Speaker 1: And now an exclusive interview with David Bassey for Dodger Talk. Well,
Speaker 1: right now he's in the Dodger Spanish radio booth. But
Speaker 1: I first got to know Luis Cocchito Cruz when he
Speaker 1: was wearing number forty seven, bursting onto the scene with
Speaker 1: his great defense and timely hitting. Luis great to have
Speaker 1: you on the show. Thanks a lot for the time.
Speaker 2: Thanks for the invite. Man. I'm always open to talk
Speaker 2: to you about baseball, and I really love the Dodgers
Speaker 2: and love baseball.
Speaker 1: Did you imagine yourself sitting here when you came to
Speaker 1: spring training back in twenty twelve, twenty thirteen.
Speaker 2: No, I think it's from all this the things I
Speaker 2: thought I was going to do when I was hired.
Speaker 2: I think I never thought about being a broadcaster or analyst.
Speaker 2: And you know what has been great. And I got
Speaker 2: a good tea shirt with Rose Mora, a friend who's
Speaker 2: been helping me a lot as an engineer audio engineers,
Speaker 2: so I'm really happy. I'm still learning. But the good
Speaker 2: thing is that I love baseball. I still have passion
Speaker 2: for the game, and it's good to like see some
Speaker 2: guys that we used to be teammates still now now
Speaker 2: they're old, but like it's good. It's good to go
Speaker 2: down and say hi to a lot of guys and
Speaker 2: you still feel part of the game.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure Dodger fans realize this. When you talk
Speaker 1: about former teammates. It's not just former teammates in Major
Speaker 1: League Baseball. You spent a couple of years playing for
Speaker 1: LOTE in Japan, and that's where you played against guys
Speaker 1: like show Hey, Otani, Saya, Suzuki, Yamamoto, Imanaga, all those guys.
Speaker 2: Yeah, all those guys, they were younger than me when
Speaker 2: when I was there as a better and I was
Speaker 2: like thirty thirty three years old and they were coming up.
Speaker 2: But you can see Shoi was gonna be great. I mean,
Speaker 2: I didn't know he was gonna be teased great because
Speaker 2: he's been really good. But all those guys like Suzuki
Speaker 2: say he always you can see like a stereotype of
Speaker 2: big league players. And I'm really happy to to, you know,
Speaker 2: go down and say hi to them and they still remember.
Speaker 2: And they kind of bollowed me because I was a
Speaker 2: sampipe means I was older, so they kind of like
Speaker 2: say hi to you like bowling, and I really loved.
Speaker 2: For a player like me, you know, it's really tough.
Speaker 2: I was a utility player back then, and I wanted
Speaker 2: to play every day, and I got my time in
Speaker 2: the big leagues, but never had a really good chance
Speaker 2: to play every day. And when I make the decision
Speaker 2: to go to Japan, it's like, Okay, now I need
Speaker 2: to play every day and make something for my family
Speaker 2: and play. I ended up playing for fourty years in Japan,
Speaker 2: and I love it.
Speaker 1: What do you remember about show hal Tani in Japan?
Speaker 2: I faced him in twenty fourteen spring training and uh
Speaker 2: in Okinawa, and he was throwing hard, but he was wild,
Speaker 2: So I'm like, oh, this is the the kid everybody's
Speaker 2: talking about. At the beginning, I thought okay, but once
Speaker 2: we face him during the season, he was nasty. He
Speaker 2: was throwing one on one. He was he was more
Speaker 2: like a thrower, like he got only fastball, clider, and splitty.
Speaker 2: That's the only three pitches he had. And I mean
Speaker 2: I finked him so many times that I always give
Speaker 2: him a hard time, Like, remember when I hit the double,
Speaker 2: he probably sucked me out like ten times, more than
Speaker 2: ten times, but obviously he can remember that. I want
Speaker 2: to remember the double at hit, so you can see
Speaker 2: from back then twenty fourteen, he was gonna be great.
Speaker 2: I make a post in my Astagram page in twenty
Speaker 2: fifteen and I say, hey, remember this kid, He's going
Speaker 2: to be good. And I never thought we were going
Speaker 2: to be in the same team. Obviously I'm from the boot,
Speaker 2: but like having the same you know, callers in the team,
Speaker 2: and he's great.
Speaker 1: Luis Cochito Cruz is our guest in front of first pitch?
Speaker 1: Can you explain to us? I feel like we take
Speaker 1: for granted the greatness of Otani and what he's trying
Speaker 1: to do at age thirty one to continue to pitch
Speaker 1: and also be this great hitter. What's the recovery for him?
Speaker 1: And how do the Dodgers navigate whether or not giving
Speaker 1: him a day off when he pitches?
Speaker 2: Well, I think this Japanese culture is really like they
Speaker 2: really work like hard, but to show I have to
Speaker 2: do it like both ways, like pitching and hitting. And
Speaker 2: I think what he does, he's like, that's why we
Speaker 2: call him a unicorn. I mean a lot of other
Speaker 2: teams complain about, oh, you guys have another extra pitchure,
Speaker 2: blah blah blah, it's okay, go get a guy like Shoi.
Speaker 2: I mean, you had a chance to get Choi. You know,
Speaker 2: like they just complain because they don't have it. So
Speaker 2: I think Shoi has been great. I think he's recovery
Speaker 2: is like sleep. He'll sleep most of the time. Like
Speaker 2: I can see him on the boss when we're going
Speaker 2: to stadium, Like if he's a fifteen minute ride, he
Speaker 2: take advantage of it instead of us. We just got
Speaker 2: on the phone. You know. He he knows, he got
Speaker 2: his times and he know what to do to be
Speaker 2: good for the next day.
Speaker 1: A man of the world. Luis co Chito Cruz, thanks
Speaker 1: a lot for the time, and it's awesome to have
Speaker 1: you around every day. And certainly it was great times
Speaker 1: with you and me in twenty twelve and twenty thirteen.
Speaker 1: And we'll keep it going now.
Speaker 2: Thank you, David. Go dogs and go for the tripping.
Speaker 2: Let's go for