Speaker 1: And now an exclusive interview with David Bassey for Dodger Talk.
Speaker 1: It's the Dodgers and Padres getting said for first pitch
Speaker 1: in Peoria, Arizona, Game two for the Dodgers this spring
Speaker 1: and joining us right now is a man that certainly
Speaker 1: has let his presence be known, whether it's on social
Speaker 1: media or in the clubhouse or on the field, and
Speaker 1: certainly he has been a staple of the Dodgers since
Speaker 1: emerging in twenty eighteen. And that's my guy, Max Munsey. Monsey,
Speaker 1: I offered to do at least five push ups to
Speaker 1: prove to you that your claim yesterday that went viral,
Speaker 1: I mean, got more attention than Miguel Rojas saying Blake
Speaker 1: Snail's the weakest guy on the team. I am here
Speaker 1: to prove it to you, Moncie, if you'd like to see.
Speaker 2: The thing is, we've done this challenge before and you
Speaker 2: faltered after one and a half push ups, so I
Speaker 2: know where you stand on this.
Speaker 1: There were a lot more people watching. You dragged me
Speaker 1: into the weight room, and there were professional athletes demanding
Speaker 1: that I danced like a monk in there, and I
Speaker 1: felt the pressure. I couldn't get all the way.
Speaker 2: Down exactly like I said, I've seen you do it before,
Speaker 2: so I know where you're standing is.
Speaker 1: Here's another thing. Even your wife mentioned this the other day. Yeah,
Speaker 1: do you think I need to do five push ups
Speaker 1: right now? Miguel Rojas, Lake Snail is out there. You
Speaker 1: can actually go against him. I think I'm putting my
Speaker 1: money on you. I feel like I'm in better shape.
Speaker 1: I'm in better shape coming into camp than snell Zilla.
Speaker 3: That's a bold statement. I won't say anything about that.
Speaker 1: A lot of hot mics around here. I guess, Hey,
Speaker 1: nobody knows how to take a joke.
Speaker 3: That's a bold claim. That is a bold claim.
Speaker 1: David, Oh, Max, what's it like to be sitting next
Speaker 1: to a guy that you both had such big moments
Speaker 1: in the postseason? Miguel Rojas obviously locker mats with you
Speaker 1: last year tied the game up your home run. How
Speaker 1: much more are we allowed to reflect on last year?
Speaker 2: You know, we can give it a couple more days,
Speaker 2: But now that we're getting going for this year, the
Speaker 2: focuses on this year. You know, today in our meeting,
Speaker 2: we had a nice video that showed kind of the
Speaker 2: highlights of last year, and.
Speaker 3: It's really cool to watch.
Speaker 2: It gets you gives you chills, you know, just you
Speaker 2: kind of replay the whole year in your mind while
Speaker 2: what's going on, and you just you think back and go, man,
Speaker 2: that was a pretty special year. But now that we're
Speaker 2: here for this year, you kind of have to flush that.
Speaker 2: You can't be focused on last year if we focused
Speaker 2: on this year and what's ahead of us. And you know,
Speaker 2: you've heard me say it a million times. Our focus
Speaker 2: is on each each and every day. How are we
Speaker 2: getting better for that day and how are we focusing
Speaker 2: on that day? And you know, me and Miggie, we've
Speaker 2: we've been here for a while and that's one of
Speaker 2: the things we try to harp on with the infielders
Speaker 2: is we got to get better every single day. What
Speaker 2: we're doing, how are we communicating, how we feeling ground balls,
Speaker 2: how are we throwing? Are we doing all that with intent?
Speaker 2: Are we doing that with you know, the focus of
Speaker 2: getting better? And if we're not, we got to call
Speaker 2: couple people out, and you know, and sometimes that includes us.
Speaker 3: Sometimes we need to be called out.
Speaker 2: We've if we've had a bad day, you know, MEIGGI
Speaker 2: will come up and be like, hey, what's going on.
Speaker 2: You know, it didn't look like you were focused out there,
Speaker 2: and you know, you just have honest conversations with each other,
Speaker 2: and that's you know, one of the things that's so
Speaker 2: special with this clubhouse is that everyone's open to I
Speaker 2: would necessarily call it criticism, but we'll just use that
Speaker 2: word to make it easy. You know, everyone's open to that,
Speaker 2: and they don't take it the wrong way because they
Speaker 2: know it's coming from a place of love and that
Speaker 2: it's coming from a place that we want to be
Speaker 2: good and for everyone to be as good as possible,
Speaker 2: we have to hold each other accountable.
Speaker 1: With that being said, Dave Roberts mentioned to us that
Speaker 1: Kyle Tucker and Edwin Diaz, two of the newest guys
Speaker 1: in this clubhouse, stood up and spoke. What was the
Speaker 1: mood in the clubhouse when two new guys comes into
Speaker 1: a team that already has a lot of veterans that
Speaker 1: went back to back championships.
Speaker 3: You know, Dog likes to do that early in spring hit.
Speaker 2: You know, with the new guys, he likes to give
Speaker 2: him a chance to speak, and you know, it helps
Speaker 2: everyone in the clubhouse learn who they are and you know,
Speaker 2: the message they sent was great. They came here to win,
Speaker 2: they want to win a ring, and you know, they
Speaker 2: heard of how great organization is, how great the players are,
Speaker 2: how great the clubhouse is, you know, how great the
Speaker 2: front office is in terms of how they treat the
Speaker 2: players and the families. And they both had very similar messages,
Speaker 2: and you know, it's exciting when you hear that.
Speaker 3: And for a lot of the.
Speaker 2: Guys that have you know, been here for several years,
Speaker 2: you don't forget, but it's always refreshing when you hear
Speaker 2: you know, other players talk about what they see from
Speaker 2: from Afar about you know, just the first class organization
Speaker 2: that we are and that you know, it's special to
Speaker 2: be here, and so it's just it's just refreshing to
Speaker 2: hear that.
Speaker 1: Sometimes you fall into that category as well. You signed
Speaker 1: a tow year extension. You're gonna be here for at
Speaker 1: least three more seasons, including this one. It seems like
Speaker 1: a lot's been made out of the numbers that you took.
Speaker 1: But how do you react to all the attention that
Speaker 1: you've gotten to re sign with the team for two
Speaker 1: more years?
Speaker 3: You know, where else would I rather go?
Speaker 2: You know, this is the best organization in baseball, where
Speaker 2: the best team in baseball. Why would I want to
Speaker 2: go anywhere else because I'm greedy. No, that's not who
Speaker 2: I am.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: I know we get we get paid a lot of
Speaker 2: money to play this game, and obviously that's comforting to
Speaker 2: know that we make a lot of money. But I
Speaker 2: never really got into this game for that reason. I
Speaker 2: got into because I love the game at baseball. I
Speaker 2: love to compete. I love to win, and there's no
Speaker 2: better opportunity to do that than here. And on top
Speaker 2: of that, this organization and the city really has become
Speaker 2: my family. And that was one of the key deciding
Speaker 2: factors for us was my family. You know, my kids
Speaker 2: were born in LA. They love Lay, They love everything
Speaker 2: about it. They love the Dodgers. They you know, they
Speaker 2: know all the landmarks driving to the stadium. They when
Speaker 2: we get to the stadium and they know exactly where
Speaker 2: they're going.
Speaker 1: They love it.
Speaker 2: Every time they see the color blue, they say that
Speaker 2: that's Dodger blue or that's dad of blue. And you know,
Speaker 2: I'm not going to rip that away from them because
Speaker 2: I'm greedy, And like I said, that's just not who
Speaker 2: I am.
Speaker 3: So for me, it was such an easy decision that, sure,
Speaker 3: maybe I'm.
Speaker 2: Leaving money on the table. There's no way of actually
Speaker 2: knowing that. There's no way of knowing what other organizations
Speaker 2: might offer.
Speaker 3: You out there.
Speaker 2: But for me, it's more than enough money for me
Speaker 2: and my family, and you know, they're set, and it's
Speaker 2: a chance to stay here and win every single year.
Speaker 3: Why would I want to go anywhere else?
Speaker 1: Do you feel like you have that perspective because when
Speaker 1: the Dodgers called, you didn't have a job at that
Speaker 1: point in time, So you've seen what it's like to
Speaker 1: be close to being out of the game to being
Speaker 1: at the pinnacle a three time World Series champion.
Speaker 3: You know, there's a little bit of loyalty there for me.
Speaker 2: You know, they took a chance on me when I
Speaker 2: was basically retired and I was pretty set on retiring,
Speaker 2: and they kind of, you know, pulled me out of
Speaker 2: the dumpster, and you know, they helped me relearn who
Speaker 2: I was and and become the player I am. And
Speaker 2: for that, I'm always going to be grateful, And you know,
Speaker 2: because of that, I want to show a little bit
Speaker 2: of gratitude towards them and not you know, I'm not
Speaker 2: trying to burn any bridges there, and it's you know,
Speaker 2: it's just a it's just a respect between both of us,
Speaker 2: the front office and me, like we've we've had such
Speaker 2: a good relationship over the years and it's going to continue.
Speaker 2: And you know that that was also another factor in
Speaker 2: deciding that I want to stay here is I've made
Speaker 2: you know, I've been very open about how i want
Speaker 2: to end my career here, but just building the legacy
Speaker 2: that I have here when I'm done playing, you know,
Speaker 2: whatever I want to do, the daughters are going to
Speaker 2: let me do. And you know that's something that kind
Speaker 2: of meant a lot to me also to just know that,
Speaker 2: you know, if I want to work for the team,
Speaker 2: if I want to, you know, just have a little
Speaker 2: side role with the team, or if I want to
Speaker 2: be a coach, if I want to, you know, be
Speaker 2: in the front office, They're going to give me an
Speaker 2: opportunity to do that because of the relationships that I've
Speaker 2: built here and that's something that means everything to me.
Speaker 1: Next months. He's been a big part of the fabric
Speaker 1: with the Dodgers since he burst onto the scene in
Speaker 1: twenty eighteen and has not rested on his laurels yourself
Speaker 1: and all the guys that were part of the team
Speaker 1: last year have come into camp ready to go day one.
Speaker 1: What did you do with your off season training to
Speaker 1: be able to be ready for this year and as
Speaker 1: you evolve as you get later in your career.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, it just it was a big focus
Speaker 2: on health for me, you know, trying to just do
Speaker 2: everything I can to make sure I'm healthy this year.
Speaker 2: You know, I dove a lot into the issues that
Speaker 2: I had, and I feel like we figured a lot
Speaker 2: of them out. I've done some you know, pretty crazy stuff,
Speaker 2: but you know, I've coming to the camp in great shape.
Speaker 2: It's the lightest I've been since, you know, twenty eighteen. Really,
Speaker 2: I feel great. And you know that was part of
Speaker 2: the reason that you know, we had good, good discussions
Speaker 2: with the front office was you know, we both understand
Speaker 2: that if I want to be here, I have to
Speaker 2: be able to pay third base, and for me to
Speaker 2: be able to pay third base, I just have to healthier.
Speaker 2: And so yeah, that was kind of the key deciding factor.
Speaker 2: Is just I want to be able to perform. I
Speaker 2: want to be able to be an All Star again.
Speaker 2: I want to help his team win a couple more
Speaker 2: World Series and that's just the end goal, all.
Speaker 1: Right, Muncie. Thanks a lot for the time. Glad I
Speaker 1: got off the hook of doing any push ups today.
Speaker 1: Maybe week two of the spring training. I'll be ready.
Speaker 3: I know you're scared about it. Don't worry.
Speaker 2: I won't put you in front of the camera. I
Speaker 2: know you're scared about doing push ups. But yeah, for
Speaker 2: everyone out there, it's just.
Speaker 3: All love between me and David. But I have to
Speaker 3: give I have to give a little call out every
Speaker 3: now and then, no doubt.
Speaker 1: You got to keep me humble.
Speaker 3: Thanks a lot for the time, of course,