Speaker 1: And now an exclusive interview with David Bassey for Dodger
Speaker 1: Talker Padres Dodgers Dodgers Padres an upset and we're joining
Speaker 1: right now by one of the heroes of the Dodgers
Speaker 1: postseason run last year and obviously one of the best
Speaker 1: players of his generation, the one and only Mookie Bets.
Speaker 2: Mookie, thanks a lot for the time, of course.
Speaker 3: You know, I always got time for you.
Speaker 2: Bro. Oh. I love it.
Speaker 1: I love it, and I love that the Dodgers and
Speaker 1: Padres are back at it for the first time this season.
Speaker 1: When you're out here taking your infield drills or when
Speaker 1: you first walked into the stadium, did the memories of
Speaker 1: last year flood through or does it feel like just
Speaker 1: another regular season game.
Speaker 2: Oh?
Speaker 3: No, the memories definitely fled through. I mean, obviously they don't.
Speaker 3: They're not relative to what's going on right now. But
Speaker 3: you know, you just kind of think about, you know,
Speaker 3: things that you've done here and how much how much
Speaker 3: this this place has been in your happy, happy, happy
Speaker 3: thoughts and your sad ones as well, and so you know,
Speaker 3: you just grow a weird love for for being here.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and last year it feels like this was the
Speaker 1: site of when your postseason turned around.
Speaker 3: Yeah, this is uh, this is it. You know, Like
Speaker 3: I said, I have so many memories here, good and
Speaker 3: bad that I just, uh, I enjoy I really do
Speaker 3: enjoy playing here.
Speaker 1: I covered the Lakers back when Shaq and Kobe were
Speaker 1: playing and the Sacramento Kings put together a nice run
Speaker 1: for four or five years. Does it kind of feel
Speaker 1: like that between the Dodgers and Padres that Lakers Sacramento
Speaker 1: Kings feel?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, you know, I don't remember that that
Speaker 3: what that feel was was, but you know, just just
Speaker 3: just uh, it is fun knowing that. You know, every
Speaker 3: time you come to Peco or I'm sure every time
Speaker 3: they come to the Dodgers, tadum like there's gonna be
Speaker 3: a dogfight. You know, it's gonna be a you're gonna
Speaker 3: you're gonna have to play some good baseball. I mean,
Speaker 3: you're gonna get hit in the mouth and you're gonna
Speaker 3: let's see how you how you take it, and so uh,
Speaker 3: you know, that's the that's the beauty of you know.
Speaker 1: Sports, no doubt, and Mookie Betts is all about competition.
Speaker 1: He even called out Brady Ebel here to compete with him.
Speaker 2: At shortstop.
Speaker 1: I mean, you're always looking for somebody to compete against.
Speaker 2: Uh, I do.
Speaker 3: I do love competition. Both both of my parents enjoy
Speaker 3: competing and everything, and so my whole family we all
Speaker 3: love doing and so I mean, it was it's good
Speaker 3: to get to get him out there and show him some, uh,
Speaker 3: show him some some tips and tricks that I've kind
Speaker 3: of learned along the way, and compete while doing it.
Speaker 1: MOOKI shortstop, You've looked like a natural out there this year.
Speaker 1: What about the little different things about shortstop? Do you
Speaker 1: feel like you're going next level now at that position?
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 3: It's hard to say, because you know, I just want
Speaker 3: to be consistent and being the best I can be
Speaker 3: every day, and that's you know, making all the routine
Speaker 3: plays and if I can make some some nice plays,
Speaker 3: then cool. I just know how hard it is to
Speaker 3: play shortstop, and you can't, can't you know it continue
Speaker 3: to grow and continue to do to try and be
Speaker 3: the best, uh with doing all the fancy tricks and
Speaker 3: all type of stuff. But you know, for someone like me,
Speaker 3: which is really like my I guess my second year
Speaker 3: doing this for you're really actually understanding what I'm doing.
Speaker 3: I just want to be a basic vanilla bland shortstop
Speaker 3: that makes all the plays and hopefully can can do
Speaker 3: something in the box.
Speaker 1: You're doing that and more. But there's different levels of
Speaker 1: the intangibles of the position, and it feels like you're
Speaker 1: really commanding that position. I've seen you have meetings with
Speaker 1: pictures where the game's going too fast. I mean, that's
Speaker 1: what the leader of the infield does.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, That's all kind of stuff that I've learned.
Speaker 3: Miggie Row has really helped me a ton with stuff
Speaker 3: like that, and tell me, you know, hey, you know
Speaker 3: you're playing every day, You're you're you're the guy. This
Speaker 3: is how to handle it. This is this is what
Speaker 3: it takes. And you're gonna have to be the guy
Speaker 3: that goes in and calls the meeting when the game
Speaker 3: needs to slow down. You're gonna have to know what
Speaker 3: everybody needs to be doing. You're gonna have to move guys.
Speaker 3: You know, you're gonna have to, just like you said,
Speaker 3: be the captain of the infield. And I didn't really
Speaker 3: know what that means. And I'm not really here to
Speaker 3: be the captain of nothing. I'm really just here to
Speaker 3: just kind of take care of my job. But I guess,
Speaker 3: you know, MIGEI Ro kind of explained that that is
Speaker 3: my job, is kind of doing that, and so it's
Speaker 3: a it's it's been okay, It's been okay, but definitely
Speaker 3: definitely definitely got a lot more learning to do. Sometimes
Speaker 3: in the middle of the games, man, I'm out there, like,
Speaker 3: I have no idea what to do. I have no idea.
Speaker 3: If the ball is hitting me, I don't know. And
Speaker 3: like during those situations, miggi ro is right there on
Speaker 3: the top step and I can look at him and
Speaker 3: we have this little sign language that we can communicate,
Speaker 3: and he he like helps me in those tenth inning,
Speaker 3: eleventh and twelfth inning moments because I've never been in
Speaker 3: those situations before. That's the first time, you know, that's
Speaker 3: the first time I've been in the situation.
Speaker 2: So I had no idea, you know.
Speaker 3: So yeah, I mean, having the having having him here
Speaker 3: has definitely help with all that.
Speaker 2: Hey, we all need somebody to lean on.
Speaker 1: Mookie Bets has got Miguel Rojas and all of Los
Speaker 1: Angeles to lean on. And those four days while you
Speaker 1: were dealing with your toe, it feels like you had
Speaker 1: a chance to catch your breath as far as the
Speaker 1: offense goes, because since he came back, you've looked like
Speaker 1: the mookie bets.
Speaker 2: We all.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I had a little time, like you said, to
Speaker 3: to to really try and get the habits that I
Speaker 3: had developed out. And it's hard. It's hard to do
Speaker 3: it when you're like playing every day. Like when you're playing,
Speaker 3: you have to compete every day. It's hard to really
Speaker 3: stack positive days because the game is so negative and.
Speaker 2: It's a game of failure.
Speaker 3: And so you know, whatever moves and whatever you were
Speaker 3: working on, you go and do it in the game
Speaker 3: and you don't get any hits, well, then you know
Speaker 3: that's considered a failure, you know, and so we need
Speaker 3: to we want success, we need success now. But really,
Speaker 3: you know, having those those days help me stack positive days,
Speaker 3: you know, one after the other, one after the other,
Speaker 3: and then I think I built enough confidence to take
Speaker 3: it into the game.
Speaker 1: I still it blows my mind. As good as you are,
Speaker 1: you are such a humble person. Sometimes that bleeds into
Speaker 1: where you forget how good you are.
Speaker 2: Who's the guy now? That reminds you how good you are?
Speaker 2: You know? Really?
Speaker 3: Uh, Doc does a lot. Doc really does a really
Speaker 3: good job and kind of reminded me of that. And
Speaker 3: I mean, you know, when it comes from the top
Speaker 3: like that, you know, we have my teammates and KK
Speaker 3: does a really good job with it. Meggi does a
Speaker 3: really good job with it. Freddie Freddy, he has this weird,
Speaker 3: weird cell a way of just saying, like, Okay, whenever
Speaker 3: you're whenever you're done in your little feelings and your attitude,
Speaker 3: then come on, I'm ready to play when you are,
Speaker 3: you know. And so that's kind of how he treats me,
Speaker 3: which is is awesome. So it's great. I got a
Speaker 3: great group of guys. I'm here to kind of all
Speaker 3: help me. But uh but you know, Doc, Doc really
Speaker 3: does remind me a lot. And it's it's you know,
Speaker 3: I don't I try not to think about it, but
Speaker 3: sometimes it helps.
Speaker 2: Right now you're feeling good, though.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I feel feel a lot better now. I feel
Speaker 3: a lot better now, and I think we just got
Speaker 3: to get find a way to get healthy and then
Speaker 3: we'll start winning some ball games.
Speaker 1: Hey, if you need me to record a video for you,
Speaker 1: you could just look at it whenever you're in your
Speaker 1: feelings and I'll give you a hype video.
Speaker 3: All right, I'm down.
Speaker 2: For that for sure.
Speaker 1: No, you know I'm here for you. I'll be able
Speaker 1: to hype you up whenever you need. I'm like you're
Speaker 1: in a boxing corner. I'm there whenever you need to
Speaker 1: come back after the round is over, I'll be there
Speaker 1: to remind you how great you want.
Speaker 2: All right, thank you, because it starts at home.
Speaker 1: You always got your feet on the ground, and obviously
Speaker 1: everybody sees that every day.
Speaker 2: So keep it going. Don't forget how great you are.
Speaker 1: Don't forget you got one more three homer game in
Speaker 1: you to make history.
Speaker 2: I want to see it.
Speaker 3: Okay, all right, I'm working on We're gonna see what
Speaker 3: we can do.
Speaker 1: Aggressive early in the count, Mookie. That's what Alex Cora
Speaker 1: told me. I'm gonna remind you what Cora used to say,
Speaker 1: be aggressive early in the count and pull.
Speaker 2: That's where you hit pull for power.
Speaker 3: That's exactly what ac with Zey's. I gotta keep that
Speaker 3: in mind.
Speaker 2: All right, thanks a lot for the time.
Speaker 1: We'll resume the Lakers Sacramento Kings, and I won't tell
Speaker 1: you what Shaq used to call the Kings.
Speaker 3: Okay, now, well, let's wait till after and then we'll
Speaker 3: find out.
Speaker 1: Thanks a lot for the time, MOOKI yes, sir, and
Speaker 1: you enjoy. Javiers find Mexican Food, new location in downtown.
Speaker 3: Okay, all right, Javiers, here I come