaker 2: and seven. But that's what's so beautiful about this game
Speaker 2: and about the season and that run was we got
Speaker 2: out of so many situations. We found different ways to win.
Speaker 2: We won differently than we did in twenty twenty four
Speaker 2: as well. You sold Glass coming out of the bullpen
Speaker 2: that he's never done. You have Yoshinoba doing superhero things.
Speaker 2: You have Blake coming out of bullpens. It was just amazing.
Speaker 2: Robleski's stepping up. There's so many different things that happened
Speaker 2: that it took the whole team to win the World
Speaker 2: Series last year, and I think that's what's pretty cool.
Speaker 2: And obviously we're going to try and do it a
Speaker 2: little bit differently this year and you know, put it
Speaker 2: all together, so we're not leaning on starting pitching like
Speaker 2: we did last year or bullpen and offense ye report,
Speaker 2: Maybe I'll just do it all perfectly this year this
Speaker 2: year and everyone contributes perfectly going into another World Series win, well.
Speaker 1: The rest of the offense should take a cue from
Speaker 1: Freddy Freeman. Keep it simple, that's.
Speaker 2: The goal, and sometimes it's hard to keep it simple
Speaker 2: in this game. Your mind, this is the hardest part
Speaker 2: the brain in this game. So keep it simple and
Speaker 2: stick with your plan and approach and your routine, and
Speaker 2: usually the big things will take care of themselves and
Speaker 2: you'd stick to.
Speaker 1: The little things. Before I let you go. Kyle Tucker,
Speaker 1: what are you your first impressions of him and having
Speaker 1: him in the lineup somewhere in the orbit of Freddie Freeman.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's nice. That's gonna be a tough lineup to navigate.
Speaker 2: Was four straight All Stars, superstar player to come onto
Speaker 2: our team. We got a great group of guys here
Speaker 2: and trying to make him feel welcome as soon as
Speaker 2: we can. And I think he's doing a great job
Speaker 2: fitting in. It's gonna be a fun season with him
Speaker 2: for the next few years.
Speaker 1: Were you surprised how people reacted to you saying at
Speaker 1: FanFest that you wanted to play four more years. I mean,
Speaker 1: you have not slowed down one bit. I don't know
Speaker 1: why anybody would be surprised.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't. I obviously don't really read what's going on.
Speaker 1: Is that a thing everybody's like, Oh, he wants to
Speaker 1: play four more years?
Speaker 2: Want me to stop there sooner?
Speaker 1: I don't. I certainly don't. You're a legacy Dodger at
Speaker 1: this point.
Speaker 2: Appreciate that. Yeah, I mean, obviously, you know when you're
Speaker 2: you got kids, and you know, obviously I love playing
Speaker 2: this game. I love it to death. So but I've
Speaker 2: played a long time, so I have like is for
Speaker 2: the number that like it's a dead stop or do
Speaker 2: I even get there? Who knows, but that's in my mind.
Speaker 2: That's kind of the rough estiment. So if I stay
Speaker 2: healthy and I'm playing, we'll see what the kids want
Speaker 2: me to do. But I'm not sure if Chelsea wants
Speaker 2: me to keep flying and traveling every other week during
Speaker 2: the season. But I love my family. I like to
Speaker 2: be home with them, but I also love this game.
Speaker 2: But I've played a long time, so four is just
Speaker 2: a number that's kind of out there, floated in my head.
Speaker 2: But we'll see how the next few years.
Speaker 1: Ago. I'm a big advocate Freddie Freeman four more years
Speaker 1: and Dodger Blue, so we'll get to that. And also Andrew.
Speaker 1: I think Andrews, I'll trust me, He'll hear the show.
Speaker 1: I'll be saying this often like I already have. And
Speaker 1: since Clayton's no longer with the team, I'll be the
Speaker 1: guy checking off the boxes of Freddie Freeman's career the
Speaker 1: next four years.
Speaker 2: Okay, I like that I was doing it for Clayton,
Speaker 2: so I need someone to do it for me.
Speaker 1: Now. Can I be the counter still you can be.
Speaker 2: The counter, all right. Just don't tell me every day though.
Speaker 1: To see you out here, Freddie, thanks a lot for
Speaker 1: the time. You know how much Los Angeles loves you
Speaker 1: and keep it going, mister consistent.
Speaker 2: I appreciate it. Thank you, David very much. See you
Speaker 2: guys soon.
Speaker 1: Fans,