Speaker 1: The right quist.
Speaker 2: Dodgers Playoff Baseball is back and with it an annual
Speaker 2: postseason tradition, Scam is back.
Speaker 3: Baby.
Speaker 2: This is Sax and Cakes in.
Speaker 4: The a app Back Forward Proway.
Speaker 2: Dodger legend Steve Sacks is joined by your favorite Dodger
Speaker 2: pregame host Tim Kates. If you want to talk Dodgers,
Speaker 2: get in on the show on eighty six six nine,
Speaker 2: eighty seven two five seven now. While the Dan Patrick
Speaker 2: Show streams on the Ihearts radio app. We've been banished
Speaker 2: to the Internet until this Dodgers playoff run concludes. Here
Speaker 2: they are broadcasting live on AM five to seven LA Sports.
Speaker 2: It's Tim Kates and Steve Sacks.
Speaker 5: It's Sax and Kate's and AM AM five seventy LA Sports.
Speaker 5: On this Wednesday morning, October twenty third, twenty twenty four,
Speaker 5: Dodgers and Yankee get ready for Game One of the
Speaker 5: World Series coming up on Friday night. Day Roberts announcing
Speaker 5: that Jack Flaherty will be the Game one starter. Garrett
Speaker 5: Cole out of Orange Lutheran High School in Orange County, UCLA.
Speaker 5: He will go for the New York Yankees first pitch
Speaker 5: on Friday night at Dodgers Stadium is at five eight.
Speaker 5: We got wall to wall covers leading up to Game
Speaker 5: one of the Fall Classic, but certainly emotions tempered last
Speaker 5: night with the news that Fernando Valence Whaleat passed away
Speaker 5: at the age of sixty three here in Los Angeles.
Speaker 5: A cultural hero, a baseball legend, a man who really
Speaker 5: took Southern California and Los Angeles by storm in nineteen
Speaker 5: eighty one with Fernando Mania, and remains to this day
Speaker 5: a symbol of hope here in Southern California, the American Dream,
Speaker 5: his rise in the nineteen eighties, coming in from Mexico
Speaker 5: to the Dodgers and Fernando Mania. The eighth straight complete games,
Speaker 5: the five shutouts, the eight no start, the Cy Young Award,
Speaker 5: Rookie of the Year, Silverlugger, and World Series Championship in
Speaker 5: nineteen eighty one. A broadcaster for over twenty years for
Speaker 5: Spanish radio here in Los Angeles. He meant so much
Speaker 5: to so many people in Sexy You played with him
Speaker 5: for so many years, got to be behind him at
Speaker 5: second base, which was, I know, a big honor for you.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, it was one of the best honors of
Speaker 3: my career. To play behind such an iconic figure and
Speaker 3: a great person. Fernando was a guy who really transformed
Speaker 3: the whole fan base in Los Angeles with the galvanization
Speaker 3: of the Mexican American community to Chavez Ravine, and it's
Speaker 3: never been done before, and I don't think it may
Speaker 3: not ever be again. The impact that he had and
Speaker 3: how quick it was and how meteoric it was, it
Speaker 3: was just such a shot through the roof what he
Speaker 3: did for baseball and most notably what he did for
Speaker 3: Los Angeles baseball, for the Dodgers, and as a teammate,
Speaker 3: I can tell you he was one of the best
Speaker 3: guys on the club. Always the same guy. He was
Speaker 3: a prankster, you know. He was like a little kid
Speaker 3: sometimes and completely unaffected. And that's the one thing that
Speaker 3: I think I admire most about Fernando is how unaffected
Speaker 3: it was for him, how he just was the same guy,
Speaker 3: win or lose. He was inspirational at the same time
Speaker 3: with his steadfast approach to the game.
Speaker 6: And I just love the guy.
Speaker 3: Loved playing behind him and loved being around him, loved
Speaker 3: being on the bus with them, on the plane, and
Speaker 3: he was always just a fun guy to be around.
Speaker 5: While he's not in the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown,
Speaker 5: New York, he is still a baseball icon, one of
Speaker 5: the Dodger greats, arguably on the Dodgers Mount Rushmore of
Speaker 5: the franchise, and his number was retired in twenty twenty three.
Speaker 5: His number thirty four forever will hang in the Ring
Speaker 5: of Honor at Dodgers Stadium. He is one of only
Speaker 5: two Dodger players to have their number retired and not
Speaker 5: be in the Hall of Fame, Jim Gilliam being the
Speaker 5: other one. He passed away in nineteen seventy eight to
Speaker 5: former Brooklyn Dodger in La Dodger won World Series Championships,
Speaker 5: was a Rookie of the Year back in nineteen fifty three,
Speaker 5: and he passed away, and following his passing in nineteen
Speaker 5: seventy eight, the Dodgers retired his number nineteen and he
Speaker 5: was not a Hall of Fame player, but a Dodger
Speaker 5: great Jim Gilliam and Fernando Valenzuela. In twenty twenty three,
Speaker 5: the second non Hall of Famer but great Dodger and
Speaker 5: icon himself to have his number retired there at Dodger Stadium,
Speaker 5: and again. I'll remember the fan fest in January twenty
Speaker 5: twenty three, David Vasse was on stage with Jose Mota,
Speaker 5: and Stan Casten came up and took the mic and
Speaker 5: made the announcement. Surprised Fernando, he was shocked, his family
Speaker 5: was excited, Dodger fans were a static. And then to
Speaker 5: have that weekend there in the twenty twenty three season
Speaker 5: which his number was retired, was certainly cool. To see
Speaker 5: him just looking up at the Ring of Honor and
Speaker 5: to see his number thirty four probably something saxy. He
Speaker 5: never thought he would ever see his number retire.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and isn't it great that they did that. I mean,
Speaker 3: I don't know if he will ever be in the
Speaker 3: Hall of Fame, but for a guy that's been impactful
Speaker 3: for baseball, you know, in this country, you can certainly
Speaker 3: see how much of an impact he was. And if
Speaker 3: he was in the Hall of Fame, you could understand
Speaker 3: it because that's the kind of impact he had. But
Speaker 3: I think it's great that the Dodgers did that retiring
Speaker 3: his number. Even though he's not in the Hall, the
Speaker 3: impact he made in this organization can never be underscored.
Speaker 3: This guy was just phenomenal.
Speaker 5: Yeah, And I know, contributors get put into hall of
Speaker 5: fames all the time. In basketball football, they have a
Speaker 5: lot of contributors to get in Jerry Colangelo's of the World.
Speaker 5: Jerry West got in as a contributor as a player
Speaker 5: and as a GM three times into the Hall of
Speaker 5: Fame in the Nasmith Basketball Hall of Fame. The fact
Speaker 5: that Fernando can't get in as a contributor for opening
Speaker 5: the door to Mexico, to South America and beyond to
Speaker 5: the world of baseball, to Los Angeles and what he
Speaker 5: meant with Fernando Mania will never anything like it ever
Speaker 5: ever again in the sport of baseball. Well maybe show
Speaker 5: al Tony, but we'll never see it again. And that
Speaker 5: alone is a contribution to the game of baseball. That
Speaker 5: alone should be something that when you go to Cooperstown,
Speaker 5: New York, as a kid with your family, as a
Speaker 5: baseball fan, to walk around see the greats of baseball,
Speaker 5: you should be able to look at Fernando Valezuela and
Speaker 5: see him say that that guy right there, that guy
Speaker 5: right there was a major part of people's lives and
Speaker 5: change baseball in the nineteen eighties.
Speaker 3: People are still talking about him. It, you know, in
Speaker 3: the impact that he made. And it doesn't matter how
Speaker 3: old you were. We've heard stories on here just to
Speaker 3: today about grandfathers that you know, Fernando made them cry
Speaker 3: when he had a chance to meet them. Young young
Speaker 3: kids that saw Fernando for the first time were just
Speaker 3: enamored of the way that this guy would pitch. And
Speaker 3: you also heard grandmothers that were you know, would just
Speaker 3: go to baseball a few times, and yet they wondered
Speaker 3: why Fernando wouldn't pitch every day. He was that important
Speaker 3: to the team. And that's the impact. When you talk
Speaker 3: about having an impact, boy, it was so big with him.
Speaker 5: It certainly was. We love all the stories, we love
Speaker 5: all the memories how he impacted your lives, your family's
Speaker 5: lives as well. Let's keep it going. Let's go to
Speaker 5: Daniel and Santa Anna is next up. Wait occasionally, Daniel,
Speaker 5: Thanks for being patient, Good morning, it was.
Speaker 7: Worth the way. First of all, is the first time
Speaker 7: talking to you and mister Sacks. And first of all,
Speaker 7: I want to say I'm sorry for mister Sacks.
Speaker 4: I know what.
Speaker 7: Fernando meant to you as a longtime teammate. His one
Speaker 7: two World Series rings with him. So also sorry for
Speaker 7: the people that I've met within the Dodgers organization like
Speaker 7: many Monta, Jim Haren and you know other Dodgers greats
Speaker 7: that or greats within the organization. That that's all Forernando
Speaker 7: Mania grow. And also there wouldn't be Fernando many also
Speaker 7: without Bobby Castille who showed him the screwball growing up
Speaker 7: and my memory of Fernando. But I was privileged to
Speaker 7: work with the Mexican national team during the I'm sorry,
Speaker 7: I'm just not still hasn't. This is devastating me. But
Speaker 7: I worked with the Mexican national team during the two
Speaker 7: thousand and nine World Baseball Classic, in which Fernando was
Speaker 7: the fishing coach, and like Stave Sach said, uh, very lighthearted,
Speaker 7: great to it's the humor. I'm really going to miss him.
Speaker 7: I got to see Fernando a few times at the
Speaker 7: stadium a few times more and Dodger Stadium is not
Speaker 7: going to be the same anymore. It's not it's going
Speaker 7: to be a huge void. We're gonna it's gonna it's good.
Speaker 7: This is gonna impact me even more before Game one
Speaker 7: of the World Series, where there's gonna be an homage
Speaker 7: to him, and not not only I'm going to lose it,
Speaker 7: but a lot of Dodger fans will. It will be
Speaker 7: an emotional moment before Game one of that World Series,
Speaker 7: no doubt. So thanks guys for taking my call and
Speaker 7: and take care of you.
Speaker 8: Take care of yourself, all.
Speaker 5: Right, Daniel appreciate that. Yeah, he brought up a great
Speaker 5: point Game one on Friday night. I know the Dodgers
Speaker 5: and the Commissioner Baseball mentioned in a statement last night
Speaker 5: that they plan on an honoring Fernando before Game one
Speaker 5: at Dodgers Stadium. I don't know how they're gonna do it,
Speaker 5: to what capacity or how, but yeah, the Dodger players now,
Speaker 5: not that it falls on their shoulders, but they're now
Speaker 5: representing the Dodgers in this World Series, and they've got
Speaker 5: an entire city. I feel just in the last two
Speaker 5: hours and twelve minutes talking to fans, talking to Usaxy,
Speaker 5: talking to Mike Sosher, We're gonna from Dusty Baker coming
Speaker 5: up in about fifteen minutes. They've got the support, they've
Speaker 5: got Dodger Nation behind them, They've got everybody in Southern California. Now,
Speaker 5: if they weren't already now rallying behind them and wanting
Speaker 5: them to win a World Series for Fernando.
Speaker 3: Yes, this is really does encapitulate, encapsulate everything that you
Speaker 3: could possibly imagine. I mean, with all the people in
Speaker 3: their sentiments pouring out from the terrible loss of Fernando,
Speaker 3: we can maybe turn this into something that can be
Speaker 3: a facilitator for these guys to really get behind this
Speaker 3: team and win it for win it for Fernando or
Speaker 3: Freddy is what we called him, and you know that
Speaker 3: could be a big help for this team.
Speaker 5: Okay, right, you guys called him Freddy? Is that just
Speaker 5: a player's thing? I mean, I've never heard that before, Saxy.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, yeah, we his nickname was Freddie and yeah,
Speaker 3: a lot of the players called him Freddy and just
Speaker 3: made it kind of short instead of going all away Fernando.
Speaker 3: You know how he signed his name too, right, No,
Speaker 3: he signed his name fd oh so he wouldn't have
Speaker 3: to write the whole thing out and it's kind of
Speaker 3: a long name, so he just put fd O of Valenzuela.
Speaker 3: I didn't know that to sign his name. Yeah, So
Speaker 3: Fernando was the best. Freddie was a great guy.
Speaker 5: George in la is next up here on Saxon Kates
Speaker 5: in the am if we remember Fernando Valenzuela and get
Speaker 5: ready for Game one of the Night of the World
Speaker 5: Series on Friday night.
Speaker 9: Hi George, Hey guys, just a real honor. Thanks for
Speaker 9: taking my cost Steve Man, just real quick. You were
Speaker 9: my idol growing up in the eighties. I had had
Speaker 9: your number of your position in you know, Little League
Speaker 9: in high school. So it's great to be talking to
Speaker 9: you Man. Thanks for that.
Speaker 3: Thank you so much, Thank you, George.
Speaker 9: You know, Fernando Man, one of the great joys of
Speaker 9: growing up in the eighties was to be a Dodger fan.
Speaker 9: The amount of joy you experienced between the eighty one
Speaker 9: World Series, you know, with all the veterans getting their due,
Speaker 9: like you said, Garby say, I think Socia touched upon
Speaker 9: that Russell getting that victory over the Yankees, and then
Speaker 9: eighty eight, that magical year. I wish every Dodger fan
Speaker 9: could have experienced that because there was nothing like that season.
Speaker 9: And of course, Fernando Mania, I don't think I know
Speaker 9: everyone's gonna got their story, so I'll just be quick,
Speaker 9: but Steve, you touched upon that about the complete games
Speaker 9: in nineteen eighty six.
Speaker 4: I don't know a lot of.
Speaker 9: People know this, but in nineteen eighty six, Fernando Velenzuela
Speaker 9: pitched twenty two zero twenty coleet games. That's an insane
Speaker 9: and he didn't get to say you because of Mike
Speaker 9: Scott's no hitter, But that's insane. And you think about
Speaker 9: that today where you got like, you know the pictures,
Speaker 9: you know, five inning millionaires. This isn't this is crazy,
Speaker 9: Like It's just something that I think needs to be,
Speaker 9: you know, just reflective of Hoon because the amount of
Speaker 9: inningsact that Fernando took. He really carried the team at time.
Speaker 9: And it's a sad day, but it's a joyous day
Speaker 9: and it's just really something to take a step back
Speaker 9: and say, hey, look at the guys that have impacted
Speaker 9: our lives who are no longer here. You know, I'm
Speaker 9: talking about Fernando now joining Tommy and Vin. You know,
Speaker 9: it's just a real blessing and you know it would
Speaker 9: be amazing to cap.
Speaker 8: It off with the World Series win.
Speaker 9: Anyway, Thank you guys, all right.
Speaker 3: George, appreciate it, George.
Speaker 5: I was just thinking here, Saxony is he talking about
Speaker 5: the numbers and the shutouts and the complete games. We
Speaker 5: think about Hall of Famers and numbers, and that's what
Speaker 5: they're all about, what you do and produce. And for
Speaker 5: now I had those numbers, I wonder if they could
Speaker 5: have been better if he were a pitcher of today.
Speaker 5: Where As George alluded to the five inning millionaires, you know,
Speaker 5: he didn't pitch into the sixth, seventh, eighth innings win
Speaker 5: in which he gave up runs, but the Dodgers would
Speaker 5: win six to four or seven to five, and those
Speaker 5: earned runs hurt his era and certainly hurt his win
Speaker 5: helped his win numbers. But when you pitch less and
Speaker 5: you pitch as dominant as he was, those numbers could
Speaker 5: have been even better and maybe get him into a
Speaker 5: Hall of Fame. But it's a different era, at a
Speaker 5: different time where pitchers were men and went out there
Speaker 5: and pitched nine innings.
Speaker 3: Tim he had one hundred and seventy three wins. I mean,
Speaker 3: this is a phenomenal career. And he was not d
Speaker 3: nineteen eighty six, twenty one and eleven with a three fourteen.
Speaker 3: He had thirty four starts to Tim and he completed
Speaker 3: twenty of those games, two hundred and sixty nine and
Speaker 3: third innings, he went out there and pitched. That is
Speaker 3: just remarkable. And I'll tell you this, you will not
Speaker 3: see a season like this today. Will not see a
Speaker 3: pitcher put it out there like he did in today's
Speaker 3: In today's game, not gonna happen. Twenty one and eleven
Speaker 3: with twenty complete games, not gonna happen today.
Speaker 5: We'll never see it again. Kevin and la again, thanks
Speaker 5: for being patient. Good morning. You're all with Sax and
Speaker 5: kateson am Kevin, I you doing?
Speaker 8: Oh my god? Hey, hey guys, It's a pleasure to
Speaker 8: talk to you. I grew up in south central LA.
Speaker 8: I went to high school in the eighties when the
Speaker 8: Dodgers would go ahead up with them, Houston Astros, that
Speaker 8: Jose Cruz Jr. With them, guys. You knows Cobell. Come on, guys,
Speaker 8: you know what I'm to Steve, Mister Sachs. I hear
Speaker 8: you're one of my favorite Well, you are one of
Speaker 8: my favorite players. When I watched you play, I just
Speaker 8: recognized the toughness that you had, and that's what I
Speaker 8: know you as. You are one of my favorite players,
Speaker 8: and you're gonna have Dusty On. That's another one of
Speaker 8: my favorites. But I want to touch on real quick, guys,
Speaker 8: on Fernando Venezuela. I've never seen it on the mound,
Speaker 8: lock in with that that hitter and him on that mound,
Speaker 8: and he's not I didn't know he wasn't in the
Speaker 8: Hall of Fame. I'm shocked. I couldn't believe it when
Speaker 8: you said that. But I'll just say this, rest in peace,
Speaker 8: my man. I'm just simply going to say to Fernando,
Speaker 8: thank you, thank you, because you touched my life throughout
Speaker 8: your whole career. When I would see guys when he
Speaker 8: was Jersey On, I would run up to her and say, oh, guys,
Speaker 8: you don't know what you went. You know what you
Speaker 8: got on your back right with that guy. And when
Speaker 8: I found the news, when I woke up, I walked,
Speaker 8: I looked at the news and said, Fernando passed away.
Speaker 8: I got on my knees and said a prayer for
Speaker 8: that man, and tears came down. God bless you, Thank you, Fernando.
Speaker 8: And we'll we'll move on, guys, We'll we'll be all right.
Speaker 8: God bless you, guys. Take care.
Speaker 3: Appreciated said it very well, didn't he?
Speaker 6: Wow, thank you, Kevin.
Speaker 5: He touched everybody and said the Alifornia and again, you
Speaker 5: could have been a kid, you could have been a teenager.
Speaker 5: You couldn't have been not even born yet. But family
Speaker 5: told you about him, and he's part of your family
Speaker 5: because of what he meant to your father or your mother,
Speaker 5: or your grandfather or your grandpa or your grandpa, or
Speaker 5: aunt and her uncle. He touched so many people, and
Speaker 5: that just spread for nanomania. Starting in nineteen eighty one,
Speaker 5: a ten year career with the Dodgers broadcaster for two
Speaker 5: plus decades, gone too soon at the age of sixty three.
Speaker 5: We'll take a break, we'll come back. We'll get to
Speaker 5: more of your phone calls between now. On the top
Speaker 5: of the hour. Cannot wait to talk to the great
Speaker 5: Dusty Baker coming up in about ten minutes. It's Steve Sacks,
Speaker 5: Tim Kate's and you on this Wednesday morning here on
Speaker 5: an FI seventy LA Sports. It's Sax and Kate's and
Speaker 5: am on this Wednesday morning. Thanks for keeping us with
Speaker 5: you as you make your commute to works, sitting in
Speaker 5: traffic on the freeways heading into the office wherever you're
Speaker 5: heading and taking the kids to school, heading back home.
Speaker 5: We appreciate you keeping us with you here on ANFI
Speaker 5: seventy LA Sports. You're a home of the Dodgers. Game
Speaker 5: one of the World Series is coming up on Friday night.
Speaker 5: But a sad day here in Southern California. Last night
Speaker 5: the news of Fernando Aalenzuala passed away at the age
Speaker 5: of sixty three. He meant so much to so many
Speaker 5: people here in Southern California. You keep hearing the stories
Speaker 5: and the memories from all you great Dodger fans and
Speaker 5: listeners here on NFI seventy. We appreciate that. Great to
Speaker 5: catch up with Mike Soosha, who was such a big
Speaker 5: part of Fernando Valenzuela and Fernando mania back in nineteen
Speaker 5: eighty one in the years after that, of course, manager
Speaker 5: of the Angels. Great to hear from Mike and Dusty
Speaker 5: Baker's coming up in just a couple of minutes. Fernando
Speaker 5: Valenzuela's number retired at that number thirty four back in
Speaker 5: twenty twenty three, just a year ago, so the Dodgers
Speaker 5: able to get that in before he passed away last
Speaker 5: night here in Southern California at the age of sixty three,
Speaker 5: real quickly, Saxy. The Dodgers and Yankees will have their
Speaker 5: media day tomorrow, both teams working out at Dodger Stadium tomorrow. Yesterday,
Speaker 5: both teams talked to the media, the Yankees at Yankee Stadium,
Speaker 5: the Dodgers via zoom as they just had some treatment
Speaker 5: and individual workouts yesterday at the stadium. Today they're expected
Speaker 5: to have more workouts at a Dodger Stadium all leading
Speaker 5: up to Game one with Jack Flarity on the mound. Yeah,
Speaker 5: in Game one, we thought maybe it would be Yoshinobu
Speaker 5: Yama Modo, maybe Walker Buehler, but they decided to go
Speaker 5: with Jack Flarity, who the last time out was Game
Speaker 5: five of the NLCS and kind of a bad, little
Speaker 5: sour taste in the mouth after what that outing was.
Speaker 5: But he'll be out there for Game one. What are
Speaker 5: your thoughts.
Speaker 3: I'm a little surprised that it's Jack, and you know,
Speaker 3: the last three games that he pitcher in the regular season,
Speaker 3: Zra was in the sixes, so you know, he did
Speaker 3: have one good outing, but the last one was was
Speaker 3: not his best and so we'll wait and see what
Speaker 3: it brings. I think you know, he's gonna be fully rested,
Speaker 3: so that's a good thing. But I did think that
Speaker 3: they were gonna bring Yamamoto. I think he was I
Speaker 3: thought he was gonna be the Game one starter.
Speaker 6: But here we are.
Speaker 3: The Dodgers are gonna be well arrested with the with
Speaker 3: the guys that they had with Bueller following, so I
Speaker 3: think they're gonna be fine in that regard the bullpen.
Speaker 3: I'm curious to see if Vessy is coming back. I
Speaker 3: think that could be a big, big, shocking arm for
Speaker 3: the team.
Speaker 5: Yeah, they're gonna have to make some interesting roster moves
Speaker 5: tomorrow when they submit it for the World Series. Will
Speaker 5: Vessid be back, Miguel Rojas will be a part of
Speaker 5: this rotation or this this PLATOONI in as shortstop, How
Speaker 5: does Bruce dar gratterol fit in. It's gonna be a
Speaker 5: lot of question marks. Some guys are gonna make the
Speaker 5: roster we didn't expect, and it's gonna be interesting to
Speaker 5: see what the ultimate twenty six man roster looks like
Speaker 5: tomorrow or on Friday, excuse me for Game one of
Speaker 5: the World Series. Saxy joining us. Now I know a
Speaker 5: friend of yours, a Dodger Icon nineteen seasons in the
Speaker 5: Big Leagues, eight seasons with the Dodgers. During his Dodger tenure,
Speaker 5: a two time All Star, won the Silver Slugger Award,
Speaker 5: a Gold Glove win begin the first NLCS MVP in
Speaker 5: the nineteen seventy seven NLC series. Also made three World
Speaker 5: Series appearances with the Dodgers, a member the nineteen eighty
Speaker 5: one Championship team, one of the great managers of all
Speaker 5: time as well winning a World Series with the Houston Astros.
Speaker 5: One of the good guys, and I am so excited
Speaker 5: to talk to him for the very first time. He
Speaker 5: is the one and only the great Dusty Baker, and
Speaker 5: he joins us now here on am FI seventy. Dusty,
Speaker 5: good morning, Good morning.
Speaker 4: I don't know about all that great but oh no,
Speaker 4: I wasn't dead.
Speaker 5: Well, Dusty, we appreciate you joining us this morning, certainly
Speaker 5: to talk about the World Series coming up. In the
Speaker 5: memories of nineteen eighty one, but we find out the
Speaker 5: news last night that Fernando Valenzuela passes away at the
Speaker 5: age of sixty three. Your thoughts on having played with
Speaker 5: them and being a part of that Fernando Mania in
Speaker 5: nineteen eighty one.
Speaker 4: Well, homie, you know, you know we were all there.
Speaker 4: You know, you were a young player, Dan I was
Speaker 4: more of a veteran player. And you know we remember
Speaker 4: Fernando coming in as a kid, and everybody was guessing
Speaker 4: that he was older than he was. But he was
Speaker 4: indeed a kid.
Speaker 10: Uh.
Speaker 4: You know, he did kid things like he'd tap you
Speaker 4: on the shoulders and then laugh and you know he'd
Speaker 4: played with his hacky sack and keep it going for
Speaker 4: thirty minutes. But you know, this guy, I mean, Fernando
Speaker 4: Mania was something that we had never seen before, you know,
Speaker 4: and uh, and it was real and everywhere we'd go,
Speaker 4: uh in every stadium, you know, he would pack the house,
Speaker 4: especially with Latin uh you know American people, and uh,
Speaker 4: you know, he enjoyed playing the game. He was he
Speaker 4: was well beyond his age as far as how to
Speaker 4: play the game. Made very few mistakes. You know, he
Speaker 4: could do everything except run. You know, he could fun,
Speaker 4: he could feel, he could he could hear it, he
Speaker 4: could pitch and uh, you know, like we you know,
Speaker 4: we loved him, you know, and he added a lot
Speaker 4: of joy and uh exuberants and and energy to our team.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, Tim, I think you got something wrong when
Speaker 3: you said Dusty Baker's a Dodger icon. Dusty is a
Speaker 3: baseball icon all over the globe. And I got to
Speaker 3: you know, you know, Tim and I you are talking
Speaker 3: and I were talking before Dusty came on, and a
Speaker 3: little bit about him. And Dusty was always a guy
Speaker 3: that one of the guys I looked up to in
Speaker 3: my career. He did so much for me as far
Speaker 3: as being the best example, and even today, just not
Speaker 3: too long ago, Dusty was over at my brother's house
Speaker 3: and you know, we were talking and everybody the effect
Speaker 3: that he has on people, It didn't matter the guys,
Speaker 3: their husbands, their wives, everybody's sitting there and he's holding
Speaker 3: court talking the finer things in baseball. And that's why
Speaker 3: Dusky's going to be a first ballot Hall of Famer,
Speaker 3: no question about it. And I just love him. He's
Speaker 3: always like to been a brother to me. So, Dusty,
Speaker 3: I am glad to have you on my friend.
Speaker 4: Well, hey man, I'm glad to be on. I remember you,
Speaker 4: homie at the baseball at the Baseball Bank, was here
Speaker 4: in sacer Mil thirteen. Yeah, and then I saw him
Speaker 4: in the in the clubhouse and take the truth. I mean,
Speaker 4: we love Steve, but as a kid, he was kind
Speaker 4: of like a pest a little bit, you know what
Speaker 4: I mean. And uh, you know, like he was full
Speaker 4: of energy. And then I saw him in the clubhouse
Speaker 4: during the Dodger workouts in the winter time. I'm like, man,
Speaker 4: what are you doing here?
Speaker 11: Man?
Speaker 4: They gonna kick you out here? And he goes, no,
Speaker 4: I'm a Dodger now, and I'm like, okay, congratulations. But
Speaker 4: you know, Steve, you had a great, great career yourself,
Speaker 4: and you had a you know, you had a definite
Speaker 4: effect on our on our team, because very few rookies
Speaker 4: come in like you came in and replaced a legend
Speaker 4: and Davy Lopes and contributed right away and helped us,
Speaker 4: you know, helped us win. So you know, you did
Speaker 4: as much for us as as hopefully we did for you.
Speaker 3: Oh that's never forget it. Thank you, Desse. I wanted
Speaker 3: to ask you, you know you and I got the
Speaker 3: the the great fortune to play behind Fernando and watching
Speaker 3: how spectacular that his pinpoint control in his fastball, which
Speaker 3: kind of gets overlooked a little bit. Like Socia certainly
Speaker 3: pointed that out. But how about just how unbelievable that
Speaker 3: that the screwball was, the ability to change speeds on it,
Speaker 3: and from being right behind him, to me, it almost
Speaker 3: looked like a right handed curveball. This thing was wicked.
Speaker 3: So what was your assessment?
Speaker 4: Well, you know, he split the plate went, screwball went
Speaker 4: one way, his breaking ball went the other way, and
Speaker 4: then he could throw that fastball almost damn near down
Speaker 4: the middle of the plate, but he would pinpoint it
Speaker 4: up down center Rount. And I've used Fernando with some
Speaker 4: of my young pictures. Anybody that peels the you know,
Speaker 4: the strike zone like you do with banana, I mean
Speaker 4: you can't look one side of the plate. Yeah, And
Speaker 4: with that, and he had a good fastball. Everybody was
Speaker 4: so conscious of his, of his of his screwball. But
Speaker 4: the thing that I remember most probably about Fernando was
Speaker 4: that he had total recall of every situation. And uh,
Speaker 4: I was very surprised. I remember Andre Dalphin hit a
Speaker 4: home run off of him in April. And then we
Speaker 4: got to and and Karen taught us about recall. You know,
Speaker 4: they weren't any iPad that you go to to see
Speaker 4: the guy throws or ally reports you had to remember
Speaker 4: on your own. And and though even though he was
Speaker 4: he was really young. Uh he he threw Andre dawphin
Speaker 4: the opposite pitch that he hit out in April, and
Speaker 4: this was August. And I went to him and said, hey, man,
Speaker 4: I said, you pretty smart. Her I says, you know,
Speaker 4: you remember that he hit this pitch out of the ballpark.
Speaker 4: He said, yeah, I remember, and I believed he is
Speaker 4: out of the ballpark. And so that showed me right then.
Speaker 4: You know that his baseball, you know, i Q was
Speaker 4: off the you know, was off the charts. But you know,
Speaker 4: we love playing behind Fernando, and Fernando also taught me
Speaker 4: him and Sutton taught me John that that your acts
Speaker 4: don't get many runs. And you notice that in the
Speaker 4: playoffs and stuff, because whoever's pitching against your aces, they're
Speaker 4: going to pitch their very best game because if they
Speaker 4: give up one or two runs early, that could be
Speaker 4: the game. And you know, we have to get letters
Speaker 4: sometime that we didn't like Fernando because we didn't get
Speaker 4: him any runs. But whoever's pitching against him is going
Speaker 4: to pitch, you know, pitch his best. And the thing
Speaker 4: about Fernando also, man, it had been tough to take
Speaker 4: him out like now on the fifth or sixth inning,
Speaker 4: because this guy, we didn't have to hit for him
Speaker 4: when the pitcher's hit. You know, he would stay in
Speaker 4: the game and damn there every every game until seven
Speaker 4: to nine innings, So you know, he was a workhorse.
Speaker 5: The great Dusty Baker with us here on an five
Speaker 5: seventy LA Sports Tim Kate Steve Sacks here on the
Speaker 5: Home of the Dodgers.
Speaker 3: Dusty.
Speaker 5: One final thing about the Fernando Mania in nineteen eighty
Speaker 5: one for me is that being in it and seeing
Speaker 5: the consecutive complete games start to pile up, eight in
Speaker 5: a row, the five shutouts during that stretch, and Fernando
Speaker 5: Mania just growing like a wave and a swell of
Speaker 5: momentum from LA to across the country and everywhere you
Speaker 5: guys went. Were you guys, did you understand the Fernando
Speaker 5: Mania in the moment Wallow was happening.
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, we understood it, I mean, and you know,
Speaker 4: some guys didn't even make a joke about it because
Speaker 4: there were no very few blonde people in the stands there.
Speaker 4: They're mostly dark haired last people everywhere we went, whether
Speaker 4: they're from mel Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Venezuela, Puerto Rico. I mean,
Speaker 4: you know, he was the pride, you know, the pride
Speaker 4: of you know, Latin America. But I think I think
Speaker 4: those what helped Fernando that year. Also, which hurt baseball
Speaker 4: was the fact that we had a strike of fifty
Speaker 4: days and it gave Fernando and some of the other
Speaker 4: picture as long as they stayed in shape, they gave
Speaker 4: Fernando a chance to kind of you know, regroup and
Speaker 4: get his you know, keep his armstrong. And the thing
Speaker 4: about that team is that we had to come back
Speaker 4: in every series, you know, to win. And you know,
Speaker 4: to me, that wasn't our very best team. I think
Speaker 4: our very best team, but seventy seven maybe, and maybe
Speaker 4: seventy eight, but it was a team that that you know,
Speaker 4: had a lot of heart. You know, we also, you know,
Speaker 4: had a lot of desire to win, especially after we
Speaker 4: had lost to the Yankees, you know, two other times
Speaker 4: in seventy seven and seventy eight. And I've seen people
Speaker 4: in New York and they're they're they're getting on me
Speaker 4: because we beat them in eighty one. And I think
Speaker 4: that I'm like, wait a minute, now, I know, I
Speaker 4: know you Yankees are good, but you we can win
Speaker 4: sometimes you don't have to win all the time. So
Speaker 4: so that's probably it's going to be a good series.
Speaker 4: But I'm predicting as Dodgers in six.
Speaker 3: Yep, that's what I'm predicting, Ducky Dusty. And I know
Speaker 3: that I wasn't supposed to say, but that's my exact
Speaker 3: sentiments to Dusty. Last one for me, I wanted to
Speaker 3: say that I felt that that Fernando's screwball almost overshadowed
Speaker 3: so many the other great things that he did because
Speaker 3: people talk about his screwball so much, but you know,
Speaker 3: you pointed out how good his fastball was. He can
Speaker 3: pinpoint that fastball, how great of a hitter he was,
Speaker 3: and the fact that you didn't have to pinch it
Speaker 3: for him late in the games you could save your bench,
Speaker 3: and the fact that you know, this is a guy
Speaker 3: that not only won the Silver Slugger Award, but he
Speaker 3: also was a gold glover, able to bounce off the
Speaker 3: mound even with his body not exactly as felt as
Speaker 3: you'd like, but it certainly worked for him. And this
Speaker 3: guy was just an all around really superb athlete.
Speaker 4: Yes he was. I mean, I'm telling you and you know,
Speaker 4: I've used Fernando and and like I said, my manager
Speaker 4: your career, because remember the year we made Fernando, well
Speaker 4: they made Fernando lose weight sex.
Speaker 3: Yeah, how bad that was that?
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, And so we were we were sneaking food
Speaker 4: in the back and then giving him candy eat man,
Speaker 4: gain your weight back. Yeah, because everybody cannot play finn
Speaker 4: You know, some guys are are athletes in a in
Speaker 4: a kind of an overweight looking body. When you got
Speaker 4: like Levan Hernandez, you got Rick Russell, you Gotny Mickey
Speaker 4: Lolich and now Fernando, So you know, like he taught
Speaker 4: you know, he taught me a lot of things that
Speaker 4: I'm using, you know throughout my you know career as
Speaker 4: coaching and managing and just being around young players.
Speaker 5: Dusty sixty sixty years, I mean six decades in baseball
Speaker 5: as a player and as a coach and a manager,
Speaker 5: the Giants, Cubs, Reds, Nationals, Astros a World Series championship.
Speaker 5: You've seen the elevation of baseball here and it's changing.
Speaker 5: And you mentioned the iPads earlier and the scouting reports,
Speaker 5: and through it all you continue to win and be
Speaker 5: successful at managing. When you see the game where it's
Speaker 5: at right now, with how complex it is and analytics
Speaker 5: and the binders they must give you before the game,
Speaker 5: and you wanted to coach from your gut, how are
Speaker 5: you able to balance it? How are you able to
Speaker 5: to kind of cross over all these decades of baseball
Speaker 5: and how the games changed, yet still be the great
Speaker 5: Dusty Baker and be the great manager you are.
Speaker 4: Well, you know, you have to make certain adjustments to
Speaker 4: the time. But you know, I think people say I
Speaker 4: managed with my gut, Well, I also manage with my brain,
Speaker 4: you know, because I they were always something there that
Speaker 4: I could use, you know, in the the media notes
Speaker 4: that they bring out every day. I was studying them then,
Speaker 4: like who has a bad hand, who's hot, who's cold?
Speaker 4: You know, first batter efficiency out of the bullpen, or
Speaker 4: you know which guys are first pitch strikes, or or
Speaker 4: whoever tows up the most double plays. So you know,
Speaker 4: I was using as much information as I could without
Speaker 4: overloading myself or overloading you know, the players, because you
Speaker 4: know Ted Williams said, above all, you got to be natural,
Speaker 4: but you know, very few great, great players are out
Speaker 4: there just on a match, because everybody out there was
Speaker 4: great where they came from. But it's the smart players
Speaker 4: that possible over a long period of time, and so
Speaker 4: you just have to try to try to decipher what
Speaker 4: information that you can use, what information you know you
Speaker 4: don't use. But as a manager and as a person,
Speaker 4: the worst situation and spot for me was to feel
Speaker 4: that I wasn't prepared to go into a game. I mean,
Speaker 4: I hate being unprepared. That's why I get there early.
Speaker 4: That's why I study, and I make notes, and I've
Speaker 4: been making notes forever. Whether I use them or not,
Speaker 4: I have them, and if I write them down, usually
Speaker 4: I don't have to go back to them, because I
Speaker 4: not that I have total recall. But if I write
Speaker 4: something down, you know, I usually have it in my
Speaker 4: brain and I can call up on it when I
Speaker 4: use it, or call up on things like Hank Aaron
Speaker 4: taught me, or Sandy Kofax or whoever. So I try
Speaker 4: to encompass everything that's happened and happened in my life
Speaker 4: and in my career.
Speaker 5: The great Dusty Baker, future Hall of Famer, with out
Speaker 5: of doubt as a player and as a manager. We
Speaker 5: certainly appreciate the time this morning, Dusty talking about Fernando
Speaker 5: as we get ready for this game one of the
Speaker 5: ninth of the twenty twenty four World Series, we reflect
Speaker 5: on the nineteen eighty one World Series Dodgers and Yankees.
Speaker 5: We really appreciate the time this morning and joining us.
Speaker 4: Oh exactly, so you right at homeboy, A nice time
Speaker 4: to be a guy, all right.
Speaker 5: There he goes the great Dusty Baker.
Speaker 6: He's the best.
Speaker 3: That was fun, the best. He is always the same guy,
Speaker 3: just the best. I'm telling you. The other day he's
Speaker 3: over at my brother's house across the street, and my
Speaker 3: whole family was over there. We're having a little celebration
Speaker 3: for a birthday, and Dusty and my our friend Mike
Speaker 3: come over and he was absolutely captivating the whole crowd
Speaker 3: that was there. You were sitting on the couch, everybody
Speaker 3: was around him.
Speaker 6: He was talking baseball, he was talking philosophy, he was
Speaker 6: talking about life, and he is just such a wealth
Speaker 6: of knowledge, so bright and just got so much wealth.
Speaker 3: I mean, there were kids, there were kids eleven twelve
Speaker 3: years old, my brother's grandkids, and they were just watching
Speaker 3: him with their jaw open listening to Dusty talk. They
Speaker 3: couldn't believe that Dusty Baker was in the house and
Speaker 3: talking and just captivating, so charismatic and just the best guy.
Speaker 5: By the way, he's doing a great job on TBS.
Speaker 3: He does a great he's such a good communicator, and
Speaker 3: this is a first ballot Hall of Famer, no question.
Speaker 5: Without a doubt. That was great to talk to Dusty Baker.
Speaker 5: Thank you SAXI for helping make that work out. Coming up,
Speaker 5: we'll get a final sweep of the phone calls. May
Speaker 5: not be able to get to everybody, but we'll certainly
Speaker 5: get to you if we can. We appreciate all the
Speaker 5: calls this morning, a tough morning in Los Angeles or
Speaker 5: Dodger fans remembering Fernando Venezuela gone too young at the
Speaker 5: age of sixty three passing last night. Thanks to all
Speaker 5: the memories and sharing the stories of what he meant
Speaker 5: to you. We'll get to that when we come back
Speaker 5: more with Saxon Kate's and am here on NI seventy
Speaker 5: l I Sports. Saxon Kates and am here on FI
Speaker 5: seventy LA Sports. Thank you to Dusty Baker for coming
Speaker 5: on this morning, the players, you know, the players you
Speaker 5: played with, the people you know in the world of baseball, Saxy,
Speaker 5: you know how lucky you are to know all these people.
Speaker 3: Oh, I'm so blessed. The Lord has blessed me more
Speaker 3: than I can ever imagine. I mean, it's incredible that
Speaker 3: I got to be with these people, and that I
Speaker 3: played for, you know, the Dodgers, and got to play
Speaker 3: with Fernando Velanzuela, I got Dusty Baker's my friend. I'm
Speaker 3: I'm beyond blessed.
Speaker 5: Will you remember Fernando this morning? Passing away last night
Speaker 5: at the age of sixty three. The Dodgers will recognize him,
Speaker 5: Baseball will honor him before Game one of the World Series,
Speaker 5: which is Friday night, first pitch at five eight. Lorenzo
Speaker 5: and Monterey Park. Thanks for being patient, Lorenzo.
Speaker 3: How are you?
Speaker 12: I'm fine?
Speaker 4: Thank you?
Speaker 10: How are you good?
Speaker 12: Excellent?
Speaker 4: Good morning?
Speaker 12: Gentlemen, Steve so big Fan, thanks and Mario Hustle. You
Speaker 12: go on show BATTLESO the first day though, I'm joking, gentlemen,
Speaker 12: Fernando big Fan. I was a sixteen seventy year old
Speaker 12: kid growing up in Nicking Heights, which is a couple
Speaker 12: of miles away from Dodger Stadium, wasn't a great baseball fan.
Speaker 12: I watched the seventy six thirty seven World Series. I'll
Speaker 12: tell you what he meant to a young Mexican kid
Speaker 12: like myself. He got me hooked, and to this day
Speaker 12: I want to thank him for making me a Dodge
Speaker 12: your fan, not just a Fernando fan, but and the
Speaker 12: lifetime Dodger fan. I think that's what those Tommy.
Speaker 1: Is doing now with Japanese the community.
Speaker 12: You know, he's beginning of a book, and once they're
Speaker 12: long gone, we're still here for for for the rest
Speaker 12: of our life.
Speaker 1: So for that, I admire him. Also, I don't know
Speaker 1: if you guys remember it, but whenever he would pitch
Speaker 1: the most common pitch when you have a picture down
Speaker 1: oh and two, you don't don't you don't give anything
Speaker 1: good to hit.
Speaker 12: You know, you go outside, up, high, down low.
Speaker 1: Fernando would always catch him looking, which which is one
Speaker 1: of the things that I was noticed as a kid.
Speaker 1: I watched pitch per pitch and oh and two you
Speaker 1: never throw it down the pipe, and he would do that,
Speaker 1: something I've never seen a picture do before or after.
Speaker 12: So I mean that's one.
Speaker 1: Thing that that that that that that overwhelmed means the
Speaker 1: fact that he had the audacity to go right down.
Speaker 12: The middle on an old two account, which is normally
Speaker 12: they don't.
Speaker 5: Is that sax That's thing? Thank thanks, Lorenzo, appreciate that
Speaker 5: phone call. Is that taxing because he had hitters off
Speaker 5: off balance and guessing to what he was going to throw,
Speaker 5: maybe the thinking the screwballs coming on a two one
Speaker 5: to account, and boom there comes a fastball.
Speaker 3: Very good tim That's exactly what it was. And you
Speaker 3: know he probably wasn't trying to throw it down down
Speaker 3: the middle, like Lorenzo said. However, it worked because they
Speaker 3: were looking for that other pitch and most of the time,
Speaker 3: as Dusty said, Fernando was able to and Mike Sosh
Speaker 3: as well that Fernando was able to just paint the
Speaker 3: corners of his fastball. His fastball today, if there was
Speaker 3: being clocked, would be ninety five to ninety seven in
Speaker 3: today's market, in today's fastball. When he was pitching it
Speaker 3: was ninety two ninety three. He was ninety five ninety
Speaker 3: seven today, and it was right where he wanted it
Speaker 3: to be. And it was accompanied by that unbelievable screwball.
Speaker 3: And he had a curveball too. Fernando had a good
Speaker 3: curveball that he would throw like Jerry Royce talked about.
Speaker 3: Remember when Jerry Royce was talking about you know, when
Speaker 3: he would throw it just to show it to people.
Speaker 3: That's what Fernando would do with his curveball. But it
Speaker 3: was mostly fastball and variances of different versions of that screwball.
Speaker 5: Nick, and Irvine's been waiting way too long. Thank you
Speaker 5: Nick for being patient. Good morning.
Speaker 10: Oh well, it's great. I'm at work. I'm listening to
Speaker 10: you guys. Thanks. Thanks for this today and through the playoffs. Listen,
Speaker 10: that last call was perfect. A lot of people under
Speaker 10: the age of seventy don't remember, but Chavez Ravine was
Speaker 10: where the parking lot is and where Dodger Stadium is
Speaker 10: was full of houses and families, and those neighborhoods were
Speaker 10: primarily Spanish speaking in Los Angeles because remember Los Angeles,
Speaker 10: this is part of Mexico before it's part of the
Speaker 10: United States. And a lot of people in Los Angeles
Speaker 10: had some very very hard feelings about the Dodgers because
Speaker 10: the government came in and took every single house by
Speaker 10: eminent domain, and in the sixties and seventies, it was
Speaker 10: not cool to root for the Dodger. As a matter
Speaker 10: of fact, a lot of people in LA, especially the
Speaker 10: Spanish speakers, rooted against them because of that. And what
Speaker 10: Fernando did when he came in is he unwittingly, unknowingly
Speaker 10: made it okay to root for the Dodgers, for everybody
Speaker 10: in LA to root for the Dodgers. Now, listen, the
Speaker 10: Dodgers are the most historical franchise in all of sports
Speaker 10: because of Brooklyn's Jackie Robinson and also because of Fernando
Speaker 10: and Los Angeles. He truly was transformative, not just because
Speaker 10: of baseball, but because people could take part in the
Speaker 10: heart and soul and the heritage and the history of
Speaker 10: not just being a Dodger fan, but being a fan
Speaker 10: and part of Los Angeles culture in Toto, not being
Speaker 10: excluded and not feeling and in my opinion, rightfully so,
Speaker 10: that they had kind of gotten screwed over.
Speaker 11: So Fernando, he also got on TV and despite being
Speaker 11: able to speak English, he spoke.
Speaker 10: Spanish on TV.
Speaker 11: And he was a great hitter, he was a great fielder,
Speaker 11: he was he looked to God every time he pitched,
Speaker 11: and I tell you what testament to him by all
Speaker 11: these calls today and rest no.
Speaker 5: Doubt, Nick, appreciate it. Appreciate it, don't dig. Do mean
Speaker 5: to cut you off, but we gotta go, Saxy. It's
Speaker 5: been a great morning. We'll do it again tomorrow. We'll
Speaker 5: continue to remember for Nando'll get you ready for Game one
Speaker 5: of the World Series. Thanks to Katie, Thanks to Michelle,
Speaker 5: Thanks everybody being a part of the show, Great Memories.
Speaker 5: You can podcast it on a Fi seventy LA Sports
Speaker 5: on the iHeartRadio app. Colin Cowhard coming up next.