Speaker 1: An exclusive interview with David Bassey for Dodger Talker. All right,
Speaker 1: we are in Philly for Game one of the NLDS.
Speaker 1: Mookie bets already loose after I got him in the
Speaker 1: right frame of mind my goofiness and skinny fat humor. Mookie,
Speaker 1: thanks a lot for the time. Appreciated of course.
Speaker 2: Brother, Always always going to come talk to you.
Speaker 1: I feel like the Dodgers are being overlooked to a
Speaker 1: certain extent. I mean, you guys have been playing well
Speaker 1: now for three weeks. Do you feel like you're playing
Speaker 1: your best baseball as a group at the right time.
Speaker 2: I don't know. I don't think any of us you
Speaker 2: are even really paying attention to it. I think for
Speaker 2: the most part, we're just being present in the moment,
Speaker 2: taking one pitch at a time, and just doing what
Speaker 2: we can to help to help the team win. I mean,
Speaker 2: we all love each other, we know what it takes
Speaker 2: to win, and we know that now is the time
Speaker 2: where we really got to come together.
Speaker 1: How fun is this for you? It feels like we've
Speaker 1: been waiting for this matchup between the Dodgers and Phillies
Speaker 1: for the last three years. It's final here You've played
Speaker 1: in East Coast environments before. It should be fun tonight.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, it's gonna be a lot of fun. It's
Speaker 2: you know, this is kind of what you dream dream of,
Speaker 2: you know when you're a kid and you you know
Speaker 2: you're you're making up the game, the game winner, in
Speaker 2: the in the in the backyard. You know, we're fortunate,
Speaker 2: we're blessed to be able to kind of live out,
Speaker 2: live out our dreams. And so being playing in a
Speaker 2: rough environment, you know it's gonna be we know it's
Speaker 2: gonna be tough. They're gonna be good, the fans are
Speaker 2: gonna bring it. But uh, that's what that's what makes
Speaker 2: it beautiful.
Speaker 1: Experience. You always hear that, whether it's the NBA playoffs,
Speaker 1: major League Baseball postseason, how much do you believe what
Speaker 1: you guys went through last year has helped you to
Speaker 1: get through this season?
Speaker 2: I think, uh, you know, anytime, anytime you have experience,
Speaker 2: that's always gonna be a positive thing, especially if you
Speaker 2: know how to use it. And I feel like with
Speaker 2: Doc and with the guys here, we all went through
Speaker 2: it together and you know, we had had a positive
Speaker 2: experience and in the postseason, and so we can use
Speaker 2: those positive, those positive things to kind of bind us together,
Speaker 2: especially this year going this year. I mean, we we
Speaker 2: hadn't really played well at all this year, so it's
Speaker 2: like we really really there's nothing that can really phase
Speaker 2: us at this point. I mean we there's not nothing
Speaker 2: we haven't been through already, and we know that from experience,
Speaker 2: how to get how to get out of it.
Speaker 1: Mooki your first spring training with the Dodgers, I remember
Speaker 1: we talked a lot about Kobe, the Mamba mentality, your
Speaker 1: connection to him at that point in time, and he
Speaker 1: always talked about the journey. It's not the destination, but
Speaker 1: the journey. Have you started to understand that more than
Speaker 1: ever this season, that your journey is going to be
Speaker 1: even sweeter when you get to that destination.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I think that's exactly what it is.
Speaker 2: You just take the things that you learn along the way,
Speaker 2: and that's the beauty of it. It's like, you know,
Speaker 2: when you get to the end goal, it's kind of
Speaker 2: kind of sucks because it's over, right, because you kind
Speaker 2: of really really enjoy You gotta really really learn how
Speaker 2: to love going through the days of the dog days,
Speaker 2: the good days, the in between days. You have to
Speaker 2: learn how to make the in between days positive in
Speaker 2: some way, form or fashion. You got to learn from
Speaker 2: just everything. And so I think when you get in
Speaker 2: that mindset, you just want of learning or you know,
Speaker 2: every day pretty much. I mean, you go through the
Speaker 2: journey and once you get to the destination, it's all
Speaker 2: it's like, Oh, you didn't even realize you were there.
Speaker 2: You know, you're just kind of lost in the journey.
Speaker 1: I remember also being with you at a point in
Speaker 1: time in the season where it felt like you hit
Speaker 1: rock bottom in Tampa, but luckily America's DH was there.
Speaker 1: And also you told me about, you know, your wife Brianna,
Speaker 1: how much she helped you at that point in time,
Speaker 1: and it seemed like all of that came together at
Speaker 1: the right time for you.
Speaker 2: Yeah I did it, did I mean yeah, yeah? I
Speaker 2: really did hit like an all time low for myself
Speaker 2: and I just didn't really know where to go. And
Speaker 2: having them to help me through it was huge. But
Speaker 2: it also took some of me, you know, some of
Speaker 2: me personally, just kind of changing my mindset, changing but
Speaker 2: really changing what was important to me. I think that
Speaker 2: was the thing. And winning I know that was important
Speaker 2: to me, and being here and showing up every day
Speaker 2: for the boys is very important to me, and so
Speaker 2: if I can do those things, you know, at the
Speaker 2: rest of it was just gonna be what it was,
Speaker 2: you know, But showing up and things that really were
Speaker 2: important to me, achieving those it definitely helped me through
Speaker 2: this year.
Speaker 1: The thing for me that I love the most is
Speaker 1: obviously your success. But it feels like you're getting a
Speaker 1: little bit more hangtime these days when you round second
Speaker 1: base and salute your teammates. So I'm looking forward to
Speaker 1: that in Philly, for you to get that Jordan Kobe
Speaker 1: type of hangtime, because the happier you are, the higher
Speaker 1: you go.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well try and get this one. That'll be fun.
Speaker 2: We'll see how shakes out.
Speaker 1: Thanks a lot for the time, Mookie. Always great to
Speaker 1: see you smile and can't wait to see you on
Speaker 1: stage one day with that guitar. Thanks about is