Speaker 1: And now an exclusive interview with David Bassey for Dodger Talker.
Speaker 1: All right, Tim, we are joined by one of my
Speaker 1: all time favorite Italian Americans, Tommy Lesorda. Used to say
Speaker 1: I like him because I'm Italian, not because he's Italian.
Speaker 1: And with my mom being born in Trieste, Italy, obviously
Speaker 1: we have a strong connection to any great Italian Americans
Speaker 1: who have built this country, no doubt about it. He
Speaker 1: is fifth all time in wins as a manager. Can
Speaker 1: you believe there's only one person on this earth that
Speaker 1: can say he had two thousand hits as a player
Speaker 1: and at least two thousand wins as a manager. He's
Speaker 1: a batting champion, he's a two time Manager of the Year,
Speaker 1: he's a nine time All Star, and more importantly, he's
Speaker 1: a champion, a four time World Series champion with the Yankees.
Speaker 1: And that is former Dodger manager Joe Tory. Joe, great
Speaker 1: to have you, and man, it is awesome to have
Speaker 1: you back in Los Angeles.
Speaker 2: You know, David, it's great coming back. You know you
Speaker 2: you come to Los Angeles and I know when I left,
Speaker 2: when I left the Yankees and had the opportunity to
Speaker 2: come out here, you don't know really what to expect.
Speaker 2: You know. The first thing that comes to your mind
Speaker 2: is that when I was a player, you couldn't escape.
Speaker 2: It was always drysdown in Kofax. So it was a
Speaker 2: little frightening to come out here at that time. The
Speaker 2: one thing I did learn when I came out here
Speaker 2: is the passion the fans have. And you know, I
Speaker 2: know the Lakers are huge and uh, but the Dodgers
Speaker 2: really have a following that that was was so reassuring
Speaker 2: for me.
Speaker 1: Joe. I saw you from across Camelback Ranch this spring.
Speaker 1: You obviously were patrolling those fields when you were managing
Speaker 1: the Dodgers. Were you taken aback by the popularity of
Speaker 1: the Dodgers even in spring training?
Speaker 2: You know. I was fortunate enough David to come on
Speaker 2: board in two thousand and eight when they were still
Speaker 2: in Bureau, and I got a little taste of the history.
Speaker 2: You know. You walk in in through that clubhouse and
Speaker 2: you see all the photos from the Dodger teams that
Speaker 2: I used to hate because I was a Giants fan,
Speaker 2: But you always respected, you know, because they were always there.
Speaker 2: I know, they said wait till next year, Wait till
Speaker 2: next year. And they finally won a World Series in
Speaker 2: fifty five. But they were always right there on the precipice.
Speaker 2: And you know, whether you liked them or you didn't
Speaker 2: like him, they were always there and you had to
Speaker 2: respect that fact.
Speaker 1: Joe. Before we get back into baseball, I definitely want
Speaker 1: to shine a light on the reason why you are
Speaker 1: back in Los Angeles. It's your annual Joe Tory Safe
Speaker 1: at Home Gala, which is coming up this Thursday. And
Speaker 1: this is a special one because the proceeds to fit
Speaker 1: Safe at Homes Margaret's place, and with the fires that
Speaker 1: have displaced not only families but students, a lot of
Speaker 1: these proceeds are going to to help build a safe
Speaker 1: safe at Home at the Series building on Third Street
Speaker 1: Promenade for all those Pally High kids and the kids
Speaker 1: that are affected from K through twelve.
Speaker 2: Well, it was so devastating. I mean, we my wife
Speaker 2: Ali and I came through La actually right at the
Speaker 2: at the start of the fires. We were on our
Speaker 2: way to Hawaii, and it just was devastating. It was
Speaker 2: so frightening. And then to see the result, you know,
Speaker 2: and of course last time I was here, we went
Speaker 2: out to Pally Hide. You know, just hang out with
Speaker 2: the with the baseball team. And Billy Crystal was nice
Speaker 2: enough to come out and join me, and we had
Speaker 2: a little, you know, a little chat with the baseball team,
Speaker 2: you know, because it's devastating all of a sudden, you know,
Speaker 2: you're a young man, you're going to school, you're playing
Speaker 2: on the baseball team, and all of a sudden your
Speaker 2: school is gone. It's you know, it's frightening. But the
Speaker 2: one thing about it, and we tried, Billy and I
Speaker 2: tried to did stress to the team. You know, that's
Speaker 2: that really reunites you and unites you, I should say,
Speaker 2: unite you together and you rely on each other because
Speaker 2: it's tough going through life by yourself. And then, you know,
Speaker 2: I think the team concept really really was magnified at
Speaker 2: this point in time. But it was so devastating what
Speaker 2: happened in LA And I'm just pleased now that we,
Speaker 2: you know, we were able to do some good and
Speaker 2: go out and talk to the kids at tally and
Speaker 2: in fact, I'm gonna, you know, head over there tomorrow
Speaker 2: to spend some time. But it was it was great
Speaker 2: that they were able to you know, have a Margaret's
Speaker 2: place Margaret's Place obviously is named after my mom and
Speaker 2: be there for the kids because that's our future, David,
Speaker 2: as you know, and you know, we're we're pleased to
Speaker 2: do it, and I'm very touched that you know that
Speaker 2: it's been received so well in the in the LA area.
Speaker 2: We have we have more Margaret's Places in schools here
Speaker 2: in Los Angeles than we do in New York. And
Speaker 2: that's where that's where we originally got started.
Speaker 1: That's really special. Eighteen Margaret's Places in the area of
Speaker 1: southern California, Los Angeles. And to support this great cause
Speaker 1: that Joe Tory started in honor of his mother, go
Speaker 1: to Joetorry dot org and Joe, like you said, as adults,
Speaker 1: we always have to worry about how we're going to
Speaker 1: support the family when disasters like this happened in Alta
Speaker 1: Dina and the Palisades. But through your own experience, sometimes
Speaker 1: the kids are the ones that we forget, and those
Speaker 1: are the ones that have a lot of trauma that
Speaker 1: they need a place like Margaret's Place to go to.
Speaker 2: Well, you know what, I grew up with that and
Speaker 2: that's how we originally came to start our Safe at
Speaker 2: Home Foundation. My dad was abusive to my mom. I
Speaker 2: never was physically abused, but you know, I learned as
Speaker 2: a grown up. You know, first off, I was a
Speaker 2: very shy kid. I didn't even go out, didn't even
Speaker 2: go out for the high school baseball team as a
Speaker 2: freshman because I didn't think I was good enough. So
Speaker 2: I come to learn out later on that, you know what,
Speaker 2: my dad, the fear that he brought to the home,
Speaker 2: our home every day, took a on me. Even though
Speaker 2: I wasn't physically abused. The emotional scars that they that
Speaker 2: never go away, and once I was able to, you know,
Speaker 2: feel I needed to talk about it, it was something
Speaker 2: I kept inside. And having a Margaret's Place gives these
Speaker 2: youngsters a chance to realize they're not alone and they're
Speaker 2: not the only ones that are going through this, So that,
Speaker 2: you know, if I think back, and you know, had
Speaker 2: some place to go or share it with anybody, because
Speaker 2: I never did share it with any of my friends
Speaker 2: growing up. And I just felt very blessed that I
Speaker 2: had the ability to play baseball because it gave me
Speaker 2: a place to hide.
Speaker 1: Jill, like you said, you didn't have a Margaret's Place,
Speaker 1: You didn't have a Joe Tory that would set up
Speaker 1: eighteen in Los Angeles or New York. Where did you
Speaker 1: turn the corner in your life? Where did you find
Speaker 1: that inner strength?
Speaker 2: Well, you know, as interesting. I was just I was
Speaker 2: with the Cardinals and I was fired in June of
Speaker 2: ninety five and my wife, Ali was pregnant with our daughter, Andrea,
Speaker 2: and we were living in Cincinnati at the time because
Speaker 2: when I was fired in Saint Louis, my Ali is
Speaker 2: from Cincinnati and she has plenty of family there. So
Speaker 2: I knew if I was going to go look for
Speaker 2: a job that she was going to be surrounded by family.
Speaker 2: I wouldn't leave her, you know, by herself. So we
Speaker 2: moved to Cincinnati and then it was like late November.
Speaker 2: There was like a seminar that was going on at
Speaker 2: a holiday inn symposium type thing, and Ali says to me,
Speaker 2: you want to go with me? Well, she's eight months pregnant.
Speaker 2: I'm not about to say no to anything she asked
Speaker 2: me to do. And we went to this holiday end
Speaker 2: and it turned out to be like a self help
Speaker 2: type of situation, a four day affair, and what it
Speaker 2: amounted to is if like if you wanted to quit smoking,
Speaker 2: or or some you know self help area where you
Speaker 2: you needed some help doing those things. That's what it
Speaker 2: was there for. As soon as you walk in the
Speaker 2: front door, they separated Ally and I and they put
Speaker 2: us in a group of six or eight people. And
Speaker 2: you know, I think it was day two or three
Speaker 2: that there was a speaker. And I can't tell you
Speaker 2: what he said. The only thing I could tell you
Speaker 2: is that he struck a nerve with me. Now, I
Speaker 2: thought I was born with this nervousness and and and
Speaker 2: the low self esteem, and just from what this speaker
Speaker 2: was talking about was letting me know that what my
Speaker 2: dad was doing to us in the home is what
Speaker 2: caused it. And it just freed me up to talk
Speaker 2: about it. Even though to this day it's still emotional
Speaker 2: for me, but at least I know it was something
Speaker 2: that happened to me, you know, during my lifetime, as
Speaker 2: opposed to being born this way, and it was something
Speaker 2: I was embarrassed to talk about before. But once I
Speaker 2: realized what the cause was, I wanted to share it.
Speaker 2: And you know, I remember the first school that we
Speaker 2: went to, you know, when we were just starting safe
Speaker 2: at home in New York, and I was talking to
Speaker 2: a classroom of young people, and I said, we'll talk
Speaker 2: to We'll talk baseball in a minute, because there was
Speaker 2: a camera crew that it followed us to do some
Speaker 2: b roll for our dinner, our first dinner, and I said,
Speaker 2: I'll talk about baseball in a minute. I said, but
Speaker 2: I just want to let you know what this camera
Speaker 2: crew is doing here. And I started talking about my
Speaker 2: dad was doing my mom and I looked out there
Speaker 2: and there was probably six or eight kids shaking their
Speaker 2: head yes. In other words, they know what I'm talking about.
Speaker 2: So I knew we struck a nerve at that point
Speaker 2: in time. And it was my wife who really had
Speaker 2: the idea to do, you know, start a foundation and
Speaker 2: do it through education, because if we're going to do
Speaker 2: our part to try to end the cycle of domestic violence,
Speaker 2: I think education is the way you have to, you know,
Speaker 2: go about it, because young people, if their only role
Speaker 2: model is an abusive parent, you'll let them know that
Speaker 2: that's not the right way to go about your life.
Speaker 2: So we realized that we struck a nerve. We touch
Speaker 2: a lot of kids, and we have twenty five thirty
Speaker 2: thousand kids that we're able to reach every year and
Speaker 2: It's been really really great feeling for me because we
Speaker 2: know what we do works.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's really powerful, Joe, and I'm sure many of
Speaker 1: us would be surprised how many people we interact with
Speaker 1: that have been either physically or emotionally abused at home
Speaker 1: as a kid. And it's beautiful that Joe Torre and
Speaker 1: his wife Ali have started this safe at home program
Speaker 1: and you can support them at joetory dot org. They
Speaker 1: have eighteen Margaret places here in Los Angeles and they
Speaker 1: are trying to help those that were displaced, those kids
Speaker 1: that were displaced by the fires in Altadena and the
Speaker 1: Pacific Palisades. Toy is our guest, and Joe, since you're
Speaker 1: with us, I got to ask you. There's been so
Speaker 1: much hype around the Dodgers, and there's been so much
Speaker 1: talk about trying to do something that only your Yankees
Speaker 1: have done in the last twenty five years, and that's
Speaker 1: repeat as champions. What does it take to repeat as
Speaker 1: world champions in Major League Baseball?
Speaker 2: You know, that's a great question, David. You know, even
Speaker 2: the Red Sox, when you know, when we had that
Speaker 2: rivalry all the time in New York, the Red Sox
Speaker 2: when they was you know, finally did win a World Series,
Speaker 2: and then they won another World Series in another World Series,
Speaker 2: but they had trouble repeating. I think, you know, I
Speaker 2: don't know if it's just social media, but that's a
Speaker 2: big part of it. You know, you set your goals
Speaker 2: and you know when you finally, you know, achieve winning
Speaker 2: a World Series. I can't say you celebrate it all
Speaker 2: the time, but you know, if you if you say,
Speaker 2: you know, you reach the top of the mountain and
Speaker 2: you sort of exhale, it's so important to realize that
Speaker 2: you have to validate that and you still have to
Speaker 2: go and start all over again the next spring and
Speaker 2: realize that, you know, you have to prove that what
Speaker 2: you did last year was not a fluke. And that
Speaker 2: was that was my mentality my first meeting, believe it
Speaker 2: or not, David with the Yankees, which I was very
Speaker 2: nervous to give because I knew how important it was
Speaker 2: if I was going to go into that situation, especially
Speaker 2: to a ball club that had gone to the playoffs
Speaker 2: the year before. H and I had I had said
Speaker 2: and that I don't want to win one World Series,
Speaker 2: I want to win three in a row. And I
Speaker 2: said that based on the based on the fact that
Speaker 2: you know, I've watched all sports. I've watched you know,
Speaker 2: the team win the Super Bowl and then all of
Speaker 2: a sudden disappear the next year, and I just had
Speaker 2: a sense that, you know, we're not finished working at it.
Speaker 2: I think once you stop to admire what you've accomplished,
Speaker 2: you stop doing it. And I had a good group
Speaker 2: obviously that just never got tired of winning and just
Speaker 2: felt an obligation to go out there and and try
Speaker 2: to get you know, get back to the top of
Speaker 2: the mountain again.
Speaker 1: Being around these Dodgers, it doesn't seem like there's complacency, Joe,
Speaker 1: but it is a long regular season to even get
Speaker 1: to October. How did you treat the one hundred and
Speaker 1: sixty two game marathon the following year?
Speaker 2: Well, you know, he goes and you know, you've got
Speaker 2: the great manager, Dave Roberts, who you know, he always
Speaker 2: has that half full attitude, the glass half full. You know,
Speaker 2: you you really have to find a way to get
Speaker 2: things done. You can't dwell on things you don't have.
Speaker 2: You just have to, you know, accentuate the things you
Speaker 2: do have. My first year, we lost David Cohne, early
Speaker 2: in the year he had an aneurysm, and I remember
Speaker 2: Don Zimmer saying to me, you know, if we lose Cone,
Speaker 2: we're you know, we're in big trouble. But you have
Speaker 2: to find a way to move on. You know, you
Speaker 2: just that that that's the nature of the Beasts. You know,
Speaker 2: you work for six seven weeks in spring training, you
Speaker 2: get get ready for the season, and you owe it
Speaker 2: to yourself, You owe it to your team, and you
Speaker 2: owe it to the fans to go out there and
Speaker 2: find a way to get it done. And Dave Roberts
Speaker 2: is that guy in my mind, even though I didn't
Speaker 2: like him very much when he sold Second DA in
Speaker 2: four but I got over that. Finally got all that, by.
Speaker 1: The way, and how many years later, I.
Speaker 2: Still have wake. You know, I still wake in the
Speaker 2: middle of the night sometimes, but I maybe it'll roll over.
Speaker 2: So but it's it's it's not easy to do. Uh.
Speaker 2: You know, once you get to the top of the mountain,
Speaker 2: everybody's shooting at you. And they they always put on
Speaker 2: their Sunday best when they play you because they know
Speaker 2: it's a feather in their cap if they beat the
Speaker 2: Dodgers and they're the world champs. So it's just it's
Speaker 2: just something that you know, you you've got to you know,
Speaker 2: have a strong backbone and uh and understand, nobody's gonna
Speaker 2: feel sorry for you, so you better get out there
Speaker 2: and work hards.
Speaker 1: Great wisdom from experience from one of the great men
Speaker 1: to ever put on the uniform as a player or
Speaker 1: a manager, and that is the one and only Joe Tory. Joe,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for the time and man, thank
Speaker 1: you again for doing what you're doing in Los Angeles.
Speaker 1: The Safe at Home Gala is on Thursday. If you'd
Speaker 1: like to attend or donate to a great cause that
Speaker 1: is helping so many kids out there, go to Joetory
Speaker 1: dot org. Joe, hope to see you out the ballpark
Speaker 1: soon and don't be a stranger.
Speaker 2: You'll see me there to night, David. I'm coming out
Speaker 2: to watch a ballgame and I'm looking forward to it.
Speaker 1: Oh, that's great, Joe, I can't wait to see you.
Speaker 2: Thank you for your time anytime. Take care,