Speaker 1: And now an exclusive interview with David Bassey for Dodger Talk. Well,
Speaker 1: when I need a baseball spiritual cleansing, a man of righteousness,
Speaker 1: I come to see my guy Don Mattingly.
Speaker 2: Don, thanks a lot for the time.
Speaker 1: Great to see you, and you haven't aged a single
Speaker 1: day since we last saw you in a Dodger uniful.
Speaker 3: A lot from the inside. It's just totally corroding.
Speaker 1: Did you ever expect to be in this position again,
Speaker 1: Don managing?
Speaker 4: I really didn't, you know. I went to Philly really
Speaker 4: with kind of just doing really what Dave you know,
Speaker 4: kind of you know, thought about the role.
Speaker 3: For me. It's just an experienced guy with this club.
Speaker 4: To help Thomps as much as I could, And so
Speaker 4: I can't say I thought about it at all. I
Speaker 4: really thought we'd be get off to a better start
Speaker 4: and I just be doing my job on the other
Speaker 4: side of the bench.
Speaker 1: Don Mattingly taught me two things that stand out the
Speaker 1: most while he was managing the Dodgers. Number one, don't
Speaker 1: ever go into another manager's dugout.
Speaker 3: That's the truth.
Speaker 2: Do you remember that?
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, I still feel that way.
Speaker 4: Try to anybody ask me about a decision or something
Speaker 4: the other team did. I'm like, uh, try to stay
Speaker 4: out of his dugout. I don't know what's going on
Speaker 4: over there. Number two.
Speaker 1: You said, it's not about the team's record, it's about
Speaker 1: when you catch that team. So when are the Dodgers
Speaker 1: catching the Phillies? Uh?
Speaker 3: Okay, I think. You know, we come out of San Diego.
Speaker 4: We we swept those guys, but we didn't really score.
Speaker 4: We had we've been we've been had more trouble, I
Speaker 4: think putting runs up.
Speaker 3: In general, we were able to keep San Diego down.
Speaker 4: The series before against Cleveland, we got three you know,
Speaker 4: really well pitched games and we didn't really score, so
Speaker 4: that hurt us. So they're catching us, okay, I think,
Speaker 4: But we're always you know, we're always pretty good because
Speaker 4: we we throw the ball pretty good.
Speaker 2: Definitely, Zach Wheeler.
Speaker 1: You got Christopher Sanchez making Oral Herscheizer very nervous these days,
Speaker 1: Donnie very nervous.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he should be, he should be.
Speaker 1: Hey, Bryce Harper, we take for granted that first base
Speaker 1: is a new position to him. Obviously you are a
Speaker 1: pretty good first baseman in your day, now that you're
Speaker 1: with the Phillies, even when you were the bench coach.
Speaker 2: How much have you worked with him?
Speaker 1: How open has he been to try to get better
Speaker 1: there with you being on the same side.
Speaker 3: No, he's been open, very open. I think he wants
Speaker 3: to be good over there.
Speaker 4: He's gotten dinged a little bit by some of the
Speaker 4: metrics this year early just because of some balls that
Speaker 4: got through in the hole, and you know, it felt
Speaker 4: like we needed to push him further off the bag.
Speaker 3: So that's one thing we've tried to do recently. But
Speaker 3: he's been great.
Speaker 1: When you look at Freddie Freeman, a guy that is
Speaker 1: on his way to the Hall of Fame, he's kind
Speaker 1: of Don Mattingly asked, not looking for the home runs,
Speaker 1: a good defensive first baseman.
Speaker 2: The list goes on and on. When you think of
Speaker 2: Freddie Freeman, what do.
Speaker 4: You love about the way he's played his career now,
Speaker 4: Freddie's I've seen way too much of Freddie in Atlanta
Speaker 4: there when I was in Miami. So Freddy's guy just
Speaker 4: gets big hits all the for me, all the time,
Speaker 4: Like I hate seeing him out there with men in
Speaker 4: scoring position. Really good defender at first, he'll steal a
Speaker 4: bag on you if you don't pay attention. So Freddie's
Speaker 4: just kind of that day in, day out guy that
Speaker 4: just keeps footing up numbers.
Speaker 2: Donnie.
Speaker 1: Last year you were part of John Schneider's staff with
Speaker 1: the Blue Jays. Something that nobody seemed to really point
Speaker 1: out or put a spotlight on was Game one of
Speaker 1: the World Series, lineup cards are exchanged and John Schneider
Speaker 1: gave you the lineup card to go out there to exchange.
Speaker 1: How much did that mean to you?
Speaker 4: It was pretty cool. It was fun. You know, it
Speaker 4: meant a lot to get to the World Series. Honestly,
Speaker 4: that's something that you fight to get to and have
Speaker 4: an opportunity to win. Obviously that didn't happen. But being
Speaker 4: able to get to my first World Series and then
Speaker 4: Snide you know, want me to do that, it was It.
Speaker 3: Was pretty cool.
Speaker 2: Were you surprise that gesture?
Speaker 3: I was?
Speaker 2: I was when you spring it on you.
Speaker 3: I don't know. That's probably way too nervous for that.
Speaker 1: Also, when you lose a seven game World Series, obviously
Speaker 1: it's tough to get over. How long did it take
Speaker 1: you to get over it?
Speaker 3: It took a minute, you know, it really did.
Speaker 4: And not so much for myself really more for our
Speaker 4: team bocause those guys played really hard. We accomplished a lot,
Speaker 4: played great in that World Series, I thought, And so
Speaker 4: you feel bad for our guys, you know, those guys
Speaker 4: were you know, obviously, when you want something bad and
Speaker 4: you've worked hard for it, it's crushing when you don't
Speaker 4: get it and you're you know, it's within your grasp.
Speaker 4: So that was that was a tough time. But I
Speaker 4: think of it more not so much for me personally,
Speaker 4: but more for our players.
Speaker 1: When you look back at it, does it hurt when
Speaker 1: you hear people say how great of a World Series
Speaker 1: it was? Is that any consolation or can you appreciate
Speaker 1: just how much that did for the game of baseball?
Speaker 3: Uh, it's not much of it.
Speaker 4: It's not really a consolation because you know you're you're
Speaker 4: there to win it. But I think as you get
Speaker 4: further away from it, you realize how great of a
Speaker 4: series it was.
Speaker 3: Back and forth the.
Speaker 4: Eighteen in game out here, you know, then we bounce
Speaker 4: back and get two to get back to Toronto. So many
Speaker 4: great plays in that series, and some quirky stuff too,
Speaker 4: like it always always seems to happen the ball bounces
Speaker 4: one way or the other, so yeah, you appreciate it
Speaker 4: more when once you get away from it a little further.
Speaker 3: But I wouldn't say it's a consolation prize, no doubt.
Speaker 2: Don Mattingly is our guest.
Speaker 1: Before I let you go, I thought it was fitting
Speaker 1: your first game back in LA as the manager of
Speaker 1: the Phillies. Clayton Kershaw happened to be here front row.
Speaker 1: Did you catch him?
Speaker 3: I didn't, I didn't.
Speaker 4: I heard that. I heard that later. Actually, Lorie told
Speaker 4: me that Clayton was there. I guess his kids were
Speaker 4: with him and stuff, because I've seen a f you
Speaker 4: guys kind of chatting.
Speaker 2: Over there, and I was like a figure out who else.
Speaker 4: You know, some celebrit there right in LA. But no,
Speaker 4: I didn't. Hope I get a chance to see him.
Speaker 4: I don't know if he's still here or not. I'll
Speaker 4: let him know that you were looking for him, I was.
Speaker 3: I am.
Speaker 1: Can you describe the relationship that you had with him?
Speaker 1: Because you were managing Peak Kershaw And I'm not afraid
Speaker 1: to say that maybe peak stubbornness of Kershaw there were
Speaker 1: a lot of moments where he didn't want to come
Speaker 1: out of games. You guys had some tough conversations. But
Speaker 1: how did your relationship endure all that where he has
Speaker 1: the utmost respect for you?
Speaker 4: No, it was always good, and i'd tell guys, I
Speaker 4: don't I never get mad when a guy doesn't want
Speaker 4: to come out of the game. Obviously you don't want
Speaker 4: him to show you up on the mound, but you're
Speaker 4: not asking guys to be happy to be coming out
Speaker 4: of the game. And remember Clayton told me one time,
Speaker 4: he said, you take me out whenever you think he goes,
Speaker 4: but don't take me out because you think I'm tired,
Speaker 4: Because he says, I don't get tired, right, So I'm like, oh,
Speaker 4: get girls. So I always like that. Thanks a lot
Speaker 4: for the time. It's great to see hard Dave.
Speaker 3: You too.
Speaker 2: We won't get too emotional here, you know.
Speaker 3: Kissing Dave.
Speaker 2: None of that. Okay, sounds good.
Speaker 1: Don Mattingly will receive a gift card that works to
Speaker 1: Capitol Grill. Thanks a lot, all right, thanks Dave. There
Speaker 1: he is the man, Don Mattingley. Some people go to
Speaker 1: work in some high rise, some vacation.
Speaker 2: At the Gulf of Mexico. But this guy's with the
Speaker 2: Phillies and the dugout. You like that way?
Speaker 3: Too dramatic. Dave, you said that like you're on
Speaker 2: TV Don Mattingley, always keeping me honest.