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Speaker 2: Welcome to Off Day Dodger Talk. David Vase with you
Speaker 2: until eight o'clock tonight right here on a five to
Speaker 2: seventy LA Sports and we have a great show for you. Tonight.
Speaker 2: We are going to check in with Jorge Castillo, formerly
Speaker 2: of the La Times, now covers the Mets and Yankees
Speaker 2: for ESPN. We'll get into Juan Soto and the drama
Speaker 2: of him having the fomo of not being in pinstripes
Speaker 2: and not having as much fun playing for the Mets.
Speaker 2: And we'll also find out whether or not New York
Speaker 2: has gone soft because Aaron Judge dropped maybe the easiest
Speaker 2: fly ball in the World Series. Maybe a superstar has
Speaker 2: never made that type of error in a World Series
Speaker 2: game at Yankee Stadium. Only Aaron Judge did, and it
Speaker 2: feels like New York has just forgiven him something they
Speaker 2: would not do for a lot of other players. So,
Speaker 2: with the Dodgers going to face the Mets seven times
Speaker 2: in the next week and a half and going to
Speaker 2: see the Yankees on the next homestand a good time
Speaker 2: to check in with horiy A Castillo. And since the
Speaker 2: Dodgers are playing the Mets tomorrow night at City Field,
Speaker 2: it was appropriate for us to reshare a conversation that
Speaker 2: I had with two of the Los Angeles legends of
Speaker 2: high school baseball from Crenshaw and Fremont High School in
Speaker 2: the eighties, the one and only Darryl Strawberry legendary met
Speaker 2: and our guy Eric Davis, Eric the Red. Both of
Speaker 2: those guys came back to LA to play for the Dodgers.
Speaker 2: Didn't go the way they thought it would, but nonetheless,
Speaker 2: during twenty twenty and the COVID shutdown, those two guys
Speaker 2: did a rare interview together with me right here on
Speaker 2: a five to seventy LA Sports And since it was
Speaker 2: in the abyss of twenty twenty, I thought tonight would
Speaker 2: be a great night to reshare that conversation, So that's
Speaker 2: coming up at the bottom of the hour. Horia Castial
Speaker 2: will join us in about ten minutes now. Since our
Speaker 2: last Off Days show, it went well with the Colin
Speaker 2: Yee highlight montage of the last ten game road trip
Speaker 2: the Dodger homestand did not go as great as that
Speaker 2: last road trip, the Dodgers were just four and five
Speaker 2: after taking two out of three from the A's and
Speaker 2: don't get me wrong, winning the last two against the
Speaker 2: Diamondbacks humongous after being swept by the Angels. But there
Speaker 2: were still a lot of great moments in this entire
Speaker 2: homestand and Colin Yee did his magic again with this
Speaker 2: highlight montage.
Speaker 3: Live from Dodger Stadium the series Dodger Baseball Column along
Speaker 3: with Jose Mota, I tomever it with mondays off this week,
Speaker 3: Grinder will us to come into this one. It's the
Speaker 3: first of three with the Athletics went to Old Miss
Speaker 3: and was drafted in the first round.
Speaker 4: Again.
Speaker 3: This ball swung out and hammered deep to right pat
Speaker 3: see you that ball's gone.
Speaker 2: O'tani with his thirteenth home.
Speaker 3: Run of the year. That didn't take verry long. Three
Speaker 3: pitches into the game and the Dodgers have a won
Speaker 3: nothing league A one pitch swung on and well hit
Speaker 3: the right field, this ball heading back toward the walls. Gone,
Speaker 3: It is gone. It's the first major league home run
Speaker 3: for his son Kim, and the Dodgers have tied it
Speaker 3: up three to three as Kim goes deep into the pavilion.
Speaker 3: There's lead first and second to won from Ferguson and
Speaker 3: Rookie swings and he hits it to right center field.
Speaker 3: Half balls go over the.
Speaker 2: Wall, bounce us off the track around the third is Keith.
Speaker 3: K He's in here comes so hey, he's up scoring
Speaker 3: a two round double for Mookie Beets. It's six to three.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, there's only so many moments who're gonna.
Speaker 5: Get you know, we all went in play the game
Speaker 5: for so long, and so coming up in a situation
Speaker 5: like that, you know the opportunities.
Speaker 6: I'm blessed for it, especially be behind show.
Speaker 1: Hey, there's so many but anytime you can come through
Speaker 1: and help them, help.
Speaker 4: The guys win, I mean, it's always fun.
Speaker 3: Freeman leaves at second base, where presents the go ahead
Speaker 3: run on the bottom of the first and once he
Speaker 3: hammers one teep to right field way back in Don
Speaker 3: Max Month, seeing back to back at bats, has gone
Speaker 3: yard and the Dodgers lean it three to one. Three balls,
Speaker 3: two strikes to Dalton rushing. Alexander's staring in Now the
Speaker 3: A's right handers payoff pitch, so I'm not run about
Speaker 3: up the middle of ace. Heck, that's the first big
Speaker 3: league hit for the Dodgers number one prospect Dalton Rushing.
Speaker 3: He got it in his second plate appearance, and he
Speaker 3: is down there at first base and hit him at baseball.
Speaker 3: It's a free one pitch and Otani just hammers won
Speaker 3: the center failed.
Speaker 2: It is back.
Speaker 3: It is gone. His second home run of the Knight.
Speaker 4: Show.
Speaker 3: Hey Otani getting it done for the home run to
Speaker 3: center field. It is fifteen to two, so he's ready
Speaker 3: to go into two. Two bombs it in there. This
Speaker 3: one of his squorter it down the left field side.
Speaker 3: That ball is gonna drop in fair. It bounces over
Speaker 3: the sidewall out of play for a double. Rushing will
Speaker 3: come around to score. It is seventeen to two. Aufman
Speaker 3: stops at third and Kim has a three hit game.
Speaker 1: By from Dodger Stadium, It's Game two of the Freeway Series. Hi, everybody,
Speaker 1: alongside my dear friend hosse Mota, I'm Steven Nelson, and
Speaker 1: wherever you may be and how whoever you may be listening,
Speaker 1: welcome to a special Saturday at the stadium. For the
Speaker 1: first time in two hundred and sixty days, Clayton Kershaw
Speaker 1: is back on the mountain for the Dodgers, making his
Speaker 1: twenty twenty five season debut. Been averaging about eighty seven
Speaker 1: and a half miles per hour on his fastball.
Speaker 4: He's tuned up for the year.
Speaker 1: The payoff swinging in a miss strike three twenty two
Speaker 1: is back.
Speaker 2: And the countdown begins in three thousand strikeouts.
Speaker 1: The payoff to Paez is pummeled center failed. Indeed, we'll
Speaker 1: go back on the warning track at the wall, Dead
Speaker 1: has brand. What a swing from Andy Potz, a three
Speaker 1: run tank to death center ties the game and key
Speaker 1: K hammers of all the left faield no doubt about it.
Speaker 1: The Dodgers get one back. Keek K goes halfway up
Speaker 1: to the pavilion in left field, his seventh home run
Speaker 1: of the season, and it's five to four. Helpation at
Speaker 1: the plate to two. Oh Rushing will swing and that's
Speaker 1: a rope down the right field line. HiT's a fair
Speaker 1: ball into the corner. Kick Ga waved around. He will
Speaker 1: score as the ball bounce out of play. It's an
Speaker 1: RBI ground rule double for Dalton Rushing and this game
Speaker 1: is tied at five. Will Smith can tie the game
Speaker 1: with one swing. This ball is hitting the air to
Speaker 1: left field. Indeed, this ball is good.
Speaker 7: Just like that.
Speaker 3: We are tied.
Speaker 4: On this one.
Speaker 7: One.
Speaker 1: Old Tony wings and hits a high drive to the
Speaker 1: left field, heads up in the pavilion.
Speaker 3: Show Hayes coming.
Speaker 1: Solo home run show Hey, Old Tani his seventeenth of
Speaker 1: the season. He took Bookie hammers another ball left field
Speaker 1: in deep.
Speaker 4: He's done it again.
Speaker 1: Old Tani and Bets go back to back of the six.
Speaker 1: It's a seven to three ball game eight of the
Speaker 1: season for Bets. Second of the night, Dodgers not going quietly.
Speaker 1: Tioscar Hernandez was there but just couldn't make the catch.
Speaker 1: Oh boy, I fly ball right field. Ta Oscar on
Speaker 1: the warning track at the wall. He jumps and diddy
Speaker 1: Tao takes one away and Joss Naylor is saying, are
Speaker 1: you kidding me? Rounding birds home run robbery from Taoscar
Speaker 1: Hernandez and his return to the field.
Speaker 3: Two and two the count of Peyton Smith. Ya Alamoto's
Speaker 3: pitch here it is waging to miss strike Cray got
Speaker 3: him the cutter. Nine strikeouts for Yoshinobu Yamamoto. He leads
Speaker 3: to a standing ovation leaves the tying and go ahead
Speaker 3: runs on base. In the top of the seventh, Kisparius
Speaker 3: set at the belt. The right hander kicks fires, tug
Speaker 3: and miss strike. Cray got him with a slider, calling
Speaker 3: a pressure cooker for Ben Kisparius, but Diamondbacks leave them loaded.
Speaker 3: He leaves it second base while Miller goes into the stretch.
Speaker 3: The O two pitch to Tommy Edmund Hilt He swings
Speaker 3: and popes at the left field down the line. Dan
Speaker 3: is gonna be a base hit. Key touches third. He's
Speaker 3: gonna score up. All this played by the wall, and
Speaker 3: then the second is Tommy Edmund. The Dodgers get a run.
Speaker 3: It's three to two. Two wonder one see Leeds. It's
Speaker 3: a high drive to center field. That's gonna do it.
Speaker 3: Tawell going back, he's gonna make the catch. Otani tags
Speaker 3: he won't score Emma. Dodgers walk it off for the
Speaker 3: fourth time this year. Max Mounsey's sacrifice fly wins it
Speaker 3: for the Dodgers four to three.
Speaker 4: Final shore.
Speaker 3: One two pitch to Tiascar. He swings hits a high
Speaker 3: flive all of center and t This ball headed back
Speaker 3: toward the wall.
Speaker 2: It is done.
Speaker 3: Left three run home run Taoscar Hernandez Emma Dodgers have
Speaker 3: jumped down.
Speaker 2: In front three to one.
Speaker 3: Oh, he got a hold of it. It was a slider,
Speaker 3: but it hung over the heart of the plate and
Speaker 3: Taoscar thrilled at the dead center field four hundred and
Speaker 3: thirteen feet.
Speaker 2: Great job again by calling ye I love Montages and
Speaker 2: what a way to do it on an off days
Speaker 2: show the Dodgers four and five on that homestand but
Speaker 2: Tioscar Hernandez to the rescue last night with that big,
Speaker 2: go ahead, three run home run against Corbyn Burns. When
Speaker 2: we continue on Dodger Talk, we'll check in with joy
Speaker 2: A Castillo. Don't go anywhere. There's a lot to get
Speaker 2: to between now and eight o'clock right here on AM
Speaker 2: five to seventy LA Sports AM five seventy LA Sports.
Speaker 2: And the Dodgers are going to see a lot of
Speaker 2: the Mets and the Yankees in the next week and
Speaker 2: a half, beginning Tomorrow night at City Field, a three
Speaker 2: game series between the Dodgers and Mets. First time these
Speaker 2: two teams have seen each other since last year's NLCS,
Speaker 2: and the first time the Dodgers will see Juan Soto
Speaker 2: since last year's World Series, and the perfect person to
Speaker 2: talk to is our guy from the La Times who
Speaker 2: got swooped up by ESPN and now covers the Mets
Speaker 2: and Yankees. He is the best baseball rider on the
Speaker 2: East Coast and we're lucky to have him on the
Speaker 2: show tonight. That is the one and only Jorge cast deal.
Speaker 2: Jorget thanks a lot for the time, appreciate it.
Speaker 4: Thanks Dave. What an introduction, man, what an honor.
Speaker 7: Thank you.
Speaker 4: I'm happy to be back with you.
Speaker 7: Man.
Speaker 2: See, I could hear it in your voice. You care
Speaker 2: more right now than Juan Soto does.
Speaker 8: I'm hustling more right Is that is that my banguage
Speaker 8: is a lot better right now? You can't see it,
Speaker 8: but it's it's so much better right now.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So the Dodgers are walking into a city field that's
Speaker 2: not going to be paying attention to them. All eyes
Speaker 2: will be on Juan Soto. What should we make of
Speaker 2: what we're hearing as far as his body language is unhappiness?
Speaker 2: Is that all true? That Juan Soto has a lot
Speaker 2: of fomo right now?
Speaker 8: I think when we what we see is that his
Speaker 8: body language is off, He's off.
Speaker 4: It's not.
Speaker 8: It doesn't seem like it's just that he's not producing, right.
Speaker 8: He's obviously not producing to a level that we expect
Speaker 8: from Juan Soto. Last year, he just came out of
Speaker 8: the gate with the Yankees. He was awesome from the jump.
Speaker 8: This year, he has not been great from the jump,
Speaker 8: and his body language just teams off. And you know,
Speaker 8: you hear things. You know, once when he signed back
Speaker 8: in December, everybody was here. I was hearing things about
Speaker 8: actually he wanted to go to the Yankees, and this
Speaker 8: was a family thing. You know, the family pushed him
Speaker 8: to the Mets, and he ultimately signed the biggest contract
Speaker 8: in sports history. And he's a grown man. He's twenty
Speaker 8: six years old. He made a decision. So whether he
Speaker 8: has full more or not, he's on the Mets for
Speaker 8: at least five years until that opt out kicks, until
Speaker 8: he can opt out, or fifteen if he does, you know,
Speaker 8: opt in. So I mean, you made your decision. You're
Speaker 8: here to play in New York. You play on a
Speaker 8: really good team, a team that was in first place
Speaker 8: for most of this you know, six week stretch, not
Speaker 8: in first place anymore. But those guys, they got to
Speaker 8: figure it out with Swans. Swan Soda has to figure
Speaker 8: out with them, and he needs to start producing because
Speaker 8: New York is New York. Whether you play for the
Speaker 8: Mets the Yankees, if you don't start producing, if your
Speaker 8: body language is still not great, if you're not hustling,
Speaker 8: they're gonna be on you.
Speaker 2: Okay, So you covered one Soda with the Yankees last year,
Speaker 2: you've been around him this year with the Mets. Is
Speaker 2: there a noticeable difference as far as the way he
Speaker 2: goes about the way he plays, or is this who
Speaker 2: wants Soda is?
Speaker 8: Oh, there is a difference. You know, everyone's pointing out.
Speaker 8: It sounds trivial, it sounds silly, But the fact is
Speaker 8: he is not doing the Soto shuffle right.
Speaker 7: You know.
Speaker 8: Yeah, he's always said it's a field thing, but you know,
Speaker 8: maybe maybe it's like a chicken oric thing. Maybe he's
Speaker 8: not doing it because he's not feeling right to play,
Speaker 8: or maybe he's just not feeling right with his surroundings.
Speaker 8: But we are not seeing that swagger that you know,
Speaker 8: the smile. He's smile, he's swaggering. He's looking back and
Speaker 8: he's staring at the picture we saw that I covered him.
Speaker 8: I also covered him in DC, and he was like
Speaker 8: that as a rookie. You know, he has a way
Speaker 8: about him that we're not seeing right now. How he
Speaker 8: interact with his teammates. You know, you want again playing
Speaker 8: body language doctor and doing all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 8: It's just not the same. He doesn't have handshakes with
Speaker 8: everyone like he did last year with the Yankees. He
Speaker 8: had these handshakes, this one handshake with Aaron Judge. You're
Speaker 8: not seeing him doing that with Pete Alonzo and Francisco Lindor.
Speaker 8: It does look different, and maybe there is some fumma.
Speaker 8: But like I said, man, he's a grown man. He
Speaker 8: made a decision he has. I think he'll be fine. Ultimately.
Speaker 8: This is the first month of a this is the
Speaker 8: first month and a half of look of a fifteen
Speaker 8: year contract. He'll be fine. Eventually, he'll start producing. Guys
Speaker 8: have had rough starts in New York. Francisco Lindor had
Speaker 8: a rough start here in New York. Colo show down,
Speaker 8: who's pitching right now today for the Yankees had a
Speaker 8: rough start in New York. Guys have it, They figure
Speaker 8: it out, and they move on.
Speaker 2: Jorge Castillo, who covers the meds and Yankees for ESPN,
Speaker 2: formerly of the La Times, is our guest on off
Speaker 2: day Dodger Talk. All Right, the other part of the
Speaker 2: whole New York scene I wanted to get to because
Speaker 2: the Yankees will be at Dodgers Stadium next home stand
Speaker 2: Aaron Judge. You know, I grew up knowing that New
Speaker 2: York really gets on their players, no matter if they're
Speaker 2: a superstar or not. I just can't get over the
Speaker 2: fag Jorge that everybody is giving Aaron Judge a free
Speaker 2: pass in New York for clanking that fly ball in
Speaker 2: what eventually cost the Yankees in Game five. If that
Speaker 2: was Alex Rodriguez, they would be reminding him every day.
Speaker 2: How does Aaron Judge get away with everybody just absolving
Speaker 2: him of his postseason sin?
Speaker 8: Yeah, so it's not just that, right, And then the
Speaker 8: postseason he had he struggled again and I think he
Speaker 8: was turning the corner actually in that Game five until
Speaker 8: they dropped that fly ball. You know, he made it
Speaker 8: a nice catch earlier in the game, hit a home run.
Speaker 8: Blah blah blah. The reason why this happens with Aaron
Speaker 8: Judge and not like you said in Alisa Regaz He's
Speaker 8: a homegrown guy. He's beloved here in New York. He
Speaker 8: stayed in New York. He could have gone for more
Speaker 8: money in San Francisco or San Diego, he chose to
Speaker 8: stay in New York. And right now you can make
Speaker 8: the argument he's the best right handed hitter of all time.
Speaker 8: The numbers are amazing, going back to the year plus
Speaker 8: down in the beginning of May of last year. This
Speaker 8: guy is Barry Bonds. I don't want to say as
Speaker 8: good as Barry Bonds was twenty years ago in two
Speaker 8: thousand and four when that was Pete Barry Bonds, but
Speaker 8: this is as close as we're going to get, as close.
Speaker 9: As we've seen.
Speaker 8: And I think that's why it's a mixture of that.
Speaker 8: The guy's amazing. He's been great obviously during the regular season,
Speaker 8: and he's a homebro guy who chose to play for
Speaker 8: the Yankees. And this is the New York's guy. You know,
Speaker 8: this is not a rod. A rock came in and
Speaker 8: was worth shooting with Derek Jeter from the jump. You know,
Speaker 8: a rock came in. He was a star elsewhere. He
Speaker 8: was a guy who not a lot of people loved.
Speaker 8: People love Aaron Jodge he's respected across baseball, and I
Speaker 8: think that's why he's getting more of a free pass.
Speaker 2: Jorge has Judge referenced that drop in Game five, or
Speaker 2: the Dodgers, or that being a motivating factor to his
Speaker 2: unreal start to the season.
Speaker 8: No, Actually, I've heard a story during spring training about
Speaker 8: that whole fifth inning and how that really you know
Speaker 8: how I mean the way they just really gave that
Speaker 8: game away in that fifth inning. And I personally think
Speaker 8: if they win that game, the Dodgers are in trouble
Speaker 8: with their fishing situation. But obviously that didn't happen.
Speaker 4: And you wonder.
Speaker 7: You know, at that time, Garret.
Speaker 8: Cole was healthy. He's thirty four years old. Aaron Judge
Speaker 8: just turned thirty three years old. These guys aren't young.
Speaker 8: You know, the window. We talk about windows all the
Speaker 8: time in sports. Sometimes we overstate them. Sometimes it's true,
Speaker 8: you know, to win with those two guys, Garrett Cole
Speaker 8: was out for the season. Now, you know, you don't
Speaker 8: win a World Series now very soon this year, next year.
Speaker 8: And you know, I went around asking different guys. Aaron
Speaker 8: Judge said, hey, we lost. It doesn't matter how we lost.
Speaker 8: I mean, whether I believe him or not. Whether you
Speaker 8: believe him or not, that's another story. But he said, hey,
Speaker 8: a loss is a loss. We dropped that close and
Speaker 8: it's stumped. I'm sure other guys in that clubhouse talked about, yeah,
Speaker 8: the way we lost that stump. I don't think Aaron
Speaker 8: Judge is you know, dropping that fly ball in center
Speaker 8: field is motivating him anymore this year. I mean, if
Speaker 8: you looked at what he did in the regular season
Speaker 8: last year, it's basically the same thing. The guy who's
Speaker 8: took a video.
Speaker 4: Game for him right now. And what he needs to do.
Speaker 8: Is stay healthy because if he stays healthy, the Yankees
Speaker 8: will make the playoffs.
Speaker 9: And once he gets to the.
Speaker 8: Playoffs, he needs to do maybe not exactly this, but
Speaker 8: he needs to be a star in the playoffs. That's
Speaker 8: the next step for Aaron Judge. And if you just
Speaker 8: starting the playoffs, the Yankees are a real straight in
Speaker 8: an American league that's pretty weak.
Speaker 2: No doubt. Maybe a rematch from last year's World Series
Speaker 2: a LA seventy seven and seventy eight in the Brooklyn
Speaker 2: Dodger days, Jorge should be fun this weekend. It'll be
Speaker 2: even fun, even more fun at Dodgers Stadium when the
Speaker 2: Dodgers return home to play the Mets and Yankees. We'll
Speaker 2: see you out there for that and appreciate your time.
Speaker 2: Thank you for taking time out of a busy night
Speaker 2: in the Big Apple.
Speaker 8: Appreciate you, Dave, Thanks for having me on there.
Speaker 2: He goes Jorge Castillo from ESPN. He is one of
Speaker 2: the best. You want to follow him on Twitter at
Speaker 2: Jorge Castio. When we continue here on Dodger Talk, you
Speaker 2: will hear our conversation with two of the legends of
Speaker 2: Los Angeles baseball, Darryl Strawberry Eric Davis. They were together
Speaker 2: and we'll share that conversation with you again right here
Speaker 2: on AM five to seventy LA Sports from New York
Speaker 2: Dodgers Mets tomorrow night, Kershaw Day at City Fields, and
Speaker 2: our coverage begins at three o'clock with first pitch at
Speaker 2: four to ten. I wanted to reshare a great conversation
Speaker 2: I had with two LA baseball legends. It was done
Speaker 2: in twenty twenty during the baseball shutdown due to the pandemic.
Speaker 2: Here was the great Darryl Strawberry and Eric Davis together
Speaker 2: again right here on AM five to seventy LA Sports.
Speaker 9: I say, how you doing everyday? What's up?
Speaker 6: D old timer? What do you do baby?
Speaker 7: How you coming on?
Speaker 6: You say good? We're good.
Speaker 9: We old timers out, so we call each other old timers.
Speaker 9: So it's good to be with you, David. Yeah, it's
Speaker 9: really good to be with you on the phone with
Speaker 9: my best friend growing up in California and playing a
Speaker 9: little lake together, Eric the great Davis Man.
Speaker 5: It is so great to hear your guys voice. And
Speaker 5: I know Los Angeles was really excited when we put
Speaker 5: this together. When you guys come back to LA, do
Speaker 5: you still feel the same love that you had when
Speaker 5: you grew up here?
Speaker 7: It don't never leave, David, because that's kind of DNA.
Speaker 7: Even though we started somewhere, and he started in New York,
Speaker 7: I started in Cincinnati, and then we went places, and
Speaker 7: he came to LA and then I ain't up coming
Speaker 7: to LA, and we went to all the places. LA
Speaker 7: will always be home, and so the jumilation of recite
Speaker 7: when we get when we go, it's just as anticified
Speaker 7: when we see the La Dodger fans and the Laker
Speaker 7: fans and.
Speaker 9: M nerators was there when we were there, So you know.
Speaker 7: We had a whole lot of but it was extraordinary
Speaker 7: and then it'll be part of what we do for
Speaker 7: the rest.
Speaker 6: Yeah, it is.
Speaker 9: It is remarkable, you know to sit back and think,
Speaker 9: you know, coming up and growing up in California and
Speaker 9: being a Laker fan and Dodger fan, myself and Erica,
Speaker 9: and you know, having our careers, you know, shot off
Speaker 9: somewhere else and and then you know, have an opportunity
Speaker 9: to come back home and play, and like Gerrek said,
Speaker 9: it will always be home. It's I mean, la, I
Speaker 9: mean he grew up on the free mind. I grew
Speaker 9: up in Crenshaw, and there's so many great baseball players
Speaker 9: that come out of Southern California and all of us
Speaker 9: got a chance to see each other and play against
Speaker 9: each other, and it's but there's nothing like home. There's
Speaker 9: nothing like Harbor Park. There's nothing like the program or
Speaker 9: who we were being eric and what we built around
Speaker 9: there for so many years in our old neighborhood when
Speaker 9: we became professional athletes.
Speaker 5: You guys put together a documentary a few years back
Speaker 5: about Harvard Park down there in South Central and even
Speaker 5: me in the San Fernando Valley used to hear about
Speaker 5: how you guys would be working out down there right
Speaker 5: before spring training. What did that park mean to not
Speaker 5: only you two guys to reconnect every off season, but
Speaker 5: what did it mean to the community for you guys
Speaker 5: to be there every off season?
Speaker 7: Well it started for me. It was uh and it
Speaker 7: was great that she was able to hear it down
Speaker 7: in the San Fernando vellay. That means we have some
Speaker 7: good marketing people.
Speaker 6: You know.
Speaker 7: They was about the spream news, but it was something
Speaker 7: that we really really took pride in because like the
Speaker 7: conversation me and Shaw would have and it really consummated
Speaker 7: itself from the history of so many black baseball players
Speaker 7: from South Central Inner City and our era. We heard
Speaker 7: about them and we didn't see them, and you know,
Speaker 7: some of them went on to do great things and
Speaker 7: they moved away and and so forth. But we wanted
Speaker 7: to make sure that our voices and our face was
Speaker 7: seen in the same areas that we grew up in.
Speaker 7: And by us starting Harvard Park where we did, it
Speaker 7: did two things. It created a culture gap because there's
Speaker 7: so many players coming from so many places in South
Speaker 7: Central and it reminded us of where we came from
Speaker 7: to always keep pushing, to keep wanting more and to
Speaker 7: keep doing better and to keep letting the kids around
Speaker 7: that area see us to know that dreams do come true.
Speaker 7: So it was remarkable. It was something that we did
Speaker 7: from the bottom of my heart. That number one, it
Speaker 7: had ever been done before that, and it's never been
Speaker 7: done prior to that. So having a good twis of
Speaker 7: the fifteen year run. And if you haven't seen the documentary,
Speaker 7: then you've missed something real special. But watch the documentary
Speaker 7: and watch how many different baseball executives and players and
Speaker 7: managers and scouts came from just that was part of
Speaker 7: Harvard Park. So for me, just being able to resonate
Speaker 7: everything around that for our community really gave us the
Speaker 7: worth all to want to be there, to let them
Speaker 7: know that we still care.
Speaker 5: Darryl, for you, how much did Harvard Park mean to you?
Speaker 5: And to be able to go back and you get
Speaker 5: to la with the Dodgers a year before Eric did.
Speaker 5: Did that all of it bring it full circle?
Speaker 1: Well?
Speaker 9: Yeah, of course it brought it full circle. But Harbor
Speaker 9: Park was always Barbara Park for us, you know, because
Speaker 9: there was a community of us growing up in and
Speaker 9: we will always want to go back and be a
Speaker 9: part of that. We want to be a part of people.
Speaker 9: I think that was the most important thing for me
Speaker 9: and Eric. You know, yeah, we were million dollar ball players,
Speaker 9: but here we were working out in the ghetto with
Speaker 9: trash cans. So we were making a statement and everybody
Speaker 9: was wondering, Yeah, everybody's wondering why these guys are not
Speaker 9: up at U c l A. Or USC were, like,
Speaker 9: we didn't grow up in Westwood, yeah wherever UCLA is,
Speaker 9: And we didn't grow up in See. We didn't grow
Speaker 9: up and you know, we didn't go to those schools.
Speaker 9: He went to Fremont, I went to Crenshaw, and we
Speaker 9: played on parks like these, and the reminder for us
Speaker 9: going back there was to make people understand that these
Speaker 9: parks like this breed major League Baseball players like myself,
Speaker 9: Ic Davis, Chris Brown, you can go on along the list.
Speaker 9: Eddie and Ozzie and all the different guys that come
Speaker 9: from southern California played in some of the same places
Speaker 9: we played in out in Compton, you know, we played
Speaker 9: out there. But Harvard Park was very special to us
Speaker 9: because there was a neighborhood full of trouble, full of crime,
Speaker 9: and we were the only guys that were and they
Speaker 9: had gangs in that area, and we were like the
Speaker 9: only guys nobody would ever touch think about touching coming
Speaker 9: in that neighborhood. They would walk around what we were
Speaker 9: doing there, and they thought it was just amazing that
Speaker 9: we would be a part of a community like this
Speaker 9: that we know so much about and know the trouble
Speaker 9: that was there. But at the same time, we realized
Speaker 9: that this is home for us, and we need to
Speaker 9: let young people and young athletes see that. You know,
Speaker 9: you can come out of here and be very successful.
Speaker 5: Eric Davis and Darryl Strawberry are joining us on Dodger Talk.
Speaker 5: And the one thing that I said about you two
Speaker 5: guys before you came on, not only were you really
Speaker 5: great baseball players, you're great people. Number one and number two.
Speaker 5: You made everything you did cool, from the high top
Speaker 5: shoes that you wore to working out at Harvard Park.
Speaker 5: Do you feel like some of the swag in the
Speaker 5: style is missing from baseball all these days the way
Speaker 5: you guys used to do it. And like I mentioned
Speaker 5: Harvard Park, you guys made it cool to want to
Speaker 5: be there.
Speaker 10: Oh there, let me just add them real quick man
Speaker 10: swag is not something you give yourself. Okay, this generation
Speaker 10: creates their own swag. That's why you have so many
Speaker 10: people that are branding themselves. Swag is something that someone
Speaker 10: else gives you.
Speaker 4: Okay.
Speaker 7: If they saw dyl Strawberry, they was like, there he
Speaker 7: is watched, They went to watch, they went to sit down.
Speaker 7: His name was ringing. When we were ten years old.
Speaker 7: That swag. When you went to Prinshaw to watch the
Speaker 7: the basketball team play, you was trying to figure out
Speaker 7: where was he there? He is right there. That's your swag.
Speaker 7: When other people talk about you in that light, that's
Speaker 7: your swag. Now you have guys now that give themselves
Speaker 7: nicknames and doctor themselves up. They instag, they show, they
Speaker 7: do a lot of different things to create the attention,
Speaker 7: but their game don't highlight their swag. Swag is something
Speaker 7: that somebody else gives you. So what you saw was
Speaker 7: the natural essence of what we was all about. Style
Speaker 7: and charisma is something that we was all about from
Speaker 7: a kid, and it wasn't something that transcended or turned
Speaker 7: into once we got to the major leagues. And so
Speaker 7: by us liking the things that we were doing and
Speaker 7: entertaining the people from a young age, that created our swag,
Speaker 7: and then that just materialized over time because the better
Speaker 7: you performed, the better swag you got, you know what
Speaker 7: I'm saying. So him being an ultimate and me being
Speaker 7: an ultimate, we was driven by that. Swag just consumed us.
Speaker 7: And that's what people really know about you, is about
Speaker 7: how you performed, not what you say on Instagram or
Speaker 7: Facebook or whatever.
Speaker 5: Daryl, you're on Instagram, you see all that. Yeah, I'm
Speaker 5: sure you agree.
Speaker 9: With Eric, Well yeah, yeah, but I understand that in there.
Speaker 9: It's clearly clear about that. You know, the swag. Swag
Speaker 9: is what you know. It's not something that we label
Speaker 9: ourselves to be. Is it what people make you out
Speaker 9: of because of they watch you and they see you
Speaker 9: and and we didn't really have We had a different
Speaker 9: style about us. Us swag was like you know, from
Speaker 9: the ghetto. You know, we wasn't nobody gave us a
Speaker 9: spoon and gave us anything. We had to work for it.
Speaker 9: We had to work hard. We come from some very
Speaker 9: difficult times and situations, and you know, we had to
Speaker 9: build who we were. We had to we had to
Speaker 9: fight our way through neighborhoods and you know, the gangs
Speaker 9: and everything that was around us to play ball and
Speaker 9: stuff like that. So you know, we we developed, we
Speaker 9: developed who we were by stepping on the field and performing.
Speaker 9: I mean, it just clearly showed that, you know, when
Speaker 9: we played little together and you know, and Eric was
Speaker 9: a short stop batting the leadoff and I was hitting third,
Speaker 9: Chris Brown was hitting for you imagine a lineup like
Speaker 9: that with guys in there, and you got to face
Speaker 9: those type of hitters like that, and then we get
Speaker 9: to the big leagues and then we take it to
Speaker 9: a whole nother level. You know, Eric takes the game
Speaker 9: to a whole another level as a as a player
Speaker 9: that you know, hits over thirty home runs, still eighty bags,
Speaker 9: you know, doing things like that, doing doing things that
Speaker 9: players was not doing and in the air and the
Speaker 9: time that we came up and players today are not
Speaker 9: even doing that the kind of players we were back
Speaker 9: in the day. So you know, that's what really gave us,
Speaker 9: you know, brought the attention of who we were because
Speaker 9: we were different. You know, we come from a different
Speaker 9: place and we played the game a different way.
Speaker 5: How much did you guys take from where you came
Speaker 5: onto the into the minor leagues and onto the major
Speaker 5: league stage. Do you feel like everything you guys went
Speaker 5: through off the field helped you be better players on
Speaker 5: the field when you got to this type of situations
Speaker 5: where there were a lot of attention and pressure gets
Speaker 5: a little bit higher. Did you feel like all the
Speaker 5: pressure of trying to survive was bigger than anything you
Speaker 5: were going to face in the big leagues.
Speaker 7: Uh, the pressure and how to survive in South Central
Speaker 7: was way harder trying to make it to the major leagues.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 7: Yeah, just going to school, the towsand tribulations, I mean,
Speaker 7: having a fight that had your letterman jacket or your
Speaker 7: or your Walla Bees or your biscuits or or someone
Speaker 7: trying to take you another code or your bomber jacket
Speaker 7: going here and there. I was more afraid of my
Speaker 7: mama than I was anybody on the street. And if
Speaker 7: I came home and I didn't have my bomber jacket,
Speaker 7: I was going to deal with my mama. And so
Speaker 7: right on the street was second nature to me and
Speaker 7: Gondirl the same way Ruby was that tough the rocks
Speaker 7: for all of his siblings and stuff. So knowing that
Speaker 7: going to play a game that that you grew up
Speaker 7: playing on dirt with glass and different things of that nature. See,
Speaker 7: they give the guys from Latin America that create about
Speaker 7: where they came from and out they played. We did
Speaker 7: it the same way in the parking recreations. That's why
Speaker 7: Straw was so intimate about us playing at Harvard Park,
Speaker 7: Ross Snyder, Jackie Robinson all dirt in fields. We didn't
Speaker 7: have the grass and fields and all those types of
Speaker 7: things and stuff. So when you got to the point
Speaker 7: to where, uh, I'm gonna tell you a story. Actually,
Speaker 7: we had a County MAC team and like eighteen of
Speaker 7: our guys off our County MAC team to got drafted right,
Speaker 7: and we won the Pacific Regionals at Compton and we
Speaker 7: went up to Seattle, Washington, right, and so they put
Speaker 7: us on. After we landed, they took us to the
Speaker 7: field and we just started laughing because the guys was like,
Speaker 7: y'all laughing, what y'all laughing? We got we playing here,
Speaker 7: and they was like, yeah, the most home runs in
Speaker 7: the tournament was seven. We hit six the first night
Speaker 7: and we broke the record. Because we were used to
Speaker 7: playing in open spaces where guys could play all the
Speaker 7: way back to the swimming pool or something. So when
Speaker 7: you saw a nice beautiful field, they was gonna get it,
Speaker 7: and they got it. So knowing all of that and
Speaker 7: then taking that into the minor leagues, it wasn't if
Speaker 7: for us it was wintered.
Speaker 5: Yeah, was that the same experience for you?
Speaker 7: David Strong hit the ball in that ballpark that they
Speaker 7: still looking for they ain't found it. It's almost forty.
Speaker 6: So you know, doubt it was.
Speaker 9: So it was so incredible. I mean, it was so
Speaker 9: incredible for us to grow up, you know, actually where
Speaker 9: we grew up in South Central and become you know,
Speaker 9: major league baseball players. I think, like Ed was saying,
Speaker 9: most people, we don't know. The challenges were more difficult
Speaker 9: for us, you know, walking to school and being challenged
Speaker 9: by people from different neighborhoods and things like that that
Speaker 9: we had to deal with. Putting the uniform on was
Speaker 9: easy for us, you know, because think about it, we
Speaker 9: both played basketball. Eric played for Free Mind, I played
Speaker 9: for Current Shall. We played basketball. Then we go crossover
Speaker 9: and we go into baseball, and we get into baseball,
Speaker 9: and playing baseball was just really easy for us, you know,
Speaker 9: but we were so determined. Me and Eric was different
Speaker 9: than everybody else because we saw guys get drafted before us,
Speaker 9: and we saw how they were when they responded when
Speaker 9: they came back, and we just used to say to ourselves,
Speaker 9: they have not seen nothing until we get into the league,
Speaker 9: because we're going to be totally different, different type of
Speaker 9: players because they didn't have Most people didn't have the
Speaker 9: ability that me and Eric had. We had such a
Speaker 9: high level five two two ability to play the game
Speaker 9: and i Q for the i Q was so high
Speaker 9: for the game and understanding the game the way it
Speaker 9: should be played at such a different level, and I
Speaker 9: think most people would never really recognize that. They didn't
Speaker 9: recognize us until we actually entered into the big leagues
Speaker 9: and realized and started playing the way we started to play,
Speaker 9: and they was like, Wow, I never seen anything like this.
Speaker 9: Would you know these two guys play at such a
Speaker 9: high level like we did.
Speaker 5: I could say this flat out. I mean, I'm not
Speaker 5: as old as you guys, but I watched you guys play,
Speaker 5: and I would say that you two guys were two
Speaker 5: of the best players I ever seen play baseball. But
Speaker 5: all I hear about is how good you guys were
Speaker 5: at basketball. So did you guys ever go head to
Speaker 5: head at Fremont Crenshaw. Did you guys ever play guard
Speaker 5: each other? I thought maybe might want to switch. I thought,
Speaker 5: maybe you might want to switch.
Speaker 7: I can do with him on the I was and
Speaker 7: and uh, and the star was a quarterback at Prinshaw.
Speaker 7: I got recruited to to play football. They didn't even
Speaker 7: know I played basketball or baseball. So the the ability
Speaker 7: to be more time talented has left a whole lot
Speaker 7: of our black athletes because of it's such a high
Speaker 7: profile sports now that they're putting all their marbles into
Speaker 7: basketball or all their marbles into football. We could our
Speaker 7: marbles into sports and then let our talents take us
Speaker 7: where we wanted to go. But it gave us options.
Speaker 7: The Straw could have went to any school he wanted to.
Speaker 7: I could have went to almost any school that I
Speaker 7: wanted to. So the options of being multi colleged helped us.
Speaker 7: In baseball, I was able to jump over the fence
Speaker 7: because I could have dump backwards.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 7: It was so many different garls that I took from
Speaker 7: the basketball court onto the baseball and Searan did the
Speaker 7: same time. I mean, he could run jump through all
Speaker 7: the different anchors of him being a quarterback was which
Speaker 7: his mom was so small. So you have to know
Speaker 7: how to diversify and put things kind of around you
Speaker 7: to allow each sport to give you saulting and and
Speaker 7: knowing all the great athletes that came from south Centralinia.
Speaker 7: The ball was said h even for baseball at the
Speaker 7: at UH the Prince or Ellis Valentine and the guys
Speaker 7: and Artie Johnson and wanted to tire. It was so
Speaker 7: many different players that you saw, even from front with
Speaker 7: chet Lemon and Danny Paul and Barbie Tua. You had
Speaker 7: Uh the Dorsey and Manuel in Washington and Jefferson, so
Speaker 7: you had West. So you had so much talent where
Speaker 7: you had to measure up where you was gonna get
Speaker 7: sit there. You know, you had to cover the place.
Speaker 7: So was the competition at such a little at lower
Speaker 7: level for us Pat Warner and those things were so
Speaker 7: competitive that when we got to play against guys our age,
Speaker 7: because we always played against guys older than us, and
Speaker 7: so so when we got to play against guys our age,
Speaker 7: they was in trouble. They they was in trouble right right.
Speaker 7: That's so true because you make that so clear. Because
Speaker 7: we grew up around so many different players and our coach,
Speaker 7: Earl Brown, who coached us in the Summer League. All
Speaker 7: he talked about is all these other players. Oh, you
Speaker 7: guys not better than Eddie and Ozzie. You know, he
Speaker 7: just he just built us up inside to be better
Speaker 7: than guys like that because they came through the same place,
Speaker 7: playing out the accompidence.
Speaker 6: Eddie and Ozzie.
Speaker 9: They did this, and they did that. We used to
Speaker 9: say nothing, guys. Yeah, Willie calls so many kid, there
Speaker 9: were so many. Yeah, it was many of them a
Speaker 9: head of us, and you know, and he kept always,
Speaker 9: you know, putting it in our ears and me and
Speaker 9: Ed was like, well, we only to stamp on this
Speaker 9: because when we when we get out of here and
Speaker 9: we get to the major League, it's gonna be a
Speaker 9: different ball game because they ain't gonna be to do
Speaker 9: the kind of things that we're gonna do. Like he said,
Speaker 9: you know, we could jump, you can get over he
Speaker 9: going over the watch. See I would have had forty
Speaker 9: home runs, but Eric got this war. I mean, if
Speaker 9: he had to go over the wall and stay stadium
Speaker 9: and take one of my home runs and then the
Speaker 9: other day, then the next day he throws me out
Speaker 9: at third base trying to go from first to third,
Speaker 9: and I was like, oh, you're supposed to hey, right
Speaker 9: that David Starar's hard hitted. I told him to pull
Speaker 9: the ball like before he get going on the bus
Speaker 9: outside the little state. So I told him to be
Speaker 9: disrespectful by tagging up on merespectful when we was kids,
Speaker 9: but we was in the Apple. It was naturally televised
Speaker 9: im And then he took me to dinner and we
Speaker 9: had a good time after the game. So in between
Speaker 9: the lines, our competitor jus was just that.
Speaker 5: Yeah, that's the one thing I always wondered about you guys.
Speaker 5: Did you did you know Straw got his World Series
Speaker 5: before you did? D Was there any of that kind
Speaker 5: of trash talking between you guys?
Speaker 4: No?
Speaker 9: No, never, no never. It was always the best, It
Speaker 9: was after the best. Yeah, I'm gonna tell you how
Speaker 9: humble dryl was and still is. As I might add,
Speaker 9: is that even when he went Rookie of the Year,
Speaker 9: we went to the Laker games, and we would always
Speaker 9: go to Laker games and everybody was telling Daryl congratulations
Speaker 9: and was hanging around him, but all he could say
Speaker 9: was wait till my partner comes.
Speaker 7: Nothing became. And that's how humble he was, was that
Speaker 7: he was always saying, don't y'all think I'm good.
Speaker 6: Wait till he come.
Speaker 7: And so no matter where the situations we were, he
Speaker 7: always looked out for everybody that was around it. So
Speaker 7: they became my turn. I did the same thing. I
Speaker 7: looked up to all the guys from Brown and the
Speaker 7: guys that That's how our program was was. It wasn't
Speaker 7: just about man Daryl. It was about every one of
Speaker 7: us who came to be hung her. And that was
Speaker 7: one of the reasons why we started the program, was
Speaker 7: to give so many different guys the opportunity to see
Speaker 7: how also when they made it, then they would do
Speaker 7: the same thing and the team would be going and
Speaker 7: going and going. So Strong was really the leader of
Speaker 7: that because he made it to the major league first,
Speaker 7: and he showed us the way and he helped us
Speaker 7: get there by how how hard he was. And it's
Speaker 7: it's something that needs to be clarified. It's because when
Speaker 7: you have black athletes who are challenged, they think we
Speaker 7: don't work hard because we're so kind. But if you
Speaker 7: would have watched the weights and the and the running
Speaker 7: and the things that we did every day, then you
Speaker 7: would have saw that. But he lied in that. He
Speaker 7: was the first one of us. I can remember that
Speaker 7: started lifting weights and stuff when he had a personal
Speaker 7: trainer first, and I'm like, what you doing with that? No, dog,
Speaker 7: we got to keep grunting. Okay, then I have to go.
Speaker 7: Because she led that. That's the kind of individual he was.
Speaker 9: That's why he was so successful. Well that's true. Thanks
Speaker 9: he but that we were all like that together because
Speaker 9: we were like brothers, we were like the family. And
Speaker 9: the thing about it, David, is we cared about all
Speaker 9: our younger players coming underneath us, you know, like the
Speaker 9: Royce Clayton, you know, he comes from underneath us, you know,
Speaker 9: learning out there with us, and we taught him to
Speaker 9: have the mentality to be strong and learn how to
Speaker 9: go through the adversities of sports. Is gonna be there
Speaker 9: and you're gonna have some learned to deal with it.
Speaker 9: So it was just it came from all of us,
Speaker 9: you know, it came from It really came from me
Speaker 9: and Eve because we were like the cornerstone and everything
Speaker 9: around there when it came to the program, because the
Speaker 9: program was about Harvard Park and it was about where
Speaker 9: we come out of and where we never leave. And
Speaker 9: I think that's what really made us great because we
Speaker 9: never forgot where we came from. And there was no egos.
Speaker 9: You know, it was all about It wasn't about being selfish.
Speaker 9: It was about us lifting each other up and encouraging
Speaker 9: each each other. And like erk Sin, I wonder took
Speaker 9: get here, but I was like, you guys, wait, my
Speaker 9: boy is coming. He is bad. You guys have never
Speaker 9: seen anything like this here. I'm telling you you just
Speaker 9: waiting until you see it. And once they got a
Speaker 9: chance to see it, they realized, like wow, these are
Speaker 9: like true guys that come out of South Central that
Speaker 9: really built their own legacy the way they wanted to
Speaker 9: build it. Now, some way somebody else should have said
Speaker 9: it should have been the way we decided that it
Speaker 9: was going to be. And we was going to help
Speaker 9: all these younger players, like I said, that were around us,
Speaker 9: because all the young players at the program. People need
Speaker 9: to go watch Harbor Park, they need to go see that.
Speaker 4: I'm gonna tell you something, Dave.
Speaker 7: And and and just how how much Giryl and myself
Speaker 7: connect the two guys coming from South Central. We weren't
Speaker 7: put on an average pedestal girl was supposed to be
Speaker 7: the next Ted Williams, one of the greatest players and
Speaker 7: not one of the top three players of all time,
Speaker 7: and I was supposed to be. The players had carried
Speaker 7: that type of baggage as eighteen to nineteen year old.
Speaker 7: We had to live with that and and to move
Speaker 7: through the minor leagues and to move through the major league.
Speaker 7: I can't call a player of my era and Straw's
Speaker 7: era that was dealt with that kind of pressure as
Speaker 7: a tangent. And and did we get there. No, But
Speaker 7: it wasn't because of the talent and the way we played.
Speaker 7: It was because of injury and the way I played
Speaker 7: and the way Daryl played, how how he got hurt.
Speaker 7: We would have had so much.
Speaker 4: Fun and and winning.
Speaker 7: Here in l A. He hurt his back, I had
Speaker 7: triple surgery. But if you go back and look at
Speaker 7: our records on the game that we played together, we
Speaker 7: were we We was tearing people up sports the way
Speaker 7: of of of changing the narrow behind something on the
Speaker 7: aftermon Uh. People ask me all the time, it would
Speaker 7: you change something.
Speaker 4: And I'll be like no, because of the way.
Speaker 7: That I went about it, the people that I went
Speaker 7: through what I went through with I wouldn't have changed
Speaker 7: how I played. I wouldn't changed the people that I
Speaker 7: played with. I wouldn't have changed our friendship. I would
Speaker 7: have changed how we run. I wouldn't have played all
Speaker 7: the bad things we went through, and I wouldn't changed
Speaker 7: men the good things, because everything that we went through
Speaker 7: is the reason that we're the people that we are
Speaker 7: today at fifty eight years old. So to me, that
Speaker 7: story is still going on. There's still more chapters. Look
Speaker 7: at what he's doing now. And it's ironic that we
Speaker 7: both now don't live in California and we go back
Speaker 7: because of how the chapters in our lives have taken
Speaker 7: us other places to do things with people that we
Speaker 7: never thought that we would do, not just in baseball,
Speaker 7: but away from baseball. That's what I'm thought of it,
Speaker 7: you know, girls, part of the same thing.
Speaker 2: I'm sorry, Yl, go ahead.
Speaker 9: No I am. I'm really proud of me and Eric
Speaker 9: And when I look back and I reflect back on
Speaker 9: what it was like, how we were growing up and
Speaker 9: who we were in LA and we came out. We
Speaker 9: came out of California with more hype than any any
Speaker 9: player I think in the history of baseball being like
Speaker 9: Eric said, me being Ted Williams the next Ted Williams
Speaker 9: and him being Willie Mays. And I don't think anybody
Speaker 9: really understands what that's like, you know, to be able
Speaker 9: to carry that and have to have that on us.
Speaker 9: And and the way we played in the game, and
Speaker 9: we played the win all the time. It was lights out,
Speaker 9: you know. And we wasn't just a one demential player,
Speaker 9: you know, we were we were players where you know, we
Speaker 9: hit home runs, we steal bases, we played the field,
Speaker 9: we run scored and we I mean, we did it all.
Speaker 9: And that that took a grind on who we were physically,
Speaker 9: and then the body starts to break down. You start
Speaker 9: having the injuries, like their said, and you know, and
Speaker 9: of course you know, I come through the troubles of
Speaker 9: my life with the addiction part too, so that played
Speaker 9: another part of slowing me down even more. And it's
Speaker 9: a real reality. But like he's like he was saying,
Speaker 9: who had made us today? When we look back at
Speaker 9: who we were and when we see each other, we
Speaker 9: laughed because we had such a good time of being
Speaker 9: who we were in California growing up there exactly We'll
Speaker 9: never forget that. We'll never forget that what that's really
Speaker 9: like and what what it was like growing up there,
Speaker 9: because when you look at all the people that have
Speaker 9: come through Southern California and all the players, you know,
Speaker 9: I remember the players we played blank and ship them
Speaker 9: and I think that we did them in the playoffs
Speaker 9: and they were supposed to be hot stuff. Yeah Bush, Yeah,
Speaker 9: we beat them. We beat them out of the component and stuff.
Speaker 9: You know, it was just you know, it was us,
Speaker 9: you know, us with me, Eric and Chris Brown. And
Speaker 9: Chris Brown was a part of us too in those days,
Speaker 9: you know, when we were growing up. But me and
Speaker 9: Eric uh put ourselves in a position. And I remember
Speaker 9: sitting there kind of you know, at the stage him
Speaker 9: and Eric was drafted and I was number one. I
Speaker 9: was still holding out. He said, man, dog, I gotta go.
Speaker 9: I gotta get going. You know, I didn't have any
Speaker 9: much hold.
Speaker 6: Oh I didn't have any record.
Speaker 9: He didn't know, he didn't taking but he knew what
Speaker 9: the thing about it was what makes me so proud
Speaker 9: of Ericus. He knew where he was going. See like
Speaker 9: those players, I knew where I was going. He knew
Speaker 9: where he was going. We knew that we wasn't gonna
Speaker 9: fall shore. We knew that one day we would be
Speaker 9: in the show, and it was just a matter of time.
Speaker 2: That is a bucket list childhood dream. Talking to Eric
Speaker 2: Davis and Darryl Strawberry. Ronnie will podcast that interview again.
Speaker 2: It was from twenty twenty, but worth sharing again. Thanks
Speaker 2: to hory A Casti you, thanks to the straw and
Speaker 2: Ed for their help, and thank you to Ronnie Fossio.
Speaker 2: We will be back with you tomorrow at three o'clock
Speaker 2: for a pregame first pitch at four to ten between
Speaker 2: the Dodgers, and that's Cruse shaw Day right here on
Speaker 2: AM five seventy LA Sports. Thanks again Ronnie Fascio and
Speaker 2: thanks to you for listening. We'll talk to you tomorrow.
Speaker 2: See you