It's great to be at Dodger Stadium. It's even better to be at Dodger
Stadium with one of the greatest shortstops of his generation and maybe right up there
in the top ten of all time, two time batting champion, a former
Dodger now the best looking guy on that set at Sportsnet LA the star himself,
No mar Garciapara, no ma, thanks a lot for the time you
got maybe partial right now, I don't think I'm the best looking guy on
this set. Maybe a second. We do have John Hartung go forget that
too, so, but the other guy that's next to me, absolutely who's
the guy next to you? I don't want to mention anyames, but you
know what I'm talking about, Nomar. You have such a great perspective on
the position of shortstop. You played it your entire life. You know how
demanding it is. You played it at the top better than a lot of
guys. What are you saying so far from Mookie Bets. Listen, Mookie
Bets is doing a fine job over there as shortstop. I know he's so
hard of himself. He has such high expectations of himself. At the same
time, you know, having those high expectations great, because that's what makes
you to continue to work and try to get better rather than then just be
complacent. And we know one thing Mooki is not is complacent, that is
for sure. But like I said, he's getting the job done. He's
doing a fine job. There's things that he may have some miscues, but
that's just due to experience, but it has nothing to do with the talent
or nor the ability to play at that position. It's when you watch him
as a former shortstop, I can't say, you know what, he's not
a short stop just trying to play the position. No, he has he
has all the movement, the mannerisms. You and I have talked before.
You've asked me about other shortstops in the past, and I said, no,
he you know, they have that look of a short stop. I've
told you that, and I've told you some guys that potentially like they're short
stop now. But I can see those guys moving later or kind of you
know, kind of either grown out of the position or just don't have the
movement to last there very long. Yeah, but Mooki has the movements,
the mannerisms and everything of a shortstop. He's not one. That's that.
I say, Well, he's just feeling in right now and doing a fine
job. I think with due time and experience, he'll learn some of the
nuances that go along with it. That's maybe some of those things where he
maybe look a little bit off, or he might have a miscue here and
there that comes with more experience rather than ability. When you look at the
way he's been able to adapt so quickly, it's been only two months,
and for him to get the praise or validation from you, what does that
say about his athletic ability? Well, we knew that. We know he's
a ridiculous athlete, right and and like I said, the more and more
you play with experience, you're no longer an athlete playing shortstop. You become
a shortstop. And that doesn't happen overnight, you know, And I think
that's where the expectation is from. So he wants to just be a shortstop.
He thinks it takes, you know, it takes years, not necessarily
just months in order to do that. You know, I know when I
moved over to first base, I knew I was a short stop playing first
base. I was in a first base and it took me a while.
I don't know if I mean it. Maybe toward the end of the year,
Rife kind of felt like, yeah, I'm a first baseman, like
you know, it took me that long. And it goes back to being
able to where things work instinctively, where I'm not overthinking it too much,
where I just let the game just kind of come and it just took time.
It wasn't anything. It wasn't for the lack of effort. It wasn't
that I you know what, It could have happened sooner if I had taken
a thousand more ground balls than what I did to try to get some.
It wasn't that. And hearing Mookie Betts talk about that the other day,
he sounds like, you can take all the ground balls, but it's just
the game. The game. It's hard to duplicate. It's hard to find
these little situations that happened over the course of a game. I know when
I was at first, there's so much footwork watching the throw. You don't
work on every single throw that comes at you because game situation is just so
different. With the adrenaline, the movement of the guys that are throwing over
there there's a lot of things that come into play, and the same things
that short game speed is different than what you try to simulate. You do
it as best you can, but just when the game happens, and also
the way the adrenaline is in you also affects. Maybe that first step,
maybe that one little read you know it's there, game of inches. It
is so much less than that. And I always said that from a hitting
perspective, but also from a fielding perspective, there are times where that first
step you get or that first read right off the bat is so vital to
your rhythm. The one thing that shortstop compared to other positions is, let's
say that first initial read I don't get if I'm at third base and I'm
able to still knock it down, but I still have time to get it
over to first base. Second base the same thing. I may miss that
read or I may be able to make up for it, and I may
be off balance, but I still have enough time to get the ball to
first base to get the out. Shortstop, it all has to be in
sync. Because you are at shortstop. As you're fielding, you're already preparing
yourself for the throw. That's the one position in the infield where, more
than anywhere else, you were already preparing yourself to throw before you even have
the ball. So it's that type of movement, that first step, that
all matters no more. It's interesting you bring that up because opposing scouts have
been here at Dodger Stadium and some of them have observed that MOOKI is thinking
about the throw before he actually gets the ball in the glove. Have you
seen that at times? I don't know if he's necessarily thinking about the throw.
I think it's more about what position I'm supposed to be in for the
throw, right, rather than Okay, I got to think about that.
There are a lot of times you're thinking, oh, he moved too quickly
because he's already trying to throw the ball, you know, or he didn't
get the glove, he lifted his glove up too soon. I don't see
that. I think he's more working on how do I want to get myself
into the position for that throw. For example, the backhand. You know,
there's a couple of ways go from the backhand. There's some that at
a certain angle depends on where it's hit, where you actually go through the
ball on the backhand where your hand is staying down and you're going through.
And then there's other times where you're where you're on your backhand where the glove
is kind of more is soft. It's where you're just kind of, you
know, catching it like an egg. You know, at an egg you
don't want to really go through it because you fail, you're gonna break it.
But there are times based on the angle and the way it's hit where
you're now your hands are supposed to be soft and kind of let it give
a little bit and then come up and get ready to throw. Those are
really hard to understand based on you know, that comes with practice, and
I think that's where we see more of his in between is trying to recognize
is this one where I'm supposed to be soft like an egg, where I'm
supposed to go through the ball with my momentum going toward first. No,
mare Garciapara is our guest. He is a wizard. I know he's not
Auzzie Smith, but he was a wizard at shortstop as well. And you
just hear the way you talk about it, Nomar. It's like driving a
car or riding up by for you or putting on your shoes. It was
second nature. It sounds like for you to play that position. Ask MOOKI.
Talk to Mooki about right field and want you to listen how second nature
it is for him right because you play it for so long. He was
an MVP, he's an All star out and right field. There's so many
nuances that you and I both know because we didn't have the experience, you
know, and now you're asking him to go do something, So you're right,
I did it for a long time. So I hope that with that
experience and you know, that instinctiveness that just came out, that I would
know it to some degree. You know. It's like, especially at this
level, the guy's up here to play it at this level, it's really
hard to do that without that knowledge. And like I said, we're asking
a lot of Mooki. But like I said, by no means is he
incapable of doing it. He can do it. Nomar is so humble and
he respects the players in their preparation. But I feel like, Nomar,
you're in your tie suit ready to go for Sports net La tonight. I
feel like I just want to drag you out there right now. And maybe
Mookie Bets can get a tutorial from one of the best. You know what,
I'm watching him take ground balls right now and work, and he already
has one of the best out there. Miguel Rojas is phenomenal. He really
is special out there, and I love watching Miguel Rojas. I love watching
him. I've always liked watching guys practice, even when I was little,
I wanted to come during background and just watched how how professional guys got themselves
prepared, how they took their ground balls, just watched their footwork, watch
what they were doing, and you know those little things that we were just
talking about earlier. From the shortstop position. Miguel Rojas, he knows all
those little nuances. He knows all maybe the little tricks he sees things.
Dino Ebo is another one. You talk to Dino man. I love talking
to him about infield and watching him work with the infielders and what they do,
the little, you know, subtleties that can put your body in the
right position that you may not be recognizing or doing it. It's like a
good hitting coach is supposed to do, maybe recognizing that your hands are down
an inch or you know, the batpath isn't going right because you know that
could be that front foot that is important in the right way, and it's
messing with your hips. These guys are great, so he actually has some
of the two best. They're helping him out, all right, Nomar,
thanks a lot for the time. When you played, everybody always asked you
about your family, so I got to give a shout out to your mom
and dad. How's mom and dad doing out there? And Whittier, you're
the best, Dave. I appreciate that they are doing well. I talk
to them every day. I talked to them earlier today, so it's always
good to catch up with them, and you know what they are doing great,
you know, running around watching their grandkids, you know, do all
the different activities that they're doing. So they're having a blast. Love it.
Waiting for that invite to Christmas, Nomar, it might be a wild
Dave. Thanks a lot for the time. It is truly special to hear
you talk about the position, So thank you. You got it, Dave. Anytime,