Speaker 1: And now an exclusive interview with David Bassey for Dodger Talking.
Speaker 1: We're drawing right now by a man that has been
Speaker 1: part of two Dodger World Series championships. He continues to
Speaker 1: be a guy they can lean on at the hot corner,
Speaker 1: and that is the one and only Max Monsy. Max
Speaker 1: thanks a lot for the time.
Speaker 2: Appreciate it, of course, David, anything for you.
Speaker 1: I appreciate that you got those beautiful sunglasses on now.
Speaker 1: And it feels like the season is starting to go
Speaker 1: Max Monthsy's way.
Speaker 3: You know, all all can do is just folks on
Speaker 3: the positives that I've had and you just keep try
Speaker 3: to build on that and move forward. And you know,
Speaker 3: the most important thing to me is the team's playing well.
Speaker 3: I know we had a little bit of a skid
Speaker 3: last couple of games, but overall we're playing well, and
Speaker 3: you know that's the that's the end goal is.
Speaker 2: For the team to do well.
Speaker 1: How big is it to get tom Yedman and Tioscar
Speaker 1: Hernandez back. It feels like the lineup now is more
Speaker 1: whole than when any of you guys are out of it.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, it's huge getting both them back. It feels like
Speaker 3: we really haven't played all season with you know, a
Speaker 3: full healthy where guys are performing like themselves. You know,
Speaker 3: early on Freddie was out, Mookie was sick, and Tommy
Speaker 3: and too get hurt. I hadn't been playing like myself.
Speaker 3: We're still you know, Mikey's still coming around, and you know,
Speaker 3: we just we have not the full lineup clicking on
Speaker 3: all cylinders yet, and so you know, we're waiting to
Speaker 3: get to that point, and we know once we do,
Speaker 3: we're really going to take off. But you know, until then,
Speaker 3: we're still playing pretty well.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and your record's pretty good too.
Speaker 1: When you look at it, it might be kind of
Speaker 1: scary for the rest of the league with everything that
Speaker 1: you just said.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, you know that is that is the hope.
Speaker 3: You know, hopefully we just get that lengthen there we
Speaker 3: can start getting some guys some days off, you know,
Speaker 3: keep us healthy in the long run. And you know
Speaker 3: it's always an important thing, is try to get to
Speaker 3: October healthy.
Speaker 1: Can I take you back to the NLCS and your
Speaker 1: major league record of getting on base twelve consecutive times,
Speaker 1: like when you're in that type of zone seeing the
Speaker 1: ball as well as you were seeing it, does any
Speaker 1: of that factor into you that hey, I might be
Speaker 1: doing something thing here.
Speaker 3: Yeah, when when the ball slows down for you, that's
Speaker 3: when you know you're you're in a good spot. You
Speaker 3: know you're able to recognize everything, You feel like you're
Speaker 3: able to get your swing off on everything.
Speaker 2: That's a it's a really good spot to be in.
Speaker 3: There's not many times at the course of the season
Speaker 3: where you get in that zone.
Speaker 2: And so for me, that was a great time to
Speaker 2: be in it.
Speaker 3: Uh. Wish I could have kept it going, but you
Speaker 3: know that's uh, that's the nature of it. And you know,
Speaker 3: for me, it was just important to be on basically
Speaker 3: that many times for my teammates to drive me in
Speaker 3: and you know, help, let's get that series win.
Speaker 1: Isn't that the value of max month? See we always
Speaker 1: look at the results, but what you do as part
Speaker 1: of this whole lineup, like in the NLCS, how much
Speaker 1: pride do you take in knowing your value?
Speaker 3: I take a lot of pride in knowing that I
Speaker 3: can be the guy that allows everyone else to be themselves.
Speaker 3: You know, if guys want to swing first pitch, attack early,
Speaker 3: they know they can do that if they got me
Speaker 3: in front of them. Or behind them, knowing that if
Speaker 3: I need to, I can work the bat, make the
Speaker 3: pitcher throw a bunch of pitches. That way, the inning
Speaker 3: doesn't get too lopsided in their favor.
Speaker 2: And it's some of them that.
Speaker 3: I've really taken a lot of pride in, and you know,
Speaker 3: I know that's what my value is here, is to
Speaker 3: just be that guy that gives the lineup so much
Speaker 3: length and you know, just doesn't make it easy on
Speaker 3: the picture. Even if it's now, it's still not easy out.
Speaker 3: And that's, you know, something I've always always taken pride in.
Speaker 1: Yeah, there's a they called it a lineup for a reason.
Speaker 1: It's not just you on an island.
Speaker 3: It feels like that when you're in the batter's box sometimes,
Speaker 3: but yeah, it is nine guys.
Speaker 2: You know, it's up and down.
Speaker 3: You know, you're you're really trying to get you know,
Speaker 3: the opposing picture to throw a lot of pitches, get
Speaker 3: out of the game.
Speaker 2: You're trying to get some runs on the board. And
Speaker 2: it is a group effort.
Speaker 3: It's not just one guy, even though it does kind
Speaker 3: of feel like it sometimes.
Speaker 1: Max Munsey is our guest. Before I let you go,
Speaker 1: I spoke to Joe Tory a couple of weeks ago.
Speaker 1: He was the manager that led the Yankees to back
Speaker 1: to back World Series championships twenty five years ago, and
Speaker 1: you said the biggest message he had to those teams
Speaker 1: was not to admire what you had done the year before.
Speaker 1: Do you feel like this group has done a pretty
Speaker 1: good job of not at my hiring what you did
Speaker 1: last year.
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 3: You know, part of that was going to Japan this year.
Speaker 3: You you don't have a ton of time in the
Speaker 3: off season, you know, the whole point, the whole goal
Speaker 3: was to be playing late intil October November, and then
Speaker 3: that means you have a really short offseason, and then
Speaker 3: for us going to Japan with and even shorter offseason.
Speaker 3: So I don't think a lot of guys had a
Speaker 3: ton of time.
Speaker 2: To kind of sit there and reflect on, you know,
Speaker 2: last year.
Speaker 3: It's always a little tough when you know you're you're
Speaker 3: you're playing teams that have guys from the team last year,
Speaker 3: and you're doing ring ceremonies and you know you're wearing
Speaker 3: the jerseys you got all this other stuff, and it's
Speaker 3: hard not to admire it sometimes. But I think for
Speaker 3: a lot of us we've just you know, stay focused
Speaker 3: on taking it one day at a time. And I
Speaker 3: think that's also the beauty of having an older team
Speaker 3: that we know, we have a lot of guys that
Speaker 3: know how to just, you know, you take this season
Speaker 3: one day at a time, and you know what what
Speaker 3: you did the day yes, you know, yesterday, the day before,
Speaker 3: that doesn't really matter.
Speaker 2: What you think you might do tomorrow, it doesn't matter.
Speaker 2: All that matter is what you're gonna do today.
Speaker 3: And that was the message we've always been trying to,
Speaker 3: you know, Preacher, is what can you do today to
Speaker 3: help the team when and you know, when the day
Speaker 3: is over, you flush it.
Speaker 2: And you move on to the next day. Be where
Speaker 2: your feet are.
Speaker 1: Max Monsey always is thanks a lot for the time,
Speaker 1: and you mean a lot to this team and you
Speaker 1: mean a lot to Los Angeles. So keep it going
Speaker 1: and stay healthy.
Speaker 2: Appreciate it. David