Speaker 1: Hey, everybody, and welcome to Dirt from the Dugout, the
Speaker 1: latest edition, along with my buddy Justin muse Alum Karl Ravich.
Speaker 2: I know this.
Speaker 1: We've had such a good time so far on this thing,
Speaker 1: but I'm not sure I've been more excited about a
Speaker 1: particular guest than I am tonight when we bring on
Speaker 1: Dusty Baker.
Speaker 2: Justin. This guy will tell you.
Speaker 1: Stories today you can't believe, and all of them are true.
Speaker 3: I'm excited.
Speaker 4: Man.
Speaker 3: We've had a good run and I've been looking forward
Speaker 3: to talking with Dusty a lot more.
Speaker 2: Man.
Speaker 3: This is going to be fine.
Speaker 2: It's gonna be fun.
Speaker 1: Just a reminder for everybody, please ask questions that you
Speaker 1: want us to ask Dusty, and we promised to get
Speaker 1: to it. Will be with Dusty for about forty five
Speaker 1: minutes to one hour. Get your questions into the chat.
Speaker 1: And beyond his baseball story and life story and journey,
Speaker 1: He's written a book, Justin, and I know you've seen it.
Speaker 1: It's called Crossroads, and it really is all about everything
Speaker 1: that Dusty has done in his life. I've got a
Speaker 1: chance to look through the entire book and it touches
Speaker 1: on things a you didn't know about Dusty. It touched
Speaker 1: on things that I did know about Dusty but didn't
Speaker 1: know the detail of the depth of it, from his
Speaker 1: days as a kid, to the people that he I'm
Speaker 1: out with, to the musicians he knew, to the relationships
Speaker 1: with his mom and with his dad and with his
Speaker 1: son Darren, to presidents, to the people that were living
Speaker 1: underneath bridges. That this is the type of eclectic, wonderful
Speaker 1: human being that Dusty is. So we'll get to all
Speaker 1: the baseball, but we're gonna touch on all these things
Speaker 1: because I think there's so many valuable life lessons that
Speaker 1: Dusty has learned that can help the parents and the
Speaker 1: players that we have as part of our great team here.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and if anyone has any questions as we go,
Speaker 3: just throw them into the chat on YouTube and we
Speaker 3: will try to get to as many as we can,
Speaker 3: and we will get to them as we go throughout
Speaker 3: the whole show Man. It's fun to see the different questions.
Speaker 3: There's some great questions doesn't have to be baseball related.
Speaker 3: Dusty's open to talking about anything, you know, maybe about
Speaker 3: his roses or something, you know, maybe there'll be some
Speaker 3: questions about that.
Speaker 1: His roses is one. Let's bring them in. Let's get
Speaker 1: Dusty Baker, the future Hall of Famer, into Dirk from
Speaker 1: the dugout there he is, hello, man, Hello Dusty, Yeah,
Speaker 1: hi man, how you doing How?
Speaker 2: I am doing great? I am doing great. Your your clause?
Speaker 2: I retired.
Speaker 1: I know you're a special advisor for the Giants. You
Speaker 1: just managed Team Nick or Walgo in the WBC. But
Speaker 1: look at how relaxed you look compared to Justin and me.
Speaker 2: Well, hey man, you know, I'm trying to live a
Speaker 2: relaxed life, trying to stay busy at the same time.
Speaker 2: And uh, you know, life's good. I mean know, life's
Speaker 2: real good. And uh you know I can spend time
Speaker 2: with my grandsons four and six. I can I get
Speaker 2: to go to the ballpark the river Cats twice a
Speaker 2: month here in Sacramento, Uh you know, to watch the
Speaker 2: Triple A. And I go to San Francisco twice a month,
Speaker 2: and I spend time at the winery. So hey man,
Speaker 2: life is good. Life is good. It's good to hear.
Speaker 2: That's really good to hear.
Speaker 1: And I know all about Darren. It's great to hear
Speaker 1: about your grandkids as well. For the people that are
Speaker 1: on here, Dusty. This is about trying to help them
Speaker 1: with the advice you can give for parents of players
Speaker 1: at really any age and their baseball journey. Nobody has
Speaker 1: had as a unique journey. I don't think as you have.
Speaker 1: I know it's a broad question, but when you look
Speaker 1: back on your baseball life, is there a way that
Speaker 1: you can kind of summarize it to open some doors
Speaker 1: that we can then go down to talk about for
Speaker 1: the people at home.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's good question, you know. Number One, I was
Speaker 2: a twenty fifth round draft choice and they're only twenty
Speaker 2: six rounds and a lot of teams told me there
Speaker 2: after I made it that they were going to draft
Speaker 2: me in the next round, So that left one round
Speaker 2: for the other twenty something teams. But the thing about
Speaker 2: it is I was so fortunate to, you know, to
Speaker 2: get drafted by the Braves, which I did not want
Speaker 2: to get drafted by the Braves because that was a
Speaker 2: time of civil unrests nineteen sixty seven. There was freedom marches,
Speaker 2: they were you know, piece and love. There was anti Vietnam,
Speaker 2: there was an anti conformity completely around the country. And
Speaker 2: I get drafted by the Braves, met the Great Hank
Speaker 2: Aaron and he told me said, hey, Dussie, if you
Speaker 2: have enough confidence in yourself to you know, to be
Speaker 2: in the big leagues by the time year your graduating
Speaker 2: class would have graduated from college and signed. If not
Speaker 2: go to college and then lo and behold here I was.
Speaker 2: I was in the big league next year at nineteen
Speaker 2: years old. And you know, they made me feel, you know,
Speaker 2: like they excuse me, like I belong. You know, they
Speaker 2: were guys on the team, Felipe Alou, Joe Tory, you know,
Speaker 2: Rico Cardi, Bob Tillman, Cleete Boyer. I have a picture, uh,
Speaker 2: you know, they took me and Ralph out to the
Speaker 2: Playboy Club when we were our first week in the
Speaker 2: in the big leagues in Atlanta, and he brought us
Speaker 2: a suit and uh. And I kept this polaroid and
Speaker 2: I sent it to my buddy. I was like, man,
Speaker 2: my best buddy that I went to high school, and
Speaker 2: I said, man, this is the big leagues. And uh
Speaker 2: in that picture. In that picture was Ralph Guard, myself,
Speaker 2: Cleat Bowyer and and and Bob Uker. And so that
Speaker 2: was my introduction, you know, to the big leagues. Uh.
Speaker 2: The main thing is is that it only takes one
Speaker 2: person to like you. And the person that liked me
Speaker 2: was Bill White, because not many people believed in me. Uh.
Speaker 2: The general manager, who was Paul Richards, trusted Bill White's
Speaker 2: judgment and and he said that, uh, you know, I
Speaker 2: played all four sports trying to be like Bobby Bonds.
Speaker 2: I grew up I lizing Bobby Bonds, my dad and
Speaker 2: Bobby's the league coaching. And he said that if he
Speaker 2: if I could take all those uh love for the
Speaker 2: sports and and talent and and and and and take
Speaker 2: and put them into one one sport, that I could
Speaker 2: be something. And my dad told me that if I
Speaker 2: changed my attitude and and shorten my temper, that you know,
Speaker 2: I could do anything that I wanted to do.
Speaker 1: All right, let's press pause because there's a billion things
Speaker 1: that you just talked out there. So well, your dad,
Speaker 1: your dad was Bobby Bond's.
Speaker 2: Littlea coach, Yeah for real. And so that's unbelievable. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I didn't know that. Yeah, And I and then Bobby's
Speaker 2: mom baby sat me. And then Bobby's sister, older sister Rosie,
Speaker 2: who went to the Olympics, she baby sat me too,
Speaker 2: you know, and so uh, well, you know, all of
Speaker 2: us and so like, you.
Speaker 1: Know, then you ended up babysitting Barry baby.
Speaker 2: That's pretty good, exactly babysitting, you know, but that's pretty good. Okay,
Speaker 2: you got me on that one.
Speaker 1: I got you there before. Where you go on? This
Speaker 1: is really about the people that are part of our team.
Speaker 1: We have questions that they want to ask you, and
Speaker 1: then I'll and Justin will follow up. Here's the first one.
Speaker 1: This is comes from mt. It says, what advice do
Speaker 1: you give players, Dusty when it comes to dealing with failure,
Speaker 1: particularly young players that may be experienced it for the
Speaker 1: first time as they move to the higher levels.
Speaker 2: Good question. What I try to tell my player is
Speaker 2: that you're one at bad away from a hot streak,
Speaker 2: and everything starts with one, and you have to forget
Speaker 2: yesterday if it was bad, and remember yesterday if feels good,
Speaker 2: and then build on top of that. So you know,
Speaker 2: my my main I mean, a winning streak starts at one,
Speaker 2: losing streak starts at one, and so does a you know,
Speaker 2: so do's a batting streak. So it starts with one,
Speaker 2: and it's a new day every day, all right.
Speaker 1: Good advice, Good advice. Next one comes from chan Best
Speaker 1: advice a coach gave you you and best advice that
Speaker 1: you provide young prospects. I'm more interested in the first part.
Speaker 1: What was the best piece of advice that a coach
Speaker 1: ever gave you?
Speaker 2: Don't lie to me. Yeah, I mean, that's what my
Speaker 2: high school coach told me. That's what a couple of
Speaker 2: professional coaches told me. And this is what I tell
Speaker 2: my players. You know, it's like, give me a chance
Speaker 2: to understand, because if you lie to me, I have
Speaker 2: no chance of understanding and I can't help you, and
Speaker 2: I won't This will be between me and you. I
Speaker 2: won't tell anybody unless it's life threatening or if you
Speaker 2: committed like a serious crime. And you know, I learned
Speaker 2: that in the military when I was in the Marines
Speaker 2: and said, hey, you know, you got to just give name,
Speaker 2: rank and serial number, take it to your grave if
Speaker 2: it's if it's somebody else's word or problem, great.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, Dussie. One thing I was always curious of.
Speaker 3: You've played for so long, you coach for so long, right,
Speaker 3: and you know, you win a lot of ball games,
Speaker 3: but there's only one happy team at the end of
Speaker 3: every season, right, And so as a manager, you go
Speaker 3: through a lot of seasons, really good seasons that you had,
Speaker 3: you won a lot of games. Did it feel like
Speaker 3: unfinished business? Are unsatisfying at the end of the season
Speaker 3: when you didn't win it all?
Speaker 2: Well, if you had a good team, and you know,
Speaker 2: when you have a good team now now, if you
Speaker 2: don't have a good team, it's almost like you can't
Speaker 2: wait till the season to end because it gets long.
Speaker 2: But if you have a good team and you have
Speaker 2: a bona fide chance to win, then it's always like you,
Speaker 2: you know, you have unfinished business. And but that's the
Speaker 2: beauty of the game. You know, there's always going to
Speaker 2: be one winner every spring. You start the next year,
Speaker 2: you know, thinking that it's going to be you, And
Speaker 2: like al Campan has told me, when you start the season,
Speaker 2: you know, you think you have a good team, but
Speaker 2: you really don't know. And you have to go around
Speaker 2: the league one time and then you'll see, do I
Speaker 2: need another left handed bat, or do I need a
Speaker 2: couple of left handed relievers, or do I have you know,
Speaker 2: do I need some more speed or do I need
Speaker 2: another starter? So it takes a while. You know, once
Speaker 2: you go around the league, then you can compare yourself
Speaker 2: you know, to other teams and see if you have enough.
Speaker 1: Was there was there one team, Dusty that you felt
Speaker 1: when the season ended, I did have the best team
Speaker 1: and we should have won and we didn't.
Speaker 2: A couple of times and uh and uh, I felt
Speaker 2: like that. In my very first year, you know, we
Speaker 2: won one hundred and three games and there was no
Speaker 2: wild card team, and you know, like I went to
Speaker 2: the stadium every day to watch the playoffs and sat
Speaker 2: in my office. And then my wife finally told me, hey,
Speaker 2: you know, you can't bring it back, and you know,
Speaker 2: come on home, because I was going there every day.
Speaker 2: And then you know, you know, two thousand and two,
Speaker 2: I felt that we had the best team, you know.
Speaker 2: And and another time and uh, in two thousand and three,
Speaker 2: when we were in Chicago and we lost to the
Speaker 2: Florida Marlins, I felt that we had the best team.
Speaker 2: And and it hurts, you know, you know when you lose,
Speaker 2: and and and I felt that we had the best
Speaker 2: team in Washington, you know, the first year we lost
Speaker 2: to Chicago. The second year we lost to Chicago. But
Speaker 2: the but the best team doesn't always doesn't always win.
Speaker 2: You know, you gotta ad some breaks. You got to
Speaker 2: ask some things, you know, go your way, and uh
Speaker 2: you got to capitalize on them, right. Uh? Nice?
Speaker 1: A nice compliment comes in here from one of our
Speaker 1: one of our teammates. So went to a Cal game
Speaker 1: a few years ago. Dusty was watching Darren play. But
Speaker 1: Dusty happily took time to chat and sign autographs for
Speaker 1: all the kids in the stands. I imagine Dusty, you
Speaker 1: know you maybe you were always like that, but at
Speaker 1: some point you realize there's an obligation almost as a
Speaker 1: player or former manager or current manager to those people.
Speaker 1: When did that happen in your life?
Speaker 2: It actually happened when I was a little league. It
Speaker 2: went to U. Yeah, you know, I went to the
Speaker 2: Coliseum to watch the Dodgers play and there was a
Speaker 2: there was a player on the Cardinals that that you know,
Speaker 2: was rude to me and told me to get out
Speaker 2: of here. Kid, And I cried, and I never asked
Speaker 2: for another autograph till I was like thirty years old,
Speaker 2: and I said, if I ever make it to the
Speaker 2: big leagues, that you know, I didn't think I was
Speaker 2: going to make to the big leagues as a as
Speaker 2: a baseball player. I always thought I was going to
Speaker 2: be a basketball player. But I said to myself that
Speaker 2: if I make it to the big leagues, you know,
Speaker 2: I'm gonna try to sign for every kid, because you
Speaker 2: I don't want a kid to feel like I felt
Speaker 2: that day.
Speaker 3: I like it, Dusty, obviously, you know you brought you
Speaker 3: watch different sports, and you see in the NFL they
Speaker 3: do the jersey swap thing. Now as a manager, as
Speaker 3: a player, who would be the person that you think
Speaker 3: of that you wish you had their jersey because you
Speaker 3: loved watching them player, you loved how they went about
Speaker 3: their business. Who was that for you in your career?
Speaker 2: Elsen Baylor?
Speaker 3: Hmm, interesting, interesting here, Dusty.
Speaker 2: Sorry, man, I loved Elsen Baylor. You know he's j
Speaker 2: only on at the top of the key, you know
Speaker 2: what I mean. My dad goes, what's wrong with their head?
Speaker 2: I said nothing, Daniel Melson Bailey, He goes, no, you're not.
Speaker 2: You're Dusty.
Speaker 1: You didn't like You didn't like the Sheltics very much,
Speaker 1: did you, Dusty?
Speaker 2: No, I didn't like him at all, Baking because they
Speaker 2: won all the time. And then and then once I
Speaker 2: became a manager, I was hoping that I'd win all
Speaker 2: the time. And I remember asking Bill Russell. I asked
Speaker 2: Bill Russell, you know, how did you guys win all
Speaker 2: the all those games? Was it Rid Rbach or was
Speaker 2: it Habiletek you Sam Sam Jones or whatever it is?
Speaker 2: And he told me that we loved each other and
Speaker 2: that and that really floored me because you know, you
Speaker 2: don't think of Bill Russell when it comes to love.
Speaker 2: And he told me that they loved each other, which
Speaker 2: I took with me. You know, you know, to other
Speaker 2: teams that I that I managed.
Speaker 1: I think about Bill Russell as the greatest defensive player
Speaker 1: I ever saw, and that he used to vomit before
Speaker 1: every game and that was the keyth Oh yeah I.
Speaker 2: Didn't know that. Oh yeah, oh yeah, yeah sure. Did
Speaker 2: he vomit a private did he mess up? Yes?
Speaker 1: No, he went into the bathroom. He was in the bathroom.
Speaker 2: Okay, good good, Yeah he did, he did.
Speaker 1: But you know, you bring up, you bring up this
Speaker 1: idea that Russell shared with you about those Celtics teams,
Speaker 1: and he said, uh, you know, we all loved each other. Well,
Speaker 1: you've been a manager for so many different franchises and
Speaker 1: you won division titles with.
Speaker 2: All of them. How do you build that?
Speaker 1: You know, for parents who were coaching little league teams
Speaker 1: or travel teams, whatever they be doing. How do you
Speaker 1: build that love in a clubhouse? So they all start
Speaker 1: playing for we instead of me?
Speaker 2: Right well, and it's getting it's getting tougher to do
Speaker 2: that because of branding. You know, look at me, and
Speaker 2: you know there's more individual lies. Uh you know, notoriety
Speaker 2: now than there used to be. But you know the
Speaker 2: thing about it is is that I built it because
Speaker 2: I never had a bunch of rules. Because somebody has
Speaker 2: to enforce all these rules and my rules where don't
Speaker 2: lie to me, show up to work on time, and
Speaker 2: give me all you have. Uh, you know while you
Speaker 2: work and uh you know, you're you got the best
Speaker 2: job in America. Uh you know, if you work an
Speaker 2: eight hour day, boy, that is a long, long game.
Speaker 2: And so you're you're looking at four and a half
Speaker 2: to five hour days and you make a great living
Speaker 2: and uh, you know, appreciate where you are, Appreciate what
Speaker 2: you have and uh you know how many people in
Speaker 2: life reached their lifetime goals, you know, before they're thirty
Speaker 2: years old. So some of them are twenty five from six,
Speaker 2: twenty seven years old, and you have to maximize that
Speaker 2: because somebody is always trying to take your job from below,
Speaker 2: and somebody on your team a lot of times trying
Speaker 2: to take your job. And I asked Jim gilliam I said,
Speaker 2: I said, you know, Jim, how do you stay in
Speaker 2: the big leagues? He told me, he said, if there's
Speaker 2: a kid trying to take your job, he said, send
Speaker 2: them back to the miners. Like pee wee recent about
Speaker 2: eight guys back to the miners. And he says, if
Speaker 2: there's a guy on your team trying to take your job,
Speaker 2: he says, keep them on the bench. And I said,
Speaker 2: how you do that? He says, he says, by going
Speaker 2: out there playing and performing, you know, every day what
Speaker 2: I tried to do. Yeah, it's a valuable lesson.
Speaker 3: That's great, So Dusty, when you look at just your
Speaker 3: your career and playing managing your life. Obviously the book
Speaker 3: that that's out, Now, what was the purpose or what
Speaker 3: is your what is your passion? A reason behind wanting
Speaker 3: to come out with a memoir?
Speaker 2: Well number one, everybody been asking for like forty years.
Speaker 2: And when I was on the doors, I'm serious and
Speaker 2: I promised, I promised a guy that I would write it,
Speaker 2: you know, with him Lyles, Spencer and h And when
Speaker 2: I was ready to write it, you know, I had
Speaker 2: to make sure that I was out of the game
Speaker 2: because you know, you'll get black ball, and in baseball
Speaker 2: it happens. And you know a lot of times baseball
Speaker 2: doesn't when the negative things said or negative comments or
Speaker 2: like everything is in the utopia situation and it's really not,
Speaker 2: you know, because it's a microcosm of the world. And
Speaker 2: I just thought about some of the things that I've
Speaker 2: been through, some of the things my family, my brother,
Speaker 2: black people, white people that we've all been through that
Speaker 2: sometimes needs to be said and and and you know,
Speaker 2: I declare my heart and my mind as well. And
Speaker 2: you know, we all have certain problems. And a lot
Speaker 2: of times people think that here a professional play, everything's
Speaker 2: just beautiful all the time. But you know, we got
Speaker 2: the same problems that everybody else has. It's just said,
Speaker 2: you have to deal with it and go perform on
Speaker 2: a daily basis, and hopefully this to help, you know,
Speaker 2: some people that are that are struggling. And a lot
Speaker 2: of times I talk to people and they feel hopeless.
Speaker 2: And you know, above all, you got to give you
Speaker 2: got to give people some hope and hopefully is to
Speaker 2: give people some hope.
Speaker 1: This is the book that Justin just referred to. It's
Speaker 1: called Crossroads. It's a memoir. It's about three hundred pages long.
Speaker 1: I know Dusty spent about two and a half years
Speaker 1: writing it, and again I strongly encourage people to go
Speaker 1: out there and get it. Dusty, what what was the
Speaker 1: what was the most difficult chapter to write about in
Speaker 1: the book.
Speaker 2: Well, the most difficult thing, period was to have to uh,
Speaker 2: you know, relive some of the things that I had
Speaker 2: suppressed in my life, you know, to you know, to
Speaker 2: have to relive uh you know, my departure in LA,
Speaker 2: to relive my divorce, to relive uh you know, like
Speaker 2: like how I had the and the I R S.
Speaker 2: That was probably the most you know, difficult chapter. You know,
Speaker 2: some of it I brought on myself, and some of
Speaker 2: it you know, was forced upon me. But you know
Speaker 2: there are times when I I kind of wanted to quit,
Speaker 2: not kind of I wanted to quit and I wanted
Speaker 2: to quit life period. And I remember, I mean, it
Speaker 2: was so vivid to me talking to Pete Rose on
Speaker 2: first base because Pete he was in Milville's forty four
Speaker 2: game Hidden Street and he his dad died, he was
Speaker 2: getting divorced, and I asked him, I said, Pete, how
Speaker 2: are you doing this? And I'll always I'll never forget.
Speaker 2: He said, Dusty, you have to use the ballpark as
Speaker 2: a sanctuary away from your problems, because when you get
Speaker 2: back home from the ballpark, the same problems are there
Speaker 2: that you left. And so, yeah, you know, to me,
Speaker 2: the ballpark was a you know, it was a sanctuary,
Speaker 2: you know, for me. And I learned that from Pete Rose.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think I Justin, I know, we've got a
Speaker 1: couple more questions here from our group, but you know,
Speaker 1: and Justin works with a bunch of recruits, he works
Speaker 1: with young kids. He's an advisor, Dusty, I think, and
Speaker 1: having covered the sport for so long, we do tend
Speaker 1: to lose sight of the fact that the managers, the coaches,
Speaker 1: the players are real people too. And I think this
Speaker 1: book a great job kind of letting people see behind
Speaker 1: the curtain.
Speaker 3: All right, Justin, Yeah, absolutely, let's get to this question. So, Dusty,
Speaker 3: this is awesome.
Speaker 2: Thank you.
Speaker 3: Are you able to walk through the two thousand and
Speaker 3: three NLCS Game six Steve Bartman, this is a conversation
Speaker 3: you've had a thousand times Dusty or more. But right,
Speaker 3: let's uh, yeah, I'd love to hear your thoughts on that.
Speaker 2: Well, that wasn't one of the top five worst worst
Speaker 2: things that happened on the baseball field to me. I mean,
Speaker 2: you know, we had an opportunity, you know, to win
Speaker 2: that game, you know, opportunity to turned over play, opportunity
Speaker 2: to base the loaded who had and you know a
Speaker 2: number of our opportunities they kind of took it. You know.
Speaker 2: The Bartman thing didn't help. And I felt sad for
Speaker 2: Bartman because here's a guy that caught the al come
Speaker 2: to the game to root his team on, that had
Speaker 2: never been there in along, that hadn't been there in
Speaker 2: a long time. And then you know, at the end
Speaker 2: of the day, I mean, this guy was the biggest
Speaker 2: goat in in in Chicago, and quite frankly, quite frankly,
Speaker 2: like man, I mean that that was a sad situation
Speaker 2: for me. I wanted to win the next year and
Speaker 2: and and I was going to invite Bartman, you know,
Speaker 2: to come right in the in the car and or
Speaker 2: take a tape parade with me and my family. And yeah,
Speaker 2: I mean that was one of my motivations. We didn't
Speaker 2: get there. You know, we got knocked out by Houston
Speaker 2: right right after that. But that was my goal and
Speaker 2: my uh purpose.
Speaker 1: You know, did you did you ever interact with him, Justine?
Speaker 1: Did you ever see him again?
Speaker 2: Nope? I never I never saw I didn't see him
Speaker 2: in the stand state of truth because see you can't
Speaker 2: see the left field foul pole from the dugout. I
Speaker 2: mean because because because the wall, and I didn't even
Speaker 2: see the play. Now the cub I mean, the Marlins
Speaker 2: had a great view of the play because they were
Speaker 2: looking right down the left field line. I'm looking down
Speaker 2: the right field line, and then I didn't see it
Speaker 2: until after the game on TV. And you know, but
Speaker 2: I could tell by Moye Says's reaction and by the
Speaker 2: way I thank him and aramis from Maris and Derek
Speaker 2: Lee are two of the most three of the most
Speaker 2: underrated players that that I haven't had. Those guys and
Speaker 2: Ellis Birds, I mean, those guys are so yeah, mendus
Speaker 2: mendus players.
Speaker 1: We grew up with Elie Bergs in Boston. Here's here's
Speaker 1: a question that comes from Cooper Benjamin Dusty and I'll
Speaker 1: kind of shorten it up a little bit, but he
Speaker 1: says that he had an uncle who told him the
Speaker 1: story that in two thousand and two in San Francisco,
Speaker 1: Rob Nen had blown a few saves. After the game,
Speaker 1: you and then went out to be on the ballpark
Speaker 1: and just started fishing, and you hooked a monster thirty
Speaker 1: pound fish, and the entire time you two were fighting
Speaker 1: the fish, and he didn't blow another save after that
Speaker 1: because you said, this is how I want you to fight.
Speaker 1: Just as a caveat. I'll say this as the host
Speaker 1: of Baseball Tonight. Every single night, it felt like when
Speaker 1: Rob Nen came into the game and we had to
Speaker 1: stay until the game was over. Poor Rob Nen would
Speaker 1: occasionally blow a game. Is the fish story truth?
Speaker 2: I don't remember. I did take all the guys fishing
Speaker 2: Tato too, because you know, we'd fished right behind the ballpark.
Speaker 2: That's what I said. Yeah, that's true. But Rob Nenn
Speaker 2: was one of the best guys, I mean closes I had.
Speaker 2: I mean, uh, rob Nen, I don't think, well, if
Speaker 2: he blew a safe, I think it was always Levana
Speaker 2: Hernandez and it was never Curt Reader. And that's why
Speaker 2: maybe they're maybe that's why they're best friends. Like, right now,
Speaker 2: that's funny, that's really funny.
Speaker 1: So so you do you know, look, in games, you
Speaker 1: deal with disappointments.
Speaker 2: We got that.
Speaker 1: You sort of talked about that when you when you
Speaker 1: have play players who are at the height of their
Speaker 1: you know, sort of their game. Like I'll take Barry
Speaker 1: for example, Barry failed to Kerry Wood and Mark Pryor failed,
Speaker 1: Bryce Harper failed. Is it different when the stars fail?
Speaker 1: Or is it just like everybody else? And how you
Speaker 1: handle it because a lot of the parents here have
Speaker 1: kids that are the stars and maybe they have a
Speaker 1: harder time dealing with failure.
Speaker 2: Well, you know something, baseball, as long as you played baseball,
Speaker 2: you're going to fail. Trust me, I fail. I saw
Speaker 2: Hank Aaron fail, William May failed. They just don't fail
Speaker 2: as often as everybody else, but they do fail, and
Speaker 2: and and and you have to have a strong mind
Speaker 2: and will to deal with failure and and and Baseball
Speaker 2: is as much like life as anything because it's not
Speaker 2: always up and up. Sometime you're down and then you
Speaker 2: got to kick yourself. You got to pick yourself right
Speaker 2: back up. And see, there are times in baseball and
Speaker 2: I can remember I was the hero on Monday, and
Speaker 2: I was a goat. I blew the game on Tuesday.
Speaker 2: And so that's why they always told us what I
Speaker 2: was coming up. You don't get too high when it's
Speaker 2: going good, and you don't get too low when it's
Speaker 2: going badly, because see, this game will humble you on
Speaker 2: a daily basis, and so you have to try to
Speaker 2: try to be It's hard. You got to try to
Speaker 2: be as even keeled as possible. Yeah, I like that, Dusty.
Speaker 3: I want to go to another question one of our
Speaker 3: team members, So from Coleman Foley, what did you learn
Speaker 3: from your favorite coaches that you then used in your
Speaker 3: coaching career.
Speaker 2: Good question, Well, that's a really good question. The coaches
Speaker 2: that I really remember from from high school mister McCullough,
Speaker 2: Spider Jorgenson, which I had in American Legion, Jim gilly
Speaker 2: and Clint Courtney, shoot all all the great coach that
Speaker 2: I had pressing gold Man as Jim Gilliam is that
Speaker 2: they all would would recognize is like like differences in
Speaker 2: your personality and therefore they could tell you know which
Speaker 2: button to push or something was wrong with you. You know,
Speaker 2: if you're a guy that talked a lot, and all
Speaker 2: of a sudden you're quiet, or if you're a guy
Speaker 2: that was quiet and all of a sudden talks a lot,
Speaker 2: something's going on, and something's going and they all recognize
Speaker 2: that that when something's going on off the field, because
Speaker 2: see the off the field men, the concentration that you
Speaker 2: need to play baseball is so exact and different between
Speaker 2: a file ball pop up and a homer, And if
Speaker 2: your concentrations off just a little bit, then then it's
Speaker 2: gonna tell in your performance.
Speaker 1: So is that something that parents can learn is that
Speaker 1: when did you recognize your ability to kind of read
Speaker 1: the room? Like Carl's not feeling good today, but he
Speaker 1: seems okay. But I when did you recognizing you sort
Speaker 1: of had that skill? Did you develop it? And then
Speaker 1: how did you use it?
Speaker 2: Well? Actually I didn't know I had it, but my
Speaker 2: high school coach, my basketball coach, and noticed that that
Speaker 2: something was wrong with me because I came home one
Speaker 2: day and my mom and dad and were no longer married.
Speaker 2: From that day forward, I never saw him argue you
Speaker 2: never saw anything. Now, all of a sudden, me being
Speaker 2: the oldest of five, I was a man at the
Speaker 2: house and I'm I'm blowing layups and I'm missing free throws.
Speaker 2: And that's when that's when my high school coach he
Speaker 2: told me said, Dusty's wrong. And I'm like, oh, nothing, man,
Speaker 2: Everything's cool. And then I couldn't wait for him to
Speaker 2: keep priding and asking me because I trusted him and
Speaker 2: and you know, he's the one that taught me. Then
Speaker 2: Jim Gilliam, you know, later on when I was having
Speaker 2: troubles in my marriage, he could see it. And the
Speaker 2: good ones, you know, you know, they noticed the personality changes,
Speaker 2: but they don't pry. They kind of wait for you,
Speaker 2: you to to to kind of give them opening to
Speaker 2: you know, to talk, you know, talk to you. M
Speaker 2: I like that.
Speaker 3: So going back to the managing days, Dusty, one of
Speaker 3: the things I think is lost in today's game a
Speaker 3: little bit is the understanding of how important a manager's
Speaker 3: feel is within a game. Right We're in this analytical era,
Speaker 3: which is which is great, but the feel of a manager,
Speaker 3: that experience and knowing the players and understanding what they're
Speaker 3: good at in the in the right move at the
Speaker 3: right time. Tell me about your experience and that as
Speaker 3: a manager after after being a player, and how you
Speaker 3: learned learned how to gain that feel in a game
Speaker 3: and make the right moves at the right time based
Speaker 3: on some of that feel.
Speaker 2: Well, sometimes you know, yeah right, I don't know if
Speaker 2: you've made the You don't know if you're reading the
Speaker 2: right move or not until later. And sometimes you can
Speaker 2: make the right move, all the right moves, and if
Speaker 2: the players don't perform or come through, then then it
Speaker 2: appears to be the wrong move. Or sometimes you can
Speaker 2: make the wrong move and the player you know, bails
Speaker 2: you out. I actually learned that in the Marines because
Speaker 2: my last day at boot camp, I had a UH
Speaker 2: drill started named Sergeant Goolsby, and this guy big brother,
Speaker 2: he filled out his fatigues man and I didn't think
Speaker 2: he liked me, So I didn't think he liked me.
Speaker 2: And uh, I was in advanced mode of transport and
Speaker 2: I did six months and then UH, you know, five
Speaker 2: and a half years UH in the reserves. And he
Speaker 2: told me that if my unit get called up, he
Speaker 2: said us, you have to listen to the the the
Speaker 2: second lieutenant that studied war strategy and whatever academy went to.
Speaker 2: But if you want to get home, he says, you
Speaker 2: listen and hang around that second. I mean that that
Speaker 2: staff sergeant who's two tour of Vietnam and he will
Speaker 2: get you home. You know, he knows where the uh
Speaker 2: uh uh booby traps are, you know where snipers should
Speaker 2: be and so uh you know that taught me right
Speaker 2: then about about the field and experience and and and
Speaker 2: I've had the bad reputation like, well, Dustry don't like
Speaker 2: saber mentions. Well that's a that's a lie. You know.
Speaker 2: It's like, dude, I like to use both. You know,
Speaker 2: I like these my feelings and I used math. I
Speaker 2: mean ever since I ever since I played baseball. When
Speaker 2: I was playing in high school, I had a wrist
Speaker 2: band and I had like everything that I did. Say,
Speaker 2: if I went one for four, my average would go
Speaker 2: down this and that, and if I was one for
Speaker 2: three and I had it all figured out, Yeah, I
Speaker 2: had it all figured out before the game. So you know,
Speaker 2: like I like, I like, I like both the combination
Speaker 2: of the two. Uh. You know, to me, it's a
Speaker 2: way to go love es.
Speaker 1: And I know, I know you've seen Dusty and having
Speaker 1: worked with Dusty and covered Dusty for years, Dusty never
Speaker 1: was caught without having risk on I mean Dusty dressed
Speaker 1: for the game when he was managing. So you know, Dusty,
Speaker 1: why did you do that? Like you did you want
Speaker 1: to still feel like a player? Have players relate to you?
Speaker 2: What what led to that? You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: I've been asked that. Man, I didn't feel like a player.
Speaker 2: I knew what I was, okay to me, it was
Speaker 2: just it was part of the uniform. Like ever since
Speaker 2: I played, I always had always had wristbands. I had
Speaker 2: little skinny arms, and I had one little skinny wristband.
Speaker 2: Then I went to the double wristband. And then because
Speaker 2: I like to tell people that, hey, man, late in
Speaker 2: the game, basis load, it gets hot and dug out
Speaker 2: and you gotta wipe your brow and part of us,
Speaker 2: part of you know, part of us, a little bit
Speaker 2: of supicision. I remember one time, Billy Williams, I had
Speaker 2: like eight different combination of colors. Right, I forget what
Speaker 2: team I was on, and we were going in Chicago
Speaker 2: and Billy Williams he said, He's called me Johnny Bee
Speaker 2: because our birthdays on the same days. So I was
Speaker 2: close to Billy. He said, Johnny b I've been watching you, man,
Speaker 2: he says, you about to run out of color combinations,
Speaker 2: aren't you? And I says, and I was too, because
Speaker 2: we had lost like seven eight in a row, and
Speaker 2: so I was like, dang. I was like, I was like,
Speaker 2: maybe Billy's maybe Billy's gone to me, you know what
Speaker 2: I mean? And he was so but I didn't admit it,
Speaker 2: but he was right all the way. He was onto it.
Speaker 2: That's great, that's great.
Speaker 3: I want to get to this question, Mitch Larson asked here.
Speaker 3: It's a great one. So where's the toothpick? Dusty?
Speaker 2: You ask?
Speaker 3: You want to make sure you want to know where
Speaker 3: your toothpick is? Then he goes onto the streets. Now,
Speaker 3: how important is conditioning like running poles or sprints for pictures?
Speaker 3: And how different is a recovery routine for pictures now
Speaker 3: versus ten years ago? Good question, Mitch.
Speaker 2: That's that is great. Now. Number one, I started the
Speaker 2: toothpicks because I was dipping tobacco and my dentili Gens
Speaker 2: told me that if you don't stop, you know, you
Speaker 2: either get cancer, which I already had, or you'd ever
Speaker 2: seeding gums, and so U I stopped. But the only
Speaker 2: thing is like, no, but the ninth inning bases loaded
Speaker 2: two outs. I ended up having both. You know what
Speaker 2: I mean, he kicks at it. But but you know
Speaker 2: something about the question. See, when I was in LA,
Speaker 2: we didn't have any any arm problems. We had Sutton,
Speaker 2: we had uh, Jerry Royce, we had Tommy John, Dave Stewart,
Speaker 2: Bobby well Sutcliffe, all these guys. I'd be coming in
Speaker 2: the Dodger Stadium and they would be running out and
Speaker 2: they would go up around the police academy. They'd run
Speaker 2: for about an hour and then and then we'd go
Speaker 2: off for batting practice and they'd just be coming into
Speaker 2: the uh, you know, Dodger Stadium on the field. And
Speaker 2: then one day I was first and Jenkins got traded
Speaker 2: to the Texas Rangers, and we're I was with LA
Speaker 2: and we were playing and Pompino Beach and then the
Speaker 2: pictures used to run line the line poles or do
Speaker 2: pickups and stuff. So ferguson Jenkins he ran for five
Speaker 2: innings line the line, So I said, Fergy's through. And
Speaker 2: then he took a glass of water and ran four
Speaker 2: more innings. So I asked him, I said, Fergie, what
Speaker 2: are you doing all this running for? And he said, Dusty,
Speaker 2: why do you think I won twenty games four or
Speaker 2: five years in a row and pitched three hundred innings
Speaker 2: four or five years in a row because he ran.
Speaker 2: And I believe, especially with the pitchers like Johnny Quaito
Speaker 2: listened to me and I told Johnny, this is a rookie.
Speaker 2: And I said, and he started running the you know,
Speaker 2: the stands, and I like to see pictures, you know,
Speaker 2: start running again. Yeah, I can tell you this.
Speaker 1: There's a guy that hated the Celtics before games. Larry
Speaker 1: Bird would run up and down the stairs inside the
Speaker 1: Boston Gardens. The great ones seemed to have an understanding
Speaker 1: that it takes things like that, Dusty, I think it's
Speaker 1: important to pick.
Speaker 2: Yeah, hey, carl, let me tell you Larry Bird story
Speaker 2: right quick. Now. See we were in Saint Louis, and
Speaker 2: so every time we go someplace, then they would use
Speaker 2: the Dodgers as a recruiting trip to try to convince
Speaker 2: a kid to come, like, uh, Pittsburgh. It was Barbie
Speaker 2: Majors had had Dan Marino come in. Then you go
Speaker 2: to San Diego. Yeah, and so they had Michael Ka.
Speaker 2: So here's Larry Bird. Tommy John brings in Larry Bird,
Speaker 2: So I said, who is this dude? He played on
Speaker 2: basketball time ago. Man, He's the baddest dude. So my
Speaker 2: brother played against them at Indiana State. He went to
Speaker 2: up and he got on the phone and told me
Speaker 2: that this is the baddest dude that he ever saw.
Speaker 2: So I really started watching Larry Bird after that. And
Speaker 2: and and he was one of the baddest dudes they
Speaker 2: ever played basketball.
Speaker 1: He wasn't afraid of it. He wasn't afraid of chirp
Speaker 1: about it either to anybody.
Speaker 2: He was good doing that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think it's important, Dusty. We got a question
Speaker 1: here from Mark and then I think we really should
Speaker 1: get into the relationship you had with Hank Aaron. But
Speaker 1: Mark's question is, Dusty, what was the most difficult moment
Speaker 1: during your twenty twenty two run to win a ring
Speaker 1: with the Astros?
Speaker 2: Hmm, most difficult moment was, well, my most difficult moment
Speaker 2: was was trying to convince the upstairs people that that
Speaker 2: my lineup was was correct and in the book. And yeah,
Speaker 2: I mean that was my most difficult moment. I was say, hey,
Speaker 2: this might be my last chance, and I remember what
Speaker 2: Hank Aaron told me, and I had kind of listened
Speaker 2: to some people before in the past, and I was like, no,
Speaker 2: I'm gonna listen. I'm gonna listen to myself and listen
Speaker 2: to my heart. Yep.
Speaker 1: You know what they say, Dusty, the only thing more
Speaker 1: dangerous than somebody with a lot to gain is somebody
Speaker 1: with nothing to lose. And there you were saying, I'm
Speaker 1: at the end, I'm doing it my way.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right. Well, and then it made me the
Speaker 2: wayside had done it my way like before that, because
Speaker 2: I might have had like three or four more.
Speaker 1: You know, that's just so beautiful. That's good, Dusty. We
Speaker 1: kind of go around and we ask people like kitchen
Speaker 1: sink questions. So this is a little bit kind of
Speaker 1: a little out of the ordinary. But before we get
Speaker 1: to the kitchen sink, tell the people and tell all
Speaker 1: of us sort of the dynamic that you had with
Speaker 1: Hank Aaron. Maybe stuff that people don't know about or
Speaker 1: maybe can't read about, but I mean, I know how
Speaker 1: critical he was in your development and in your life.
Speaker 2: True. Well, you know, he promised my mother that he
Speaker 2: would take care of me as if I was his son.
Speaker 2: And also it was Ralph guard myself. We went to
Speaker 2: Hank's home. We were in Hank's room every day on
Speaker 2: the road. You know, if we had any problems, you know,
Speaker 2: Hank was who we went to. And you know, Hank
Speaker 2: always had an answer, and he had to answer for
Speaker 2: everybody on our team. And the time that we were
Speaker 2: lost was when when he broke the record seventy four
Speaker 2: and then seventy five. We were all by ourself without Hank, Ralph,
Speaker 2: Marty Perell's, you know, Darryl Evans, all of us were lost.
Speaker 2: And you know, like Hank was not only our leader,
Speaker 2: but he was the best citizen at the same time.
Speaker 2: And a lot of times, you know, your best ball
Speaker 2: player isn't necessarily your best citizen or leader. A lot
Speaker 2: of times it's your secondary players that are that are
Speaker 2: the primary, you know, leaders on your team. But the
Speaker 2: thing that people don't know is how much Hank liked
Speaker 2: to laugh. And you know, he'd make me and Ralph Nick,
Speaker 2: make me and Ralph sit by him on the plane,
Speaker 2: and you know, I mean he would like grab us
Speaker 2: by our wrists and make sure we didn't leave it
Speaker 2: in one time. We'd always go to Hank's room, so
Speaker 2: Eddie Matthews would always check me in Ralph Guard's room
Speaker 2: and he's like, Eddie's like, are you guys in here?
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, Eddie, we're going to sleep. He says, okay.
Speaker 2: So now we wait about thirty minutes and we go
Speaker 2: to Hank's room and we sit down there and talk
Speaker 2: and talk to Hank. And then one time Eddie comes
Speaker 2: down there and he wants to talk to Hank because
Speaker 2: he says he went back by our room and he goes, man,
Speaker 2: those two little he used to call us little bastards.
Speaker 2: Where those two little bastards at? And he goes, man,
Speaker 2: they slipped out of the hotel. Well, we're in Hank's closet. Now,
Speaker 2: Now Eddie wants to talk to Hank. Yeah, I think
Speaker 2: did he have anything to drink.
Speaker 5: That Eddie wants to drink? So me and Ralph we
Speaker 5: were in there in that closet about two hours. We're
Speaker 5: finding sleep in the closet.
Speaker 1: That is that's fantastic. That is such a good So
Speaker 1: did you you slept in the closet.
Speaker 4: Yeah, until Eddie left, you know, were but but but
Speaker 4: but Hay's closet was was was as big as me
Speaker 4: and Ralph's room.
Speaker 2: Room.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm sure right there are worse closets to have
Speaker 1: to fall asleep in. All right, here's kitchen sink. You
Speaker 1: managed thousands of players, Hall of famers, some of the
Speaker 1: flameouts too. With which player left the most indelible impression
Speaker 1: on you?
Speaker 2: Which player? Hm? Boy? Uh, probably probably William McGhee will Why? Yeah, Well,
Speaker 2: because WILLI was h constant team player, and Willie was
Speaker 2: the same every day. And uh and uh, and he's
Speaker 2: very unselfish. And then and Willie and he was very
Speaker 2: you know, very humble. Yeah, internally he was, he was
Speaker 2: very confident, but externally he's Externally he's very humble.
Speaker 1: Okay, Uh, you've kind of given this one away, I think.
Speaker 1: But you're a lover of basketball. Who was the best
Speaker 1: player you ever saw play? And what was it about
Speaker 1: his or her game that you liked the most?
Speaker 2: Well, the best the best player I've seen play is
Speaker 2: uh doctor J. Okay. I mean I loved the Algebata,
Speaker 2: but I fell in love with doctor J. You know
Speaker 2: when he was in the A B A. Because I
Speaker 2: watched all them dudes. Man, you know Laverne Tard, I
Speaker 2: played I played uh Downtown, I'm Freddie Brown. I played
Speaker 2: high school basketball. You know, with Doctor Dunk, Darnel Hellman
Speaker 2: who played with George McGinnis, and uh, you know, I'm
Speaker 2: a basketball man, and that A b A. You know, Oh,
Speaker 2: the A B A had some bad dudes, and the
Speaker 2: Dan Issel and Charlie Scott, I mean, you name him,
Speaker 2: and they had him, you know, big George McGinnis. I
Speaker 2: just loved watching a BA basketball Elvin Hayes from the corner.
Speaker 2: And I'm sure the big.
Speaker 1: When you saw when you saw doctor J grab Larry
Speaker 1: Bird by the throat and Bird grabbed J by the throat,
Speaker 1: I'm sure you were saying, choke him out, choke him
Speaker 1: out right now.
Speaker 2: But see, but I don't remember that. Oh yeah, you
Speaker 2: don't remember that. Oh they choked. They had that in
Speaker 2: the playoffs. They were choking each other. Okay, So who
Speaker 2: choked out? Who tapped out? Anybody?
Speaker 1: I think Daryl Garritson gotten away and broke him up.
Speaker 1: JC O'Donnell. I have no idea commissioner for a day
Speaker 1: baseball one rule would you either put in or take out?
Speaker 2: I put in a margin around the automatic strike zone
Speaker 2: because I put a margin about at least an inch
Speaker 2: all the way around, because nobody has that kind of
Speaker 2: eye except the machine, and not the umpire, not the batter,
Speaker 2: not the pitcher, not the catcher. Nobody has that kind
Speaker 2: of eye. Because when I go to these the games
Speaker 2: and this hits like one hundredth of an inch, and oh,
Speaker 2: the only guy that I remember they had that kind
Speaker 2: of eye was he called him God. He was an umpire.
Speaker 2: I can see him now and I would ask him,
Speaker 2: I said, Man, I say, Doug Harvey. And as I'd
Speaker 2: ask Doug, I said, Doug, where was that pitch? He says, Son,
Speaker 2: it hit the front corner of the black And I
Speaker 2: was like, I couldn't argue that that's why.
Speaker 1: God, Yeah, last one on the kitchen sink, Dusty. So
Speaker 1: in the book, you know, you're you're You've got Hendrix,
Speaker 1: Jimmy Hendrix, You've got Barack Obama, you got all these
Speaker 1: players and managers, you got friends, you got your as
Speaker 1: you said, your boys.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 1: You know, if you had to spend the last sort
Speaker 1: of supper with one of them, or somebody that you
Speaker 1: haven't yet met, like, who would.
Speaker 2: That be for you?
Speaker 1: Because it seems like you've met everybody almost.
Speaker 2: I'd probably like to spend it with, uh, because all
Speaker 2: those people I already spent it with I probably like
Speaker 2: spinding with Marcus Garvey, I think, hmm okay, why yeah, uh, well,
Speaker 2: because you know, he was like he failed a couple
Speaker 2: of businesses. You know, he was you know, first shipping
Speaker 2: line to try to get Africa to the US or
Speaker 2: to the Caribbean. You know, uh, you know, he's one
Speaker 2: of my mom's heroes. And he went on through Latin America,
Speaker 2: South America.
Speaker 3: And.
Speaker 2: I had the fortune I was fortunate to meet his son,
Speaker 2: who's like, I think eighty five nine years old, Marcus
Speaker 2: Garvey Junior. And uh, you know, and and see my
Speaker 2: mom being a black history teacher, black history teacher, you know,
Speaker 2: we always had books around and uh, you know, Marcus
Speaker 2: Garby is one of my mom's favorite people. Thank you.
Speaker 2: That's a great Thanks for sharing that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's great, Dusty. As we kind of finish off here,
Speaker 3: one thing we ask everybody is your MVP. Who's your
Speaker 3: most valuable person in your life growing up, whether it's
Speaker 3: baseball or away from the game.
Speaker 2: Who is that for you? My dad? Yeah, that was
Speaker 2: my dad.
Speaker 3: That's simple. Yeah, that's awesome, man. What what kind of
Speaker 3: impact did he have on you? Dusty? What was the
Speaker 3: long lasting impact that he made on your life.
Speaker 2: Well, you know, I mean my dad, You know he
Speaker 2: was He was honest. He was firm but fair. You
Speaker 2: know if if fight, I mean my dad was firm now.
Speaker 2: But my dad was a lot cooler than I gave
Speaker 2: him credit for it because he didn't bust me on
Speaker 2: every time he could have busted me. And then and
Speaker 2: then he kind of let it pile up sometime and
Speaker 2: then say, okay, boy, you think you're getting away with it.
Speaker 2: The last week he did this, last month, he did this.
Speaker 2: Eight months ago, you did this, and then a year
Speaker 2: ago you did that. He knew I was getting a wing.
Speaker 2: I thought I was getting away with something.
Speaker 1: Jeez, I thought that. I thought that was your dad
Speaker 1: called from the other side. As soon as you said Dad,
Speaker 1: the phone rings and he's calling Dusty right now.
Speaker 2: He knows hey, but no, But you know something, I
Speaker 2: was in the in the World Series and I was
Speaker 2: I was at a crossroads. I didn't know what to do.
Speaker 2: Sometime in the game. You're not sure, so I said, Dad,
Speaker 2: smile on me if you want me to go get
Speaker 2: this picture. And actually it was it was grinky. When
Speaker 2: they had the bases loaded that one time, yep, And
Speaker 2: I was like and I was like, Dad, Everybody's like,
Speaker 2: why'd you leave him out there? And I couldn't tell
Speaker 2: everybody because my dad smiled on me, because they would
Speaker 2: have like, come on your dad's past already. But but
Speaker 2: if my dad showed no emotion at all, that meant
Speaker 2: that he didn't like what you were about to do
Speaker 2: or like what you were doing. But if my dad
Speaker 2: just had a smile on his face, boom, then there
Speaker 2: was one. Come all of these. I told you, I
Speaker 2: told you he was a cool He was the coolest
Speaker 2: man on the earth. Here you go. The book is Crossroads.
Speaker 2: Please go get it.
Speaker 1: It's Dusty Baker's memoirs. Dusty, we could talk to you
Speaker 1: for about six weeks, and we're gratefully you spend some
Speaker 1: time with us tonight.
Speaker 2: Really, we are really grateful. Thank you very much. Yeah,
Speaker 2: thank you you guys. It's been great. Thank you man, see,
Speaker 2: thank you very much.
Speaker 1: And certainly I want to thank all of the people
Speaker 1: to justin that asked the questions of Dusty. They were phenomenal.
Speaker 1: And we invite everybody to come and join us and
Speaker 1: be a teammate. We call it the Parent Dugout, and
Speaker 1: it's got so many different aspects to it. We think
Speaker 1: that's going to make you and you are a child,
Speaker 1: have the best journey they can. You get the Dirt
Speaker 1: from the Dugout, which is the live show Baseball recruiting.
Speaker 1: Confidential access to the best college coaches, learn about the
Speaker 1: recruiting process from not only them, but from Justin who
Speaker 1: knows it as well as anybody. Ask Justin and I
Speaker 1: anything you want, we'll get back to you. The clubhouse
Speaker 1: conversations bring parents together on their and you can learn
Speaker 1: from the entire community. We really are grateful to all
Speaker 1: of you. We continue to grow our team and we
Speaker 1: look forward to continuing with Dirt from the Dugout and
Speaker 1: all the other parts of the Parent Dugout. Justin, thanks man,
Speaker 1: it's been great. We'll see you next week.
Speaker 2: See Buddy,