WEBVTT

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Since the Red Sox are coming to
Los Angeles Friday night, I thought it

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would be fitting to bring on Boston's
favorite son, but a man that had

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his best years of his life in
Los Angeles pitching for the Dodgers, that

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is the one and only America's pitcher, Rich Hill. Rich thanks a lot

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for coming on the show. Thanks
for having me, Dave Well, what

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introduction? Jeez you well, thank
you. You deserve it. I appreciate

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it. I have everything going,
it's going great. I mentioned to the

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fans and I reminded them about your
genius plan to spend time with your family

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the first half of the season and
then be able to decide which team you

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wanted to pitch for that is not
able to land pitching at the trade deadline.

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Have you seen your vision start to
come to fruition. Yeah, you

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know, everything that I can controls
as a player and getting ready for that

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moment when it comes around. And
certainly I've been taking care of with working

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out and throwing and you know,
getting after it in bullpens, so you

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know, the next step is really
facing some hitters here and the next actually

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next week, and then having that
advance into the next three weeks, So

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that would be really almost like the
three weeks of spring training, you know,

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as as probably a little bit more
expedited just facing hitters and getting ready.

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But everything's been, you know,
basically on track, and I've felt

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really good about where I'm at right
now. So you have been throwing bullpen

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sessions. How extensive are these bullpen
sessions? This week through a sixty five

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pitch bullpen. Yeah, it's been, you know, and then tomorrow another

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one. I'm going to go back
to back just to continue to keep building

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up and really some obviously fashion of
what spring training would consist of as well.

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But yeah, these are these are
bullpens that are you know, pretty

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intense, you know, full effort
bullpens. It's not uh, you know,

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just a white bullpen or just trying
to get my feet under me.

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So you know, the work that's
being done has been pretty aggressive. Rich

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Hill is joining us here on Dodger
Talk. All right, Richie, you

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said you're gonna start facing hitters.
Where will you go to find those hitters?

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Will you go to the Cape League, Will you go to M.

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I. T. Havid? Where
will you go to find those hitters?

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Well? Well, well we'll see
you know next week. There's been been

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a couple couple opportunities. We're you
know talking to some some some former teammates

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that are actually coaching right now teams
here and there in the Northeast. So,

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uh when that, like I said, you know, I think it's

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going to be a few days beforehand
when this this kind of decision is made

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where I'm going to go and throw
these these both ends of space hitters or

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you know, live vps. I
guess if you want to call it now,

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as far as the extent of you
know, going in and pitching somewhere,

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I think that the idea would probably
kind of be, you know,

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to get some more uh numbers and
analytics and kind of break down of pitches

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for teams to be able to see
and you know, I guess figure out

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what their what their needs are and
and and if what I'm bringing to the

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table is something that fits there,
uh fits their their wants as well.

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Are you gonna have one of these
showcase uh uh outings where we hear about

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pitchers throwing in front of like five
or six teams. Yeah, it could

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be something like that. I mean, also, you know it's gonna be

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a it's gonna be a good fit
for uh, you know myself as well.

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This isn't just you know, something
that's kind of you know, whatever

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comes across the desk, you know, you take it's it's really something that's

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gonna you know, a team that's
that's focused and concentrated and looking forward to

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winning a championship and and you know, having that focus every single day when

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they come in the clubhouse. Uh, bringing that mentality and that and that

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mindset no matter you know, where
they are in the in the standings.

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Obviously, I'm assuming it would be
a team that is in the hunt,

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which many teams are in the National
League as we look at the wild card

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at this point in the year.
Uh, you know, within four games

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going into the second half of the
year, that's a that's you know,

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it's a very tight race. So
it's a lot of buyers out there.

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And uh, you know, I
think that's that's puts myself in a good

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position. But again, you know, really uh, having that having that

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team that is committed through the roster
every single day, showing up and putting

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in the work no matter what the
outcome was the day before, is going

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to be important as well. Sounds
like you're describing the Dodgers reach. Yeah,

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I mean that would be that would
be incredible. It'ld be a great

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reunion. You know, I obviously
love the city, love wearing Dodger blue.

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You know, in my opinion,
if not the best, one of

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the best places to pitch in baseball. So that would be you know,

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that would be incredible. Knowing many
of the guys in the locker room and

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understanding that you know, that mindset
and that effort that they bring every single

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day is consistent upon you know,
with everything that we were just describing,

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is that that winning mentality, uh, you know, and staying in that

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pitch and that swing, in that
moment and that play, and understanding that

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whatever happened you know before, that
is gone and we have to focus and

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on on the here and now,
on the task at him. So yeah,

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that would be. That would be
great. You know, I think,

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uh, we'll see when that time
comes and and see what the uh

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and and the other side of it
too. With you know, the way

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the season has gone, and you've
seen it throughout baseball and with l a

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uh Dodgers in particular, that it's
it's very fluid, uh, you know,

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injuries are happening, unfortunately at a
higher rate, and uh, you

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know needs of teams are changing daily. So that's something that you know,

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again, I don't want to say
we'll play a factor, but I think

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it like within the last couple of
days of being able to uh make the

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decision. You know, things can
change quickly. Rich Hill is our guest,

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America's pitcher. You can always come
home again, and Rich Hill can

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always come home to Los Angeles.
Uh, You've had enough family time,

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Rich, I'll just be honest with
you. You've had enough family time out

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out there. It's time to come
back to sunny California. We we miss

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California, man, Uh we you
know, but uh, we've had a

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great Little League season. We're still
on a really good run right now.

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Going to uh this Williamsport team,
which has been a heck of a lot

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of fun. You know, seeing
these kids play and you know, keeping

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keeping them motivated and focused and seeing
their joy and the love for the game

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that they have is uh, I
don't know, it's just it's been it's

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been a it's been a lot of
fun to watch. So, you know,

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seeing getting to watch more of our
son play too, has been something

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that trying to really soak in.
So it's been it's been, uh been

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a joy to watch him. Have
you been throwing any gatorade? Uh?

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Tubs around if things don't go Bryce's
way? I mean, what is rich

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Hild the coach the dad? Like
at those little league games? I actually

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the kids will come in every now
and then, you know, kind of

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like a there sometimes there's an nil
deal with kleenex I think going around that

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way, but uh, you know
that's part of it. And you know,

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a few bats tossed here and there, but immediately, uh, coach

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Hill is there to uh implement the
uh you know, go and pick up

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your bats. Thank you, come
over here, let's talk about it,

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and uh you know, we move
on. That's that's part of uh part

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of baseball. That's part of growing
up, right and uh you know I

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haven't done that yet, but eventually
I will, uh in the house,

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yeah exactly, But yeah, that's
part of it, I you know,

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with the with them and going through
the ups and downs and seeing it and

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understanding, uh hey, baseball is
a frustrating game. It's not about being

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perfect, but it is about being
perfect with your effort. So you know,

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as long as the effort is perfect, that's that's that's to me,

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that's that's all that matters, and
the intent and you know, oceans come

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out as they will and you know, as they should. But you know,

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we're going to move on to the
next play. That's the biggest thing.

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I can't carry on that at bat
out into the field. You can't

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carry that at bat into the mound
or you know whatever, that pitch into

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the next pitch. So that's where
the teaching moments are and that's what that's

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what's been a lot of fun.
That sounds great, Rich, But you

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haven't lost your edge, have you. I mean, it's time. It's

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time yet. No, no,
no, it's the mountain time now.

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Yeah. If I should have videoed
the entirety of the bullpen today, yeah,

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we could have put that out there. Let people know that you have

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not gone completely suburban. You're ready
to get back in the trenches. Yeah,

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yeah, ready to get back after
it. I missed the competition.

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There's nothing like it. There's nothing
like uh, you know, facing the

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best in the world. So that's
something that uh, you know, I

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always have enjoyed and I'm looking forward
to it again. Rich Hill is our

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guest here on Dodge. You talk
rich when you look at the season and

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how it's gone for a lot of
teams, and you mentioned the pitching injuries

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this year. Do you feel like
the injuries have occurred because not the pitch

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clock, but there's a theory that
these newer, younger pitchers are trying to

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throw maximum effort in their bullpen sessions
and checking these iPads. Do you feel

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like that's part of this equation of
why there's so many pitcher injuries. Yeah,

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I think there's there's a yes,
I do. I think that is

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part of it. I also think, you know, the volume side of

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everything, because now we're going from
bullpens and you know, you're you're doing

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a heavy workload in the bullpens and
trying to chase numbers and chase velocity and

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max effort, you know, everything
that's coming out, which I think is

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unbelievable. Right when we look at
some of these numbers that are coming out

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and guys are throwing harder and you
know, spinning the ball faster, and

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but again to what, uh is
the the the risk reward? Where is

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where is the risk and where's the
reward on it? Obviously there's a high

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upside, but there's also a tremendous
downside to it, and I think that

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that's something that is is one of
the factors in it. Guys are obviously

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for for a good reason, are
bigger, faster, stronger than they've ever

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been. But I also think just
not losing the fact of the art of

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pitching and understanding how to change speeds
and you know, as fast as we

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can pitch it, you know you
can also you know, there's there's something

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to be said for being able to
be creative out there on the mound and

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and change speeds. So you know, it comes in obviously different packages pitching

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does, but it's still pitching.
It's not throwing. And you know,

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the thing about velocity. The good
thing about velocity is that it affords you

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the ability to make more mistakes.
But if if you know, you can't

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command those mistake or you can't command
the ball over the plate, you know,

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we've seen it go the other way
as well. So as I enjoy,

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you know, this increase in ability
and skill, you know, to

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what you were saying is that,
yeah, there is there is a detrimental

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downside which is unfortunate, and the
bane of the athlete, which is the

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injury. Rich Hill is our guest. Before I let you go, Rich

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I know you got a lot of
honeydew lists. Still, I mean,

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there's still a lot to do out
there in Milton, Massachusetts. I wanted

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to I wanted to ask you how
many of your trim the bushes? Yesterd

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You were wondering the plants when I
called to you the other day. I

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did the rosemary, had to take
care of the rosemary. Still haven't used

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it. See, I need Frank
the take back. I need Frank to

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take back. Let's sit and tell
once we get between those lines up and

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changes. All right, all right, I want I want to see that.

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I want to see the uh,
the intensity. I want to see

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the eye of the tiger again.
Richie, don't forget. There is no

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tomorrow. There isn't. That's right, there isn't. Do you tell you

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you can win today? Do you
tell your kid that when he goes out

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for Little League? Do you tell
him? So? We got it?

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We gotta, we gotta. We
got a big district game coming up tonight.

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We got district finals going into States. Okay, it'll be a little

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new Rockney out there. All right, maybe a little little nick saban are

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you are you giving a speech tonight. We'll see how it goes. We'll

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see how the energy and what the
flow is and everything like that. We

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had a big win last night.
We had a big win last night.

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We beat Hangam seven to one.
They had a nice team, very good

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team, very good team. Was
Peter Gammons out there watching, yep,

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had Peter, Joe was out there, dig Bradford, all the guys.

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Everybody was there. Baby. Oh
yeah, your your special Boston family out

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there. Nobody beats you. David. Yeah, don't forget it. Richie

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l A is your home. Boston's
just renting. Yeah. Yeah, but

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I yeah, I've been doing a
lot of a lot of h a lot

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of yacht work. See, this
is not something I want to put out

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there. I want the GM's a
baseball to know that you still have the

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edge. You're not just you know
the guy that waters the lawn or just

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barbecues or you know, picks up
the whiffle balls. We need we need

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rich Hill. Yeah. Well,
like I said, don't worry about that.

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That part is, uh, that
part is the batteries are charging ready

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to go? Do you need me
to Uh, do you need me to

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stand in when you face those hoved
hit us? Yeah? You want to

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fly over here, pick one in
your ear? I bet, I bet

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you would love to do that.
Ah No, I wouldn't do that.

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Maybe. All right, all right, we'll leave it right there, Richie.

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I feel like, uh, I
don't want to push your buttons too

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much and send you over the edge. I know you got to keep your

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your composure for this game tonight.
Yeah, it's a big one. I

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don't want to get tossed myself.
I got to make sure that, you

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know, keep the keep the lips
sealed, and let the umpires do their

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job, all right. Yeah?
Have you by the way, have you

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gone after the umpires in these little
league games so far? Oh? Of

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course not. They're doing their best, all right. All right, there

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was an interference call they did miss. Not exactly happy about that, all

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right, they missed that the other
night. Well take your word for it.

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Rich It's great to share you with
Dodger fans again. I know they're

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loving hearing your voice. And like
I said, Rich Hill at forty four

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years young, ready for his twentieth
season in Major League baseball, when the

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dust settles after July thirtieth, and
certainly there's a lot of teams out there

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that need rich Hill in some capacity. So hopefully you know I'm biased.

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I want you back here, but
we'll see where it goes. No,

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I hear you, and I miss
we miss l A. I miss l

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A. L A was obviously good
to myself and uh, you know,

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good to my family, which is
most important. So you know, we'll

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see where where everything falls and and
uh you know, ready for ready for

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the next, the next challenge.
Love it. Thanks Richie for the time

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and awesome again to share you with
everybody. No, thank you for having

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me on. David