WEBVTT

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Mookie Bets is no stranger to the
concrete jungles of New York. We're at

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Yankee Stadium, Dodgers here for the
first time since twenty sixteen, Mookie Bets

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and a Dodger uniform at Yankee Stadium
for the first time. I know everybody's

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excited about this series, but how
do you feel about it, knowing that

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you're in this uniform for the first
time in this stadium. I mean,

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I feel good about it. I
mean I don't think the uh. I

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think that the rivalry is still still
pretty close to the same. Obviously Red

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Sox Yankees is that's uncomparable. But
I think with both teams and both teams

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being pretty good, I think the
game, the atmosphere would be pretty similar

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to to Red Sox Yankees. What
was the reception for Mookie Bets when he

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came here as a Red Sox.
Oh, it wasn't anything good. Every

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time you stepped foot in the Yankee
Stadium is nothing good. But you know,

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it's always fun coming here. And
you know, I'm friends with a

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lot of those guys over there,
and we understand the competition and we know

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that that's what makes it fun.
Moki in the NBA. You know,

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sometimes you have guys measure themselves against
other guys, Kobe, d Wade,

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Lebron, Kobe, Magic Bird,
all that stuff. Do you ever measure

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yourself to see what Judge or Sodo
is doing or anybody else in the league.

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Nah, I can't do what those
guys do. I mean, I'm

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not. I'm five to nine,
one hundred and seventy pounds, you know,

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So it's I can't do anything at
six eight two fifty or whatever how

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much he weighs or want Soto who's
yea, what six one sixty two and

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he weighs two thirty twenty two thirty. So there's there's nothing I can do

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that they can do. Or yeah
that that that that they already do.

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So there's no sense in really trying
to compare my skill set to theirs.

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Well, I feel it's the opposite. They can't do what Mooki bets can

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do. How many players in Major
League Baseball superstars can do what you've done

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the last two years right field,
second base and now shortstop and also last

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year hit thirty nine home runs.
See, I'm looking at it the other

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way. Guys can't do what Mooki
bets can do. Yeah, I mean,

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you know, it is what it
is. I do what I can

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to help us win. Then,
you know, I was just kind of

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blessed with the skill set. And
you know, guys that are five nine

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one seven, he probably can move
around a little easier than somebody of their

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their stature. But you know what, different bodies come with different skill sets.

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I love what you said after the
game yesterday, You're feeling like you're

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twenty one or twenty two years old. Why are you feeling that way?

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Oh, I'm just obviously eating really
good, making sure the engine is going,

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and then just my workouts and just
taking extra time to take care of

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my body, you know. And
as you get a little older, there's

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things that you got to do that
to make sure you can keep going,

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you know. And I just had
a lot of experience seeing people, seeing

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some do it the right way,
see some and some some do it.

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I wouldn't say not the right way, but a different way. And so

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I just have some experience with seeing
things, and so I'm just trying to

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h to make sure I take care
of myself. It comes to a certain

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stage of everybody's life right where you
you can't just eat McDonald's every day.

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Yeah, that's exactly what it is. You can't can can't be eating something

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like now, I don't. I
try not to eat after like twelve o'clock.

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You know, it's hard. It's
hard, you know, because you

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know we're getting home at eleven o'clock
and whatnot, and I just try to

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eat light mills that late. You
know. It's weird. You know when

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you're when you're young, you can
just eat the two or three in the

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morning and nothing right. But if
I do that now, I'm screwed for

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us today. So I gotta like
you gotta roll with the changes, Mookie.

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I've enjoyed your podcasts going back to
last year. And I think you

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told me that when you interviewed Aaron
Judge last year that was really the first

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time you've ever had an extended conversation
with him. What did you find out

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about him during that interview that you
were surprised about or you have more appreciation

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for nothing? Really? I mean, I think you know we've had that

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was probably the longest sit down we've
actually had to have but gotten to have.

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But you know, playing against him
here and then a couple of All

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Star Games you know, being on
the same side, We've had some good

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conversations, and that's probably nothing new
that I really got to learn. I

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mean, you know, we all
know who he is, and he's he's

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a pretty open book about himself,
and so I just know he's an awesome

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dude and he's a he's doing things
the right way for sure. So another

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guest you had was one of your
own teammates, Tyler Glass Now, a

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couple of weeks ago, and he
flapped open his bottom lip to show you

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a tattoo. Do you look at
Glass now any differently now? Nah?

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I honestly forgot about it. No, I would. I would space out

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on that too. I would try
to block that out as well. Yeah.

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No, it's it's new, isn't
he. It shows you another another

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layer of glass that you most people
don't know you know, and nothing that

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you may use, you may use, you may not use. But it's

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something that is definitely good to know, Mookie. I know you're harder on

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yourself than anybody else, but aren't
you proud of what you've accomplished so far?

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It feels like I told you this
a couple of weeks ago as well.

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Whenever things don't go smoothly at short. People want to point it out,

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but I would say nine games out
of ten things are going smoothly for

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you. So are you proud of
that to this point? Yeah, I'm

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definitely. I'm super proud of myself
for, first of all, just taking

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on the challenge because a lot of
people, you know, they may not

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and you know that a lot of
failure is gonna come with it. And

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I knew that going in. You
know, there's really only negatives that could

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come out of it. Only positive
is doing this for the team, you

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know, and but you know nobody
wants to. I knew people wouldn't want

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me to play short and think I
can't do it, and this, that

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and the other, and I still
accepted it. And so I'm very proud

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of myself for how far I've come. And I know I have a long

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long way to go, you know, I obviously you know I hate making

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errors and whatnot. But I mean
there's no there was no time to learn.

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There's there's no lag time. I
mean, as soon as I took

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on the challenge, I mean,
hell, it was game one, you

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know, there was no spring I
didn' get into spring training. I didn't

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get an off season. I didn't
get any of that, so I understood

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it. And I know that's not
an excuse. It's just I'm kind of

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learning on the job, and you
got to take your bumps and bruises,

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and it's hard to take them,
but there's no other choice. Goes back

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to the first day I saw you
in spring training. You had the determination

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to win this year, and a
lot of guys say it, but they

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don't do it. So it was
the Dodger's coming to you, asking you,

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this will help us win, and
you embrace that challenge. Yeah,

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I mean it, you know,
kind of is what it is. I

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mean, I'm I came into the
season body ready to go, everything ready

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to go, and obviously I was
playing second, so I knew I needed

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to make sure I stay up with
the moving around and whatnot. I knew

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that I would be able to at
least go over there and play. You

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know, I didn't know how I
would do how I would do. I

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hadn't done it since I was eighteen, so I was skeptical just like everybody

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else was. But you know,
at some point you just got to embrace

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those fears, embrace the failures.
Embrace all that stuff and just go do

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it. Mookie Bets is our guest
before I let you go. Last time

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we were in New York, we
were at City Field, and I got

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to visit with your former teammate,
America's DH JD Martinez, who told me

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his vision for post playing is being
partners with Mookie Betts in a pickleball championship

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team. Can you ever see that
happening? Yeah, I definitely see that.

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We'll definitely make that happens. That's
one of my closest friends in the

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world, and so I'll definitely make
sure I make it down or we'll go

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somewhere and make sure we get in
a tournament somewhere, and I don't know,

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we may have some videos or something
to put out there, but we'll

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see howest pick a ball game is. I'm curious to see it. You'd

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be great. He's the big man, you're the little guy in the in

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the pickle ball you know, like
Shaq Kobe kind of pickleball tandem there.

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You know, he doesn't move that
well, MOOKI, but I'll take care

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of the moving part. He just
has to make sure he finishes like Shaq

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does. Oh Man love it,
Mookie, great talking to you and look

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forward to this series and appreciate the
time. I am so proud of what

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you've been able to accomplish. The
season of Mookie Bets continues. Thank you, Bess.