The Dodgers and Royals getting said for game two of this three game series,
and we're joined right now by Bobby widd Junior. Bobby, thanks a lot
for the time, and welcome to Los Angeles. Yes, thank you,
thank you, and happy belated birthday. I guess that was not the greatest
birthday. You guys did not get the win, but it was the first
time you played at Dodgers Stadium. Did you have a chance to take that
all in? Yeah, it was. It was pretty special. Just the
weather out here, the fans, I think there was almost fifty thousand here
last night, and just the atmosphere was great. Stadium is great. It's
just kind of there's a history here. And so even with my dad playing
playing here and I think he hit his one and only home run here,
so which is pretty special to be able to kind of play here. And
yeah, do that. Do you know who that home run was off of?
Pretty sure as ishmael Valdez. Oh yeah, mister blister. He had
a lot of blisters back in the day. Yeah, that's awesome. Were
you here when your dad hit that homer? No? No, his last
year was in two thousand and one, and I was born in two thousand,
So I can't remember what year he hit the homer, but it was
before. They might have been nineteen ninety five or something. Yeah, oh
man, you're making us all feel old. Yesterday was Bobby's twenty fourth birthday.
And I guess when you come to a stadium like this or Fenway Park
or Yankee Stadium, there's a lot of history on this field. Some players
are not able to really appreciate it. What's the balance there, Yeah,
it's something huge. You got to enjoy every moment and just take it all
in because once your career is done, once baseball is over with, the
game is going to keep going. And so really it's just to take it,
take it all in. That's even what kind of talk to Dave Roberts
a little bit just now. You just said, just take it all in,
enjoy it, go out, venture out, and just be where your
feet are. And so that's pretty much a big thing for me is just
to enjoy everything that I do because you never know when your last day is
going to be playing baseball, and once it's done, it's going to keep
going, So enjoy every moment and just have a lot of fun. Bobby,
we know where your feet were last night in the seventh inning. That
was one of the most incredible catches a that I've ever seen, and be
one of the most incredible baseball IQ plays I've ever seen. How did you
have the presence of mind to not try to make that play by yourself,
but to find your second basement. Yeah, it's just one of those reactionary
plays you just kind of just happens and then next thing you know, we
get a double play. And so yeah, I just knew that try to
make a play on the ball first to try to help help our pitchers out.
And then once that happened, I knew that if I try to make
a play towards first, someone's gonna be there. And I Loften was there
and he made a great throw and make it quick transfer and everything got the
double play, and so it was great. So it's another case of you
trusting your teammates that they would be in the right spot, no doub Yeah,
one hundred percent. And that's kind of what we're doing here. We
do our work where you try to get prepared each and every day, but
then we got to pull for each other. That's how we got to do
it and just get to the next guy. And that's our mentality, and
that's it's it's been working a lot and just got to keep getting better every
day. It feels like you're a rover. I know this is not softball,
but it feels like the Royals have three outfielders on the left side.
You get to a lot of fly balls, pop ups and shallow left field.
Yeah, it's just kind of just try to some of the stuff we
do in the offseason. Just put your body in crazy, crazy movements and
just try to get good jumps on that. And then I had a little
bit of a football background. I was a wide receiver, just going after
the football and try to catch touchdowns and so that's baby had something to do
with it. Just I just want to try to make plays on the ball.
Yeah, we saw that it looked like you were a wide receiver in
the seventh inning last night. Yeah. Yeah, just those are the fun
ones for sure. Bobby wit Junior is our guest driving in. I was
listening to Buster Only's podcast and he had JJ McCullough on, and he was
describing just the conversations you had with the team on wanting to stay long term
in Kansas City and it wasn't about you, it was about the team.
How are they going to build a winner? It feels like you guys are
taking that step this year. Yeah, definitely. That was something that was
huge that JJ and the whole front office did and the moves they made,
the veterans we brought in with the core group that we have here is a
lot of fun and we got a great team here and that is why the
reason I call this place my home now. And so it's just one of
those things where it's just got to keep getting better every day and just keep
vibing with the team and enjoy it. We know your name, we know
your dad, Cavin Bigio's now with the Dodgers. There seems to be more
players in Major League Baseball right now than ever before that had dads that played
before them. Can you put your finger on why that is? I don't
know. I just fell in love with the game at such a young age,
and I don't know if it's just because of how much passion my dad
has for the game, just because of he growing up. That's every day
we had baseball on, We're talking about baseball, whatever it was, and
so it's just it's one of those things where I just loved it ever since
I was growing up, and I wanted to follow his footsteps in a way,
and so that's definitely like a dream of mine. But then also just
didn't I was playing at every other sport too, but baseball was just where
my heart was at. Shortstop spend your life, I assume for a very
long time. Do you have an appreciation for what Mookie Betts is trying to
do? Yeah, definitely. It's it's incredible just to see his work ethic
that he does to put in the work even I got a chance, I
had the opportunity to play with him and with the WBC whenever. Yeah,
And so just the work he was putting in because he knew he wasn't gonna
be playing short for that team, but he was just still putting in the
work because he knew that there was a chance he'd be playing short last year.
And then just the work that he puts in just to become a shortstop.
And I know, I think he said on a podcast something that's one
of the most toughest things ever done. But he's I think doing a great
job. Did you feel like you grew a lot as a baseball player,
being part of that team USA team. Yeah, definitely, just being around
those guys, seeing their routine, seeing their work ethic. There are reason
why those guys are All Stars every year in the way that they handle themselves,
They take care of their body, and just it was great to pick
their brains and just be a part of that team. Hey, Bobby Witt
Junior, way to introduce yourself to Los Angeles. It was awesome to share
you with Dodger fans and you certainly are a champion of a person. So
thank you for the time. I really appreciate it. Yes, thank you,
thank you for having me