Speaker 1: Well, we're joined right now by a man that was
Speaker 1: a great player for the Dodgers, but more importantly was
Speaker 1: beloved by his teammates and everybody that has ever come
Speaker 1: in contact with him. And that is the one and
Speaker 1: only Dusty Baker who is going into the legends of
Speaker 1: Dodger baseball.
Speaker 2: Dusty, it's an honor to be here with you. This
Speaker 2: is the way it should be.
Speaker 3: Well, hey man, you've been interviewing me for years and uh, man,
Speaker 3: it's a time goes by very quickly. And I never
Speaker 3: thought about, you know, being a legend or just I
Speaker 3: just thought about playing ball and uh, you know, doing
Speaker 3: everything that I could to help my team win. It's just, uh,
Speaker 3: you know, it's a little strange to you know, to
Speaker 3: be here right now because I you know, I never
Speaker 3: thought of myself like that. Yeah, and so, uh you know,
Speaker 3: I thought I was a good ballplayer. But at the
Speaker 3: same time, you know, and I, you know, me going
Speaker 3: in the four guys like you know, Reggie Smith, I
Speaker 3: thought Reggie was the best player on the team. Wow.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, I mean we all did. And uh and
Speaker 3: you know, you know, Hope, you know, and get Ron
Speaker 3: Say and some of my other teammates in because you know,
Speaker 3: without those guys, you know, I was hoping, well, when
Speaker 3: I look back, you know, they made me better coming
Speaker 3: here from the Braves, and I was hoping that possibly,
Speaker 3: you know, I could have you know, made them a
Speaker 3: little bit better. But they made me a lot better
Speaker 3: because I wanted to come here as a kid, I
Speaker 3: wanted to win the Dodgers and winners. I loved the Braids.
Speaker 3: I was born on the braids, so to speak.
Speaker 2: But I.
Speaker 3: Matured as a man in a pro you know, with
Speaker 3: the Dodgers.
Speaker 1: I remember in the eighties when you played Dusty the
Speaker 1: two best smiles in Los Angeles. One was at the
Speaker 1: Forum with Magic Johnson and the other smile that was
Speaker 1: the best was out here at Dodgers Stadium. The joy
Speaker 1: that you had for the game of baseball. Could you
Speaker 1: feel how infectious it was for your teammates and for
Speaker 1: the city.
Speaker 3: Well not really, Like I said, I didn't think about it.
Speaker 3: I love playing. I mean I love it, and you
Speaker 3: know I try to respect the game, you know, as
Speaker 3: much as I could, and try to respect my you know,
Speaker 3: my teammates. I uh, you know, we came to play,
Speaker 3: and we came to play every day. Uh, I mean,
Speaker 3: and it was it was fun, you know, I mean,
Speaker 3: and and and the media guys were close to us
Speaker 3: at the same time. The media and and and the
Speaker 3: players were together. I mean, and that you know, I
Speaker 3: kind of missed that after a while because now things
Speaker 3: are a little bit more adversarial than they were back
Speaker 3: in those days. I mean, you know, we'd hang out,
Speaker 3: you know, you know, with Joe McDonald and and I mean,
Speaker 3: you know all these guys, Jim Hill, I mean were
Speaker 3: I mean we were like like one and uh so, uh.
Speaker 4: We did Joe ever give you a ride in his Cadillac?
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, if I needed it, you know what I mean. Yeah,
Speaker 3: you know when I every time I come to down
Speaker 3: the stadium, it's like, you know, I have very pleasant
Speaker 3: memories here, and uh, you know, like I just uh
Speaker 3: think about a lot of the kids that were here,
Speaker 3: like you you know, and now they're fathers and grandfathers.
Speaker 3: Look a few of them and just shows you how
Speaker 3: fast life goes. But you know, you try to enjoy it,
Speaker 3: try to do the right thing and treat people right.
Speaker 2: You always did, Dusty.
Speaker 1: I've never told you this before, but you're the reason
Speaker 1: why I fell in love with the Dodgers in the
Speaker 1: game of baseball. Just watching you listening to the games
Speaker 1: coming to Dodgers Stadium. I said, that's the dude I
Speaker 1: want to be like, because.
Speaker 4: You were so cool and the way you played was
Speaker 4: it was another level.
Speaker 2: I feel like I speak for a lot of people.
Speaker 3: Well, you know, I feel like one of the luckiest
Speaker 3: guys in the world because, you know, a kid from
Speaker 3: Riverside who loved the Dodgers. I listened to Vin Scully
Speaker 3: every day on my transistor radio no matter what I
Speaker 3: was doing, if I was cutting the lawn or if
Speaker 3: I was you know, picking fruit in the yard or whatever.
Speaker 3: And you know, my hero was Tommy Davis. You know,
Speaker 3: I wore number twelve because of Tommy Davis and then
Speaker 3: went I was and when I was traded here to
Speaker 3: the Dodgers, you know, Tommy Davis was one of the
Speaker 3: first guys that I thought about. And you know, luckily
Speaker 3: nobody had number twelve. I think they traded but short
Speaker 3: for me, who wore number twelve. So it was just
Speaker 3: there for me. And you know how many young kids
Speaker 3: play their heroes position bat in the order eventually where
Speaker 3: you know he vetted and you know wore his number.
Speaker 3: And on top of that, you know, sometimes you meet
Speaker 3: your heroes and and you wish you hadn't yeh, but
Speaker 3: but I mean this guy was as good a person
Speaker 3: as as he was a hero to me. And you know,
Speaker 3: he gave me a lot of directions, showed me how
Speaker 3: to be and showed me how to be a pro.
Speaker 2: That's amazing.
Speaker 1: Dusty Baker is our guest, now your teammate. I spent
Speaker 1: a lot of time within one of them, Rick Monday.
Speaker 1: He gave me a lot of great stories about you.
Speaker 3: Mojo. Yeah, he staided playing with Mojo.
Speaker 2: Why did you love playing with him?
Speaker 3: Well, because you know something, I never saw him loaf Yeah.
Speaker 3: I mean, you know, he would make you elevate your
Speaker 3: game because no matter if the ball was a pop
Speaker 3: up to the infield, pop up to the catcher, he
Speaker 3: ran hard all the time. He hit a ground ball,
Speaker 3: he ran hard all the time. And and and Mojo, uh,
Speaker 3: you know played the game right. And uh you know
Speaker 3: the other player that I had in San Francisco and
Speaker 3: iced to tell him her he remind me of Rick
Speaker 3: Mundy's world Clark. Yeah, yeah, they never loafed. And you know,
Speaker 3: like I enjoyed playing and and and he'd always go
Speaker 3: back of bacup. He could call my name like no other.
Speaker 1: He actually told me one of your nicknames was doctor
Speaker 1: Skald because he hit the ball so hard.
Speaker 2: And then he told the story.
Speaker 4: Gave it to me.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, that's why he remembers.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but I talk about scalding people and then and
Speaker 3: then mo I think gave it to me.
Speaker 1: He also recalled the story of one day joking Andrew
Speaker 1: Harr he blew out the gun on you and you
Speaker 1: were talking trash and he said that wasn't really cool,
Speaker 1: was it?
Speaker 3: No, that wasn't cool at all, and joaking it up
Speaker 3: being my teammate in Oakland. Wow.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it just shows you.
Speaker 3: You know, a lot of times you're gonna have beefs
Speaker 3: with certain guys on well anybody. The next thing you know,
Speaker 3: he's your teammate and you end up liking them because
Speaker 3: you know, the guys that you see on the other
Speaker 3: side of the field or how they present themselves isn't
Speaker 3: necessarily how they are off the field, you know, because
Speaker 3: most guys have like two personalities kind of you know,
Speaker 3: you got on the field personality and you have off
Speaker 3: the field personality, But I tried to be as consistent
Speaker 3: in my personality as I could.
Speaker 1: Dusty, before I let you go the bond you shared
Speaker 1: with your teammates. Losing to the Yankees twice and then
Speaker 1: finally beating them, How much more complete is everything with
Speaker 1: you guys, not only winning in eighty one but beating
Speaker 1: those Yankees.
Speaker 3: Well, you know something. I see Yankee fans now and
Speaker 3: they're still mad because we beat them one time, and
Speaker 3: I'm like, wait a minute, now, you guys beat us twice,
Speaker 3: and you know something. Seventy seven, I thought we had
Speaker 3: a great, great team, and we had outstanding and then
Speaker 3: seventy eight we were playing for Jim Gilliam who died
Speaker 3: of a brain aneurism that August, and so we had
Speaker 3: this number on our sleeves, and I think we were
Speaker 3: up to to nothing on the Yankees, and then we
Speaker 3: went to the Well two to nothing. We played them there,
Speaker 3: and then we came back here for a three game series,
Speaker 3: and I don't think we lost the game of a
Speaker 3: series at home all year, and they beat us three
Speaker 3: in a row, and then we had to go back
Speaker 3: to New York to lose one in a row, to
Speaker 3: lose one and end up. I mean, I never you know,
Speaker 3: forget the you know, the pain and the hurt that
Speaker 3: we felt coming back home because I was like the
Speaker 3: longest trip home.
Speaker 2: That was like a ghost trip.
Speaker 3: You know, none of us really wanted to come home.
Speaker 3: We didn't want to go out into public, We didn't
Speaker 3: want to go to the supermarket, you know, because because
Speaker 3: we you know, we thought we were supposed to win.
Speaker 3: But you know fourteen for us, we won in eighty one,
Speaker 3: which wasn't our best team. So jove to show you.
Speaker 3: I mean a lot of times, you know, you win
Speaker 3: when you're supposed to win.
Speaker 1: Man, I still have that picture of you drinking out
Speaker 1: of that champagne bottle.
Speaker 4: I bet you could still taste that champagne.
Speaker 2: Huh.
Speaker 3: Well, I don't like champagne that much. Only on only on, yeah, exactly,
Speaker 3: only win. I never drink champagne.
Speaker 1: And other than when we win, Dusty, Man, dreams really
Speaker 1: do come true.
Speaker 2: You do get to meet your heroes.
Speaker 1: You got to meet Tommy Davis, and I'm meeting my
Speaker 1: hero Dusty Baker many times. And man, I can't thank
Speaker 1: you enough for treating me like family. And you always
Speaker 1: treat everybody like family. And like I said, tonight, is
Speaker 1: about what you did on the field, yes, but more
Speaker 1: importantly who you are as a person in Los Angeles
Speaker 1: loves you, man, so thank you so much.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, thank you. And you know, like I said,
Speaker 3: I had some of my most memorable days, you know,
Speaker 3: playing here, and you know it taught it taught me
Speaker 3: how to win, and it taught me how to win
Speaker 3: as a as a manager, you know, playing here. I
Speaker 3: wouldn't trade it for nothing.
Speaker 4: Winner, Dusty Baker, winning in life for sure.
Speaker 2: Thank you. Dusty. Right there, he is the man.
Speaker 1: He's about to be inducted into the Legends of Dodger Baseball.
Speaker 1: I think now from now on, I'm going out to
Speaker 1: that area where they're gonna put his picture and just
Speaker 1: you know, tap it. Every day that I come to
Speaker 1: the stadium right behind uh, right behind center field, They're
Speaker 1: gonna have you and everybody else in this Legends of
Speaker 1: Dodger Baseball.
Speaker 2: They put you up like a plaque.
Speaker 4: Really, I'm gonna go out there every day. I'm gonna
Speaker 4: send you a picture, okay, Man,