Speaker 1: And now an exclusive interview with David Bassey for Dodger Talk.
Speaker 2: Speaking of Mookie, Bets, had a chance to catch up
Speaker 2: with him earlier today. Here is our one on one
Speaker 2: conversation with four time World Series champion Mookie Bets. I
Speaker 2: think guys are starting to get tired of me. It's
Speaker 2: that time of spring training. It's only been two weeks.
Speaker 2: Guys are getting tired of me. But my guy, Mooki Bets,
Speaker 2: has taken some time for us and I appreciate that. Hey,
Speaker 2: not bad, four rings, looking for a fifth. Thank you
Speaker 2: for the time and great to see you out here again.
Speaker 3: Yes, sir, that's how you know we love you though,
Speaker 3: because we were messing with you, you know, every time
Speaker 3: you stepped foot around us. So it's good to see
Speaker 3: you again.
Speaker 1: Hey. I know you said this is the first normal
Speaker 1: spring training you've had with the Dodgers, and I was
Speaker 1: thinking about it, and you're right. You go back to
Speaker 1: twenty twenty and twenty one, the pandemic cut things a
Speaker 1: little bit different, and then obviously you've had to go
Speaker 1: on these trips to Tokyo and Korea. How does it
Speaker 1: feel to just ease into the season.
Speaker 3: It's kind of weird. It's kind of weird. I forgot
Speaker 3: what it feels like. So, you know, I'm really this
Speaker 3: is really the first time I get to kind of
Speaker 3: take my time. Usually I'm ramped up and fully ready
Speaker 3: to go right now. So you know, fortunately I'm at
Speaker 3: the stage in my career where I can kind of
Speaker 3: take my time and whatnot, and so I'm gonna see
Speaker 3: how it works.
Speaker 1: How does it feel coming off back to back World
Speaker 1: Series Championships and to have the same core group of
Speaker 1: guys with you to try to go for this three pet.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean I think just that and itself means
Speaker 3: so much. You know, usually after stuff like this, you know,
Speaker 3: teams kind of break apart, guys want to go get
Speaker 3: their money or whatever it is, right, But no, not
Speaker 3: this group. This group is it's almost likely kind of
Speaker 3: will do everything to stay together, you know, because you
Speaker 3: never really get an opportunity to love coming to work
Speaker 3: as much as we do, love each other as much
Speaker 3: as we do, and love playing as much as we do.
Speaker 3: So very rarely have you do you see in sports
Speaker 3: all three of those things? And we got it.
Speaker 1: I asked Miguel Rojas about this, what you guys are
Speaker 1: on the verge of trying to accomplish making history. A
Speaker 1: lot of people weren't even born the last time a
Speaker 1: team won three in a row. But he said, you
Speaker 1: guys are embracing that and not shying away from it.
Speaker 1: Is that the way you've gone about it the last
Speaker 1: couple of years, and is that the way you guys
Speaker 1: have to approach it this year, not shy away from success?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean I would say so, you know, having
Speaker 3: the hav an opportunity to win every year, you know,
Speaker 3: having those expectations, that's a blessing in itself, and then
Speaker 3: being able to we were ready to come through twice
Speaker 3: just to have this type of opportunity. I mean, people
Speaker 3: don't even get this opportunity whether we do it or not.
Speaker 3: And so obviously we obviously we're we're embracing it and
Speaker 3: we know what's here. And it's not like it's, you know, anything,
Speaker 3: it's a huge thing. It's a history, and so the
Speaker 3: only way to kind of get through that is just
Speaker 3: embrace and understand the battle and then figure out how
Speaker 3: to attack it.
Speaker 2: Muki.
Speaker 1: Everybody seems to always want to focus on individual numbers,
Speaker 1: but the reality is, ever since you came to the Dodgers.
Speaker 1: All they've done is win. How much pride do you
Speaker 1: take in that? Because when they traded for you, that
Speaker 1: was the goal, and you're on a roll right now,
Speaker 1: even starting in twenty twenty. What does that mean to
Speaker 1: be considered a winner?
Speaker 2: You know?
Speaker 3: Obviously that's why we play, you know, that's why we play.
Speaker 3: I want to be a winner. I mean, obviously, you know,
Speaker 3: individual accolades are a great thing, right, but it doesn't
Speaker 3: mean anything unless unless you're winning, you know, and so
Speaker 3: you know, obviously hasn't been just me. You know, we've
Speaker 3: had some great teams here and they were winning before
Speaker 3: I got here. But you know, you know, with show
Speaker 3: Hey coming over, I mean you can argue that, you know,
Speaker 3: he's the number one reason why, which is amazing me.
Speaker 3: Shoot out, I'll take it, I'll take it. But you know,
Speaker 3: just being being what I feel like, I'm a winner,
Speaker 3: and I feel like coming to winning organization with a
Speaker 3: lot of guys in here who are winners or aspire
Speaker 3: to be winners, it's just a really good match.
Speaker 1: A lot of these people don't remember or have short memories,
Speaker 1: but I remember your first spring training with the Dodgers,
Speaker 1: how you demanded guys to practice like it was the game.
Speaker 1: You had the jar and here you are, you got
Speaker 1: four or five different shortstop gloves, get ready to go
Speaker 1: before anybody else. Do you feel like that tone has
Speaker 1: been set again this spring?
Speaker 2: Oh?
Speaker 3: Absolutely, I mean that's that that tone I think since
Speaker 3: since then hasn't really hasn't really left, and so you know,
Speaker 3: that's that's that's just kind of what it is. That's
Speaker 3: the way we'll we will get through this h this history.
Speaker 3: This is how we'll create the history is just by
Speaker 3: taking every day one one day at a time, one
Speaker 3: ground ball at a time, and making it to where
Speaker 3: we don't know the difference. I think that's the beauty
Speaker 3: of this team is we don't know the difference between
Speaker 3: pressure no pressure, because if we view it all the same,
Speaker 3: it's the same. It's the same. So when it got
Speaker 3: down late in the season last year, it wasn't a panic.
Speaker 3: It wasn't like we needed to play harder or do
Speaker 3: this more. It was like, no, we just play our game.
Speaker 3: I mean, it's the same thing we've been doing all year.
Speaker 3: And so I think that was a beautiful, beautiful thing
Speaker 3: about that last year and now just the culture we have, Hey, Mookie.
Speaker 1: Speaking of all that where you guys practice and then
Speaker 1: it shows up in Game seven of the World Series.
Speaker 1: What about in the NLDS against the Phillies, the whole
Speaker 1: wheel play? All that is the wheel play in practice
Speaker 1: in spring training? Or is that just instincts as the
Speaker 1: season goes on.
Speaker 3: That's just instincts, That's just instincts. We have a good
Speaker 3: veteran group here, and we've seen the game so much.
Speaker 3: We know a lot of things about this game. And
Speaker 3: so that was just us kind of Doc trusting us
Speaker 3: to help him. You know, he helps us so much
Speaker 3: and puts us in so many spots to win. So
Speaker 3: that was our way to, uh to kind of do
Speaker 3: it for him.
Speaker 1: All right, before I let you go, you got new
Speaker 1: tequila Providencia and also you got a new glove line. Yeah,
Speaker 1: can kids go out and buy that for the Little
Speaker 1: league season?
Speaker 2: Yet? Ah?
Speaker 3: That best two V can?
Speaker 2: I can't.
Speaker 3: I can't talk about it just yet. You know, we'll, Uh,
Speaker 3: we've got a little time here. I'm just testing out
Speaker 3: some gloves right now. Let's just to see how it's
Speaker 3: going to play out. So, uh, stay tuned and I'll
Speaker 3: make sure you.
Speaker 1: Know, I feel like the real test would be a skinny,
Speaker 1: fat guy like myself. If I could catch a baseball
Speaker 1: with your glove. I think it's meant for everybody.
Speaker 3: We'll get you on and we'll find out.
Speaker 2: Sir.
Speaker 1: Hey, Mooky, great to see you, Awesome to have you
Speaker 1: back for this, for this run. And man, it's not
Speaker 1: a Dodger season without Mookie Bets, that's for sure. And
Speaker 1: he's got that twenty one on the back of his
Speaker 1: hand in spring training.
Speaker 3: Sick. It's sick.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I saw Kursh with it when I first got here,
Speaker 3: so I always said I want to one, and I
Speaker 3: got it.
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, sir.
Speaker 1: And you got rings more to come. Thank you, Mooky.