Speaker 1: We're joined right now by one of the newest members
Speaker 1: of the Dodger bullpen, Michael Kopek. Michael, thanks a lot
Speaker 1: for the time. Appreciate it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, thanks for having me.
Speaker 1: It was great to introduce myself to you on the
Speaker 1: bus yesterday. It feels like I got some streak cred
Speaker 1: with you after you recognized the slide gate.
Speaker 3: Yeah. I didn't realize it was you until I asked
Speaker 3: the question, and then you made it seem like I
Speaker 3: had kind of attacked you there, So I'm sorry about that.
Speaker 3: But yeah, I want to see around two at it.
Speaker 1: I would need Michael Kopek and some other Dodgers to
Speaker 1: support me at the bottom of the slide if I
Speaker 1: went down.
Speaker 3: Yeah, like I said, I'd support you. I'd help brace
Speaker 3: your fall in somewhere or another.
Speaker 1: Hey, last night, another great outing with the Dodgers. How
Speaker 1: have you been able to make the transition so seamless
Speaker 1: or appear to make it so seamless?
Speaker 3: You know what, I think, it's just for me a
Speaker 3: matter of a couple of things. A change of scenery
Speaker 3: has been important for me because the start of my
Speaker 3: career didn't exactly go the way I for it to
Speaker 3: have gone, but also coming to a team that is
Speaker 3: disinvested in winning, that has so many moving pieces that
Speaker 3: you don't have to have, you know, one guy go
Speaker 3: out there and be a hero anything like that necessarily.
Speaker 2: You just you have to come in and step into
Speaker 2: your job.
Speaker 3: And even if you don't that day, you know that
Speaker 3: there's gonna be guys to pick you up. And so
Speaker 3: it's it's almost, you know, just playing stress free because
Speaker 3: there's MVP after MVP on this team, there's All Star
Speaker 3: after All Star on this team.
Speaker 2: There's some of the.
Speaker 3: Best pitchers in all of baseball in this team, if
Speaker 3: not the best pitcher or in all the baseball. So
Speaker 3: you don't necessarily worry about dropping the ball and you know,
Speaker 3: messing up a game or what have you, because you
Speaker 3: know that everything is kind of being picked up after
Speaker 3: you if if something slips that day.
Speaker 1: And the Dodgers do define roles, but they don't define
Speaker 1: it by innings. They do it by groupings of hitters.
Speaker 1: Last night, the highest leverage situation was in the eighth
Speaker 1: inning when you came in. Does that happen with other teams?
Speaker 1: Where is that unique?
Speaker 2: I'm in my experience, it's unique.
Speaker 3: I like how it plays out, though, because I think
Speaker 3: amongst the guys in the bullpen, each and every one
Speaker 3: of us realized that we could close out a game
Speaker 3: on any given night, but we could also be in in,
Speaker 3: you know, in the fifth if the situation called for
Speaker 3: it or what have you. And I don't think any
Speaker 3: of us doubts one situation versus another for any guy
Speaker 3: down there.
Speaker 2: So it's been pretty it's been pretty unique. It's been
Speaker 2: pretty cool, though.
Speaker 3: I like pitching when the game calls for me to pitch,
Speaker 3: whether that be the you know, the first through the
Speaker 3: ninth that I don't care.
Speaker 1: Have you embraced being a super reliever, I mean that's
Speaker 1: what we call a lot of these guys. Have you
Speaker 1: fully embraced it? And is that part of the reason
Speaker 1: why you're excelling?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't. I don't know if I like any
Speaker 3: kind of label on what I do rather than pitcher.
Speaker 3: You know, I've been in almost every position you can
Speaker 3: imagine as a pitcher in the big leagues.
Speaker 2: Have been a starter, middle.
Speaker 3: Relief, a bolt guy, long guy, a leverage guy, closer
Speaker 3: at times. But I think for me, it's just going
Speaker 3: out there and pitching and matching the.
Speaker 2: Necessity of the game.
Speaker 3: So right now, every game seems like leverage because we're
Speaker 3: a winning team fighting for you know, you know, a
Speaker 3: really good position in the playoffs, so it's really easy
Speaker 3: to go out there and compete.
Speaker 1: Speaking of labels, you would expect from a relief pitcher
Speaker 1: or pitcher that throws as hard as you do, we
Speaker 1: would be blown away with your hair on fire, very
Speaker 1: outgoing personality. But that's not who Michael Kopak is.
Speaker 3: No, you know, I think that just came with growing up.
Speaker 3: But at one point I probably was more after the
Speaker 3: the energy and the personality or what have you. But
Speaker 3: you know, I I've kind of adapted to the game
Speaker 3: and I found my my calm and my piece in
Speaker 3: this game. And you know, especially since having kids, I
Speaker 3: feel like that I I operate on a on that
Speaker 3: level much easier than you know, getting too ramped up
Speaker 3: and riding the wave or the roller coaster. How emotions go.
Speaker 3: So I try my best to say even keel, not
Speaker 3: to say that I'm perfect at it, but I yeah,
Speaker 3: I don't like getting too high.
Speaker 1: Yeah the parenting change, you did it give you better
Speaker 1: perspective on baseball?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Absolutely?
Speaker 3: This game was you know my my whole world for
Speaker 3: a really long time, and then after having kids, you
Speaker 3: realize how small a part of my life this really is,
Speaker 3: even though there's a magnitude of it that touches everything
Speaker 3: in my life, Like not taking the importance away from
Speaker 3: it at all. You know, it's my livelihood and it's
Speaker 3: how I provide. And you know, I've got to see
Speaker 3: a lot of the world because of this game. And
Speaker 3: I'm very appreciative of this game. But at the same time,
Speaker 3: if it was stripped away from me at any given moment,
Speaker 3: you know, my pieces in my family and my kids
Speaker 3: and I have a lot more to live for than
Speaker 3: just this game.
Speaker 2: But I am appreciated to be where I am. I know.
Speaker 1: All right, So I saw you out here earlier doing
Speaker 1: your pre work preparation. What music are you listening to?
Speaker 1: A c DC back in black? Are you more yacht rock?
Speaker 1: Where does Michael Kopek fit?
Speaker 3: To be honest, I wasn't listening to music. I was
Speaker 3: kind of just, you know, fighting with some demons in
Speaker 3: my head. We all are, yeah, right for the most part, though,
Speaker 3: I kind of mix it up. I like country music,
Speaker 3: I like Christian rap or you know, Christian music. In general,
Speaker 3: it branches pretty pretty far and wide, and I like
Speaker 3: a lot of classic rock as well, but I'm not
Speaker 3: penned on one genre necessarily.
Speaker 1: All right, Michael, thanks a lot for sharing more of
Speaker 1: who you are, introducing yourself more to Los Angeles. We
Speaker 1: all appreciate what you do on the mound, and maybe
Speaker 1: I'll see you at the bottom of the slide tomorrow.
Speaker 2: Kopek sounds good. I see there.