Speaker 1: And now an exclusive interview with David Bassey for Dodger Talk.
Speaker 1: All right, we're joined right now by one of my favorites.
Speaker 1: He was great as a player, he's great as a person,
Speaker 1: and he's a great broadcaster. Number forty seven, Luis Cochito
Speaker 1: Cruz joins us. Thanks a lot for the time, appreciate it.
Speaker 2: Oh, thank yous, Dave.
Speaker 3: I'm happy to be with you right here, and you know,
Speaker 3: ready to for all you questions you got.
Speaker 1: From that well number one. The last time we spoke
Speaker 1: was during spring training.
Speaker 4: You are a rookie.
Speaker 1: Then you've got your feet wet in the broadcast booth.
Speaker 1: How are you enjoying being a broadcaster and not a
Speaker 1: player anymore?
Speaker 3: Well, he's been a transition that I'm enjoying a lot.
Speaker 3: I'm learning a lot from Jose Mota and Pepe in Vegas.
Speaker 3: But I really like it because what I'm doing just
Speaker 3: analyzing plays and all this stuff. Basically, I studied my
Speaker 3: whole career baseball, and I love baseball, so I can
Speaker 3: I like it that I can, you know, transmit it
Speaker 3: to the people on the radio, and I like it.
Speaker 1: You know a lot of these players too, you played
Speaker 1: against them, You played with some You also played in
Speaker 1: Japan when show Hey Otani was there. What's the relationship
Speaker 1: you have with show Hey going back to then, Yeah, I.
Speaker 3: Mean we we was we were playing in the same
Speaker 3: division there. He used to play for the nippenham Fighters
Speaker 3: and I was playing for Shivalotta Marins, and uh, we
Speaker 3: face each other like a lot. Like there's only six
Speaker 3: teams in uh in the Pacific League, six teams in
Speaker 3: the Central League, so we get to face each other
Speaker 3: almost every two to three weeks, and uh, you know,
Speaker 3: we build that relationship. One of my good friends, Louis Mendoza,
Speaker 3: he was playing, uh in that team with show Hey,
Speaker 3: and uh, you know, we always talk and he will
Speaker 3: start the day after show Hey, and we always make fun,
Speaker 3: you know, like and when I faced show How would
Speaker 3: tell him, you know, throw me that fastball, and we
Speaker 3: just he just laughed. He don't say much, but uh,
Speaker 3: getting to talk to him. I tried not to talk
Speaker 3: to him about you know, what's happening right now, but
Speaker 3: like everybody, he's talking to him like.
Speaker 2: How great he is.
Speaker 3: I knew it was going to be good, you know,
Speaker 3: it was going to be that good, you know, but
Speaker 3: I think we're still talking because he feel the confidence.
Speaker 2: Of of of me like knowing.
Speaker 3: Him since back in Japan. So we just talked, you know,
Speaker 3: I asked him how you feel? How do you I mean,
Speaker 3: how do you rehab going? In Japanese? Because I got
Speaker 3: to practice by Japanese?
Speaker 4: How would that sound? Give us a taste of how
Speaker 4: it would sound.
Speaker 3: I just saybo, that means, how's do you? How's your shoulder?
Speaker 3: How's your arm? And he responds and it's like akachan
Speaker 3: dajaba too, like if.
Speaker 2: Your baby is okay. He's like and then I would.
Speaker 3: Ask him, uh, what does you like you are you
Speaker 3: slippy or something?
Speaker 2: And he's like no, like dau means okay.
Speaker 3: So we kind of like, you know, I give him
Speaker 3: the you know, the confidence so he can you know,
Speaker 3: speak his English and my japan English and stuff. And
Speaker 3: now we just we just have fun, you know, like
Speaker 3: I just want to I just don't want him to,
Speaker 3: you know, to feel like I'm interviewing him, interviewing him.
Speaker 2: Or do something.
Speaker 3: And I think it's something that we have on in
Speaker 3: my side, like I can talk to the guys and
Speaker 3: I never you know, I get information about you know,
Speaker 3: the game and and maybe I can use it. Like
Speaker 3: if I see somebody using or doing something like I
Speaker 3: see Tells car Hernandez practicing something, I would ask him,
Speaker 3: you know what, why.
Speaker 2: Are you doing this with your back leg or why
Speaker 2: you're finishing high? And then he will tell me. And
Speaker 2: I think, I don't know.
Speaker 3: I think I play in the I was playing five
Speaker 3: months ago, so so they know that I was playing.
Speaker 3: And we have the confidence of talking, you know, like
Speaker 3: talking about the game, about the swings, about positioning in
Speaker 3: the infield. And I like it and I'm enjoying every
Speaker 3: second of it.
Speaker 1: All right, Well, let's go back to you and Otani
Speaker 1: in Japan. How did Louis Cruz do against Otani?
Speaker 4: The picture?
Speaker 3: Well, the first time, I remember, I was coming from
Speaker 3: from playing in the big leagues and and I faced
Speaker 3: him in a in like a preseason game, and he
Speaker 3: only threw like two innings, and he threw fastball like
Speaker 3: a ninety nine slider cider I pop up or something
Speaker 3: to the right field and I and I remember telling
Speaker 3: my teammates, oh, this is all tiny.
Speaker 2: I mean, it's not that.
Speaker 3: I mean, you see a lot of guys on the
Speaker 3: big leagues like him. And once the season started, we
Speaker 3: got to face each other. He was on like like
Speaker 3: he was good, really good. But I got some hits
Speaker 3: off him too, and I get I hate a couple
Speaker 3: of doubles.
Speaker 2: And and we hit him good in the playoffs.
Speaker 3: Like I said, we faced him a lot, and uh,
Speaker 3: you know when you face it somebody a lot.
Speaker 2: I mean you kind of know when he's on, when
Speaker 2: his fastball was on, when his breaking mos are on.
Speaker 3: But we got the confidence of of saying, like he
Speaker 3: would throw me a fastball, and I followed it off
Speaker 3: and I look at him and I say, Masugo, masuga, like,
Speaker 3: throw me a fastball. And when he was nasty, he
Speaker 3: would throw me that fastball. And then he told me
Speaker 3: that slider and he said, kuzsan, today you have no chance.
Speaker 3: So obviously that day, if I walk for me, it
Speaker 3: counts as ahead because he knew he was, he had
Speaker 3: all this stuff, and.
Speaker 2: You know, we build that relationship. You know, you knew
Speaker 2: me as a player.
Speaker 3: You know, I like to talk to my teammates or
Speaker 3: or all the other team because at the end of
Speaker 3: the day, baseball is a game and you're supposed to
Speaker 3: have fun with it. And I always have fun, and
Speaker 3: I think I'm having fun now doing what I'm doing
Speaker 3: from the booth, and.
Speaker 2: And I want to keep learning from you guys. You've
Speaker 2: been doing it for a long time.
Speaker 1: You're doing a great job. And appreciate you sharing those
Speaker 1: great stories from Japan. And your Japanese is not Japanese English.
Speaker 1: It's pretty good.
Speaker 4: How you got those time, how I got to Luis Cruise,
Speaker 4: Thank you so much.
Speaker 3: And I'm so happy to see Clayton catch it back.
Speaker 3: And he was one of the best, you know, teammates
Speaker 3: I had. And uh, when I came to the Dodgers,
Speaker 3: I remember getting to the clubhouse and I didn't have
Speaker 3: a locker, and uh, Kersha clean up one of his
Speaker 3: lockers and he's like, hey, you just see it run
Speaker 3: next to me. So I was lucky enough to see
Speaker 3: run next to Kersha my year that I spent year
Speaker 3: and a half that I spent with the Dodgers. And
Speaker 3: now you know, like maybe we built this relationship because
Speaker 3: we played ping punk together in spring training. Uh, and
Speaker 3: we we will it was we were the finalists for
Speaker 3: the tournament and he beat me and I got to
Speaker 3: I got to talk to him like a couple of days,
Speaker 3: like two days before he start, and I say, Kershaw,
Speaker 3: whenever you retire, I'm gonna look for you so you
Speaker 3: can give me the rematch. And he's like, okay, we'll
Speaker 3: do so I'm like okay, So I'm just you know,
Speaker 3: like like being a former player, you have like a
Speaker 3: little insight to talk to them, you know, like you
Speaker 3: can talk about something else besides you know, how you feel,
Speaker 3: how you arm, how do you breaking.
Speaker 2: Well, how you lag?
Speaker 3: And we just talk about different stuff and it made
Speaker 3: me feel good and I want them to make to
Speaker 3: feel comfortable with me being there.
Speaker 4: You know, that's an amazing story.
Speaker 1: I never knew that about Shaw cleaning out the empty
Speaker 1: lockers so you could sit there.
Speaker 2: He did, he did.
Speaker 3: I remember I got to the clubhouse each Paul was
Speaker 3: the club and he asked me, what are you doing here?
Speaker 3: Because I got called up and nobody knew, and and
Speaker 3: Kirsha had.
Speaker 2: It was the old stadium.
Speaker 3: It was the the you know, like the three the
Speaker 3: small lockers, like the ones outside, and uh, Kersha had
Speaker 3: one with shoes and then what with his stuff, and
Speaker 3: then he got another one pre renovation. Yeah yeah, pre
Speaker 3: renovation before and uh say crazy, Uh just sit right here,
Speaker 3: and he told one of the club is to clean
Speaker 3: it up, and I got to see it right next
Speaker 3: to him.
Speaker 2: You know, when he pitched.
Speaker 3: He got here like a twelve every day for a
Speaker 3: seven o'clock game, he puts his bags on, and you.
Speaker 2: Know, like it was. It was.
Speaker 3: I was lucky enough to be there and play behind him,
Speaker 3: play there, play short and uh you know, have his
Speaker 3: uh friendship and getting to see him back again. Hopefully
Speaker 3: he get to finish his career with his three thousand
Speaker 3: strikeouts and I would love to see it.
Speaker 1: Man, Luis Cruz, great baseball experiences.
Speaker 4: Thank you for the time. And I know everybody loves Cochito.
Speaker 2: Thank you.
Speaker 3: Everybody loves you because you're the man, and you dress
Speaker 3: really nice
Speaker 4: Not as good as Cochito Cruiz.