Speaker 1: And now an exclusive interview with David Bassey for Dodger Talking.
Speaker 1: And we're joined right now by the leader of this team,
Speaker 1: a man that is entering his eleventh season as the
Speaker 1: Dodger manager. And there's only one other Dodger manager that
Speaker 1: has won more World Championships than Dave Roberts, and that
Speaker 1: is the Hall of Famer Walter Alston. Dave, thanks a
Speaker 1: lot for the time, and hard to believe this is
Speaker 1: your eleventh spring training.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Dave, it's hard when you put it that way,
Speaker 2: and it's flown by, and there's been a lot of
Speaker 2: great memories, moments, and I think the fun part about,
Speaker 2: you know, my job in this spring is I just
Speaker 2: have I my coaches, the players have as much enthusiasm
Speaker 2: about showing up to work each day, and that's you know,
Speaker 2: an accomplishment, you know, for everyone, and so something to
Speaker 2: be really proud of. And yeah, twenty twenty five was great,
Speaker 2: the years prior great, but you know, I'm really excited.
Speaker 2: I would almost say that I'm more excited about twenty
Speaker 2: six and in a year I've been with the Dodgers.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it feels like this group and yourself are still
Speaker 1: very hungry after back to back championships.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we are, and I think that, you know, a
Speaker 2: lot of people ask me, you know, what's a message
Speaker 2: for a team that's won two in a row, three
Speaker 2: in the last six years, And I think for me,
Speaker 2: it's just continuing to, you know, practice the right way,
Speaker 2: the process, and play hard and try to make everything
Speaker 2: we do matter. And so for me as a coach,
Speaker 2: when I do stand back and I watch us workout
Speaker 2: and the intent behind everything we do, it's buttoned up
Speaker 2: and that's something that's pretty exciting for all of us.
Speaker 1: Dave, I talked to Miguel Rojas and Mookie Betts about this.
Speaker 1: You guys have never shied away from expectations, not from
Speaker 1: the outside but amongst each other. And when I said
Speaker 1: three pete, they said, you can say that as loud
Speaker 1: as you want, because that's what we want.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I agree, And I think that when you're I guess,
Speaker 2: when you are secure in you know your team, team,
Speaker 2: who you are individually, you're not afraid to run from
Speaker 2: expectations because our own expectations should be higher than what
Speaker 2: anyone else could expect. So yeah, but I think, Dave
Speaker 2: is that we do a good job of understanding what
Speaker 2: is at stake, but also the most important part of
Speaker 2: it is to kind of focus on the work each day.
Speaker 2: And you know, like I said many times, you're not
Speaker 2: going to win a World Series in February. You're not
Speaker 2: going to win a three peet in February. Your goal
Speaker 2: is to get better each day. And I think our
Speaker 2: guys do as good a job as anyone as you know,
Speaker 2: putting on those blinders and folks on each day.
Speaker 1: You always do everything with a purpose to connect to
Speaker 1: each individual and to connect to the group. You mentioned
Speaker 1: to us at FanFest that you played at the Holy
Speaker 1: Grail Augusta during the offseason, but you also brought Freddie
Speaker 1: Freeman and Mookie Betts. What was that experience like for
Speaker 1: yourself and to have two of your best players come
Speaker 1: with you.
Speaker 2: It was actually Will Smith and Mookie and it was great.
Speaker 2: And I think for me it's they love the game
Speaker 2: of golf, and you know, we've been in a lot
Speaker 2: of big games together, and I think for me it
Speaker 2: was more of trying to continue to build that relationship
Speaker 2: off the field and build that trust. And I've got
Speaker 2: it with those guys as well as and you mentioned Freddie,
Speaker 2: and so it's Also, you know, we spend so much
Speaker 2: time together on the field, but building relationships away from
Speaker 2: the field just makes it that much stronger. And it
Speaker 2: was a memory that I know all three of us
Speaker 2: remember forever.
Speaker 1: Yeah, not too many managers have that type of relationship
Speaker 1: to do something like that when you take them out,
Speaker 1: even to a special golf course like that. Do you
Speaker 1: do that with a purpose to maybe get the temperature,
Speaker 1: maybe start to get the message for the season going.
Speaker 1: When you're you know, waiting for your turn or you're
Speaker 1: standing around.
Speaker 2: You know what, it's funny not really pointed conversations about
Speaker 2: you know what we're trying to do, what we've done.
Speaker 2: It's more of, you know, talking about golf. But I
Speaker 2: think it's really getting to know each other away from
Speaker 2: the ball field. And I think, you know, the more
Speaker 2: you spend time with people, you get to kind of
Speaker 2: learn what they value as people, and our interests are
Speaker 2: the way we kind of live our lives and the
Speaker 2: things we value are aligned, and that just bleeds onto
Speaker 2: the baseball field. So it doesn't have to be something
Speaker 2: that we have to manufacture conversations about what we need
Speaker 2: to do. And so I think that's really powerful in itself.
Speaker 1: All right, So I'm going to say something here that
Speaker 1: I feel is somewhat true. Shoe Aotani obviously doesn't speak
Speaker 1: a lot publicly, but neither does Will Smith. The guy
Speaker 1: hits the go ahead home run to clinch the World
Speaker 1: Series in Game seven, we don't hear a lot from him.
Speaker 1: What have you learned about Will Smith that we may
Speaker 1: not know to allow him to be one of, if
Speaker 1: not the most clutch players in baseball?
Speaker 2: You know? What have? What does a public the people
Speaker 2: not know? He's an open book, really is. He's very
Speaker 2: simple in his preparation. I think he's a very confident player,
Speaker 2: but a humble player, smart player. I think the main
Speaker 2: thing with Will why he has success in big moments
Speaker 2: is because he plays for the right reasons. You know,
Speaker 2: in the biggest of moments. He's a guy that can
Speaker 2: hit a groundball to move a guy to third base.
Speaker 2: He's a guy that can take a walk in a
Speaker 2: big spot or hit a home run. And Will is
Speaker 2: as good of a team player as I've ever been around.
Speaker 2: He's a very unselfish player. Doesn't answer your question because honestly,
Speaker 2: what you see is what you get, and I think
Speaker 2: for me is I like dependable players, and he's as
Speaker 2: dependable as I've been around.
Speaker 1: How much do we not appreciate the fact this guy
Speaker 1: was playing with a broken hand for the majority of
Speaker 1: the postseason and all of a sudden started to get
Speaker 1: the power. His first extra base hit of the postseason
Speaker 1: came in Game one of the World Series. Is he
Speaker 1: one of your toughest guys? And does that go unnoticed
Speaker 1: by the outside, you know, fandom.
Speaker 2: Well, I think the catching position is a serving position.
Speaker 2: It certainly gets annotice anyway. You know what he's done
Speaker 2: for the pitching staff, I thought he the way he
Speaker 2: navigated the pitching staff this year in the postseason was
Speaker 2: as good of a job behind the plate as I've seen.
Speaker 2: And yeah, you know, starting the postseason, we had Ben
Speaker 2: rart Vett catching games to start, certainly in that Philly series,
Speaker 2: and for Will to come back off the bench to
Speaker 2: kind of get his hand back to full strength. He
Speaker 2: had a big hit in Philly, a lot of big hits,
Speaker 2: and then then to you know, look out into the
Speaker 2: World Series, catch eighteen innings and catch every inning of
Speaker 2: the World Series is pretty remarkable. And he's never a
Speaker 2: self promoter, never looking for credit and he just wants
Speaker 2: to play to win, so he's certainly under the radar.
Speaker 2: But I but I do know that in this clubhouse, guys,
Speaker 2: you could argue that he's most valuable player we have
Speaker 2: if you kind of bake in the offense and the defense.
Speaker 1: Before I let Dave Robert Scoe. He's doing a lot
Speaker 1: of things at once, all the time managing his relationships
Speaker 1: with Andrew Freeman, the players and the fans, and also
Speaker 1: the Dodger Foundation. When you look back at these previous
Speaker 1: ten years and you look forward, Freddie Freeman keeps talking
Speaker 1: about four more years? How much would you love to
Speaker 1: write out the next four years with Freddie? And have
Speaker 1: the previous ten been everything you thought they would be?
Speaker 2: The previous ten have been everything and more than I
Speaker 2: thought hoped it would be. I do think that it's
Speaker 2: only going to get better because of the relationships that
Speaker 2: we forge are strengthened. I'm excited for Freddie to play
Speaker 2: four more years, and Lord willing it is with the Dodgers.
Speaker 2: For me, I know I've got four years left on
Speaker 2: my contract. I think think that you know, I'm having
Speaker 2: as much fun as I've ever had. So we'll see,
Speaker 2: you know, once this one ends, and we win a
Speaker 2: couple more championships, a few more championships.
Speaker 1: How addicting is winning?
Speaker 2: It's you know, once you get a taste of it,
Speaker 2: you know it is. I think addiction is the right word,
Speaker 2: and obsession, and you know, but I think the thing, Dave,
Speaker 2: is that winning is an addiction and obsession. But the practice,
Speaker 2: the love for it, the process, that's what the great
Speaker 2: ones have an addiction to. And our guys, two of men,
Speaker 2: are addicted to getting continuing to get better as ballplayers, and.
Speaker 1: It starts with the skipper, Dave Roberts. Everybody in that
Speaker 1: clubhouse admires the way you lead this team. The people
Speaker 1: behind the scenes feel the same way. And I think
Speaker 1: I speak for everybody in La Dave Roberts is certainly
Speaker 1: the right man for the right time in Dodger history.
Speaker 2: Well, I'm in great company, a lot of good players,
Speaker 2: great organizations, surrun by a lot of great people, and
Speaker 2: our fan base. Dave, you know, there's nothing like Dodger Nation.
Speaker 2: There really isn't. And there's a reason why players want
Speaker 2: to come here and play for the Dodgers, the boys
Speaker 2: in Blues. So we're gonna wrap up spring training where
Speaker 2: we're off to a good start and I just can't
Speaker 2: wait for our fan base to, you know, welcome us
Speaker 2: when we get ready to start the regular season.
Speaker 1: Thanks for the time, Dave, really appreciate it.
Speaker 2: You got it, Dave.
Speaker 1: There he goes Dodger manager Dave Roberts, ready for all
Speaker 1: the expectations that he and his players are not shying
Speaker 1: away from a chance to make history to three peat.