Speaker 1: And now an exclusive interview with David basseying for Dodger Talker. Well,
Speaker 1: the most popular guy at Dodger Stadium today is wearing
Speaker 1: that Marlins teal. And that's former Dodger first base coach
Speaker 1: who was here for the first of two back to
Speaker 1: back championships and also as part of the Dodger organization
Speaker 1: since twenty fifteen, second year as the Marlins manager. And
Speaker 1: that's the nice bronze tannd Florida man himself, Clayton Clton McCullough. Clayton,
Speaker 1: thanks a lot for the time, David, It's.
Speaker 2: Great to see you again, and thanks for having me
Speaker 2: on and you spending a little time and those kind words.
Speaker 2: I appreciate it.
Speaker 1: Well, congratulations and all the success, and it's great to
Speaker 1: see how loved you still are by so many in
Speaker 1: the Dodger organization.
Speaker 2: I mean it is I know for certain that I
Speaker 2: wouldn't be sitting here now and have the opportunity that
Speaker 2: I have without the time that I spent this organization
Speaker 2: and the time room with Dave Roberts and Andrew Friedman,
Speaker 2: Brandon Gomes, all the players and coaches. So I know
Speaker 2: how fortunate I was to have been part of this
Speaker 2: oranization for ten years and to spend a lot of
Speaker 2: time in player development and get some time here on
Speaker 2: the major league staff. So yeah, a lot of people
Speaker 2: that I still hold in very high regard and respect
Speaker 2: how they go about it. And yeah, I have a
Speaker 2: lot of great memories here, and you know, now the
Speaker 2: other uniform. I come here to try to win a series.
Speaker 1: I'm wondering we talked last year, but how much of
Speaker 1: that version of Clayton McCullough is part of this version
Speaker 1: leader of men managing a team.
Speaker 2: I think a lot of it. A lot of anything
Speaker 2: you go through helped shape what you've become and continue
Speaker 2: to become. So I know I has to have a
Speaker 2: long way to go as far as refining my leadership abilities,
Speaker 2: But a lot of what I draw from are the
Speaker 2: experience in people I was around here. I mean watching
Speaker 2: Dave operate with everything that he has on his plate,
Speaker 2: and how cool he is and how he allows his
Speaker 2: staffs to just go operate and go coach and go
Speaker 2: get guys better. So I've tried to emulate as best
Speaker 2: as I can that here. So yeah, I mean there's
Speaker 2: a dino evil probably one of the he helped me
Speaker 2: out so much in the four years here, so having
Speaker 2: Dino just kind of show me the way a little bit,
Speaker 2: and so his preparation. No one works as hard as him,
Speaker 2: So I think, you know, just try to take pieces
Speaker 2: from all those that I was around and had the
Speaker 2: fortune to spend time with and now' you know, kind
Speaker 2: of make them my own with what you know, how
Speaker 2: I'm going about doing things now, all.
Speaker 1: Right, before we get to the Marlins and what you're
Speaker 1: doing now to lead this franchise back. You were a
Speaker 1: big part of the Dodgers twenty four success, winning the
Speaker 1: first of a back to back championship. You were so
Speaker 1: big in the base running game for the Dodgers. Were
Speaker 1: you watching this year's World Series? Where were you when
Speaker 1: Miguel Rojas hid his life saving Dodger home run?
Speaker 2: I did watch it. I'll say that was the only
Speaker 2: game that I watched in the postseason, and we figured
Speaker 2: Game seven, I'm gonna turn it on and I was
Speaker 2: in my living room on the couch when Mickey row
Speaker 2: hit that Homer Hoffman. I did myself. Son, Kyle, we
Speaker 2: all jumped up, like you know, I mean, Mickey's the best,
Speaker 2: and I think, you know, for everyone you didn't mean
Speaker 2: you know how important a moment like you know that
Speaker 2: is for everyone involved. So I was incredibly happy for him,
Speaker 2: all my you know friends here, and if anybody was
Speaker 2: gonna win the World Series it wasn't us, then, you know,
Speaker 2: I was. I was hoping it'd be them.
Speaker 1: Is that a teaching moment even for your young Marlins
Speaker 1: to realize that Miggy Rowe had not had a start
Speaker 1: until Game six, did not hit a home run in
Speaker 1: almost a month. Is that a teaching moment that you
Speaker 1: can use with this young team to always be ready
Speaker 1: for your opportunity.
Speaker 2: I think that's you. I think you hit it on
Speaker 2: the head. It is be ready for your opportunity, you know,
Speaker 2: I mean you'd be ready, you know, do what you
Speaker 2: have to do to get ready because when your moment,
Speaker 2: your moment's gonna come, you know, and all you can
Speaker 2: do is did you prepare yourself the best to go
Speaker 2: take advantage of your moment? So you know, we have
Speaker 2: it here. We have guys that start, some don't start,
Speaker 2: come off the bench, pinch hit, and so it's just
Speaker 2: you know, the challenge is with younger players, but just
Speaker 2: understanding that and I have to do what I think
Speaker 2: is best for our team, want a given day to
Speaker 2: win right, and then just hope that you know, our
Speaker 2: players understand you know what when my name is called
Speaker 2: for whatever it is. All I asked that is you're
Speaker 2: prepared and understand this is a hard game and the
Speaker 2: results won't always match. But if you're prepared for that
Speaker 2: opportunity and moment, then you know, I'll continue to give
Speaker 2: you shots.
Speaker 1: It seemed like the Marlins started to gain some momentum
Speaker 1: at the end of last year and it's continued to
Speaker 1: start this year. How were you able to continue that
Speaker 1: wave into the beginning of this season.
Speaker 2: I think we would just try myself at coaching staff
Speaker 2: and players trying to be incredibly consistent each day with
Speaker 2: with how we approached that day and not to get
Speaker 2: not to get wrapped up in what other people thought
Speaker 2: we were gonna be we're supposed to be. It's like, no,
Speaker 2: we We're gonna go out there and continue to get
Speaker 2: better every day, and we're gonna treat you know, today
Speaker 2: in this game is the most important, and you know what,
Speaker 2: tomorrow we got to go do it again. And you know,
Speaker 2: it's very easy to ride the roller coaster in the
Speaker 2: major leagues of losing in losing street winning streak. So
Speaker 2: I was just trying to prepare and very similar manner
Speaker 2: coach teach, And I think as the season went along,
Speaker 2: a lot of our guys called some winding their sales
Speaker 2: and really started to take off. We started playing much
Speaker 2: better handling the things that we could control, and we
Speaker 2: finished very well. And you know, this year, we came
Speaker 2: into it expecting, we thought we'd have a you know,
Speaker 2: a nice team and be able to build off of that,
Speaker 2: and I think at this point we have and we
Speaker 2: still have a long way to go with you know,
Speaker 2: you know, our group and ORG just you know, continue
Speaker 2: to get better on a lot of fronts to give
Speaker 2: ourselves a chance year and you're out to compete for
Speaker 2: you know, our division in postseason berths.
Speaker 1: It sounds like what Clayton McCullough, the Marlins manager, just
Speaker 1: described was the way that your mindset was, and the
Speaker 1: mindset is for the Dodgers you can only control today.
Speaker 2: That was probably the I tell you, if I asked
Speaker 2: what was it like over there and what do you
Speaker 2: take away? And that for me was the biggest takeaway
Speaker 2: is that you know, every series there wasn't a circle
Speaker 2: on the calendar and it's this series in June, or
Speaker 2: this one in May or this one in August. Like
Speaker 2: we're just gonna come out, We're gonna mount be ready
Speaker 2: to play that game and do it the same way.
Speaker 2: Because there was a there was a standard of what
Speaker 2: it took to win the last game of the season.
Speaker 2: You have to always be reflecting on you know, are
Speaker 2: you holding yourself and playing to those standards? You know,
Speaker 2: even if you're winning, you know, it doesn't mean it's great,
Speaker 2: it doesn't mean it's good enough. So I think trying
Speaker 2: to bring that here that when we're when we win
Speaker 2: a game, when we lose a game, we're gonna take
Speaker 2: moments within that game and dissect them talk about them
Speaker 2: because that's how we're It's the only way we can
Speaker 2: continue to get better. And so when you get in
Speaker 2: the postseason, everything matters. So the regular season shouldn't be
Speaker 2: any different.
Speaker 1: Hey, Clayton McCullough still keeps his T shirts in the
Speaker 1: dryer extras medium so he shows his players who's the.
Speaker 2: Boss, right, Yeah, yes, you called me out. It is
Speaker 2: it's a medium shirt now, David.
Speaker 1: How about me, skinny fat still or do you feel
Speaker 1: like a little bit more on the fatter side.
Speaker 2: No, David, you look great.
Speaker 1: See that's how he gets his players to buy in.
Speaker 1: He makes them believe, Hey, it's great to see you.
Speaker 1: You always were one of the great people to be around,
Speaker 1: and I feel like that's why your players respond to
Speaker 1: you now with the Marlins as the manager, because your
Speaker 1: genuine personality gets people to want to follow and you
Speaker 1: could be the best. But if nobody follows, you're a
Speaker 1: lonely guy. But Clayton mccull is an easy guy to follow.
Speaker 1: So thank you for the time and great to see you.
Speaker 2: Great, David, thanks for having me. Great catching up with you,
Speaker 2: and you're the best.