Speaker 1: And now an exclusive interview with David Bassey for Dodger Talk.
Speaker 2: Well, he's out of his South Bay bubble. I'm back
Speaker 2: at Dodgers Stadium, suited and booted and ready to go
Speaker 2: for tonight's game against the Mets. And that is one
Speaker 2: of the greatest hitters we have ever seen a Major
Speaker 2: League Baseball and he's our own. Nomar, garciapara, Nomar. Thanks
Speaker 2: a lot for the time, Dave.
Speaker 1: You know, it's always good to see you.
Speaker 2: I mean, you have that beach glow after being out
Speaker 2: there in the South Bay, you know, on the strand,
Speaker 2: you come back ready to go.
Speaker 1: Well, you know, we were off the last couple of weekends,
Speaker 1: you know, because the games were nationally televised, you know,
Speaker 1: with Fox and ESPN and then Apple TV taking it all.
Speaker 1: So we were off a little bit. We enjoyed ourselves
Speaker 1: for the last couple of weekends, but at the same time,
Speaker 1: I did enjoy watching the Dodgers, you know, win that
Speaker 1: series this past weekend.
Speaker 2: For a number of different reasons. How important was it
Speaker 2: for the Dodgers to, hey, come back against Max Freed
Speaker 2: on Friday night and then be come back the way
Speaker 2: they did on Saturday.
Speaker 1: Listen, no matter what, you always say, win the series, right,
Speaker 1: we talk about that all the time, and they did that,
Speaker 1: and it was a great way in which they did that,
Speaker 1: the way they battled back, the way they persevered. I mean,
Speaker 1: I know every fan was hoping for a sweet but
Speaker 1: at the same time, you know, let's consider and take
Speaker 1: in the series win and continue that momentum against another
Speaker 1: tough team coming into town.
Speaker 2: No, Mark, I feel like with the Otani celebration on
Speaker 2: a nightly basis, the incredible things he does incredibly Freddie
Speaker 2: Freeman gets lost in the shuffle. What do you appreciate
Speaker 2: the most about Freddy and do you feel like sometimes
Speaker 2: we forget about him?
Speaker 1: Well, listen, this is a team full of superstars, so
Speaker 1: I don't think we forget about Freddie Freeman. I mean,
Speaker 1: at the same time, we're just also amazed at what
Speaker 1: Otani is doing on a regular basis. But Freddie Freeman,
Speaker 1: I don't think it's lost. Freddy Freeman is just a professional.
Speaker 1: He's a Hall of Famer. That's what he is, a
Speaker 1: Hall of Fame player going out there and doing it
Speaker 1: on a nightly basis. What I love about Freddie Freeman
Speaker 1: is not only his consistency. But he always talks about
Speaker 1: how batting average matter scene. It really does, because he understands,
Speaker 1: you know, in this age of analytics, and if you
Speaker 1: really look back, if you hit three hundred, all those
Speaker 1: other numbers fall into place. If you worry about that,
Speaker 1: your ops, all this other stuff that just happens. And
Speaker 1: he knows that. So that's why he focuses on that.
Speaker 1: I think if more and more players do that, they're
Speaker 1: going to be where they need to be.
Speaker 2: When you hear Freddy talk about hitting, do you identify
Speaker 2: or relate with the way you used to approach hitting?
Speaker 1: But I do enjoy talking to him about hitting. And
Speaker 1: it's not just my approach. I think, you know, there
Speaker 1: was there was this older thought about hitting, an approach
Speaker 1: and you and he talks a lot about those things
Speaker 1: that was taught to me what I would hear around
Speaker 1: the clubhouse or other players when I was playing. So yeah,
Speaker 1: there is some you know, familiarity when he's speaking about hitting, like, oh, yeah, exactly,
Speaker 1: hit lane, drive, stay up the middle, stay on the
Speaker 1: other side, you know, stay back, shorten up with two strikes.
Speaker 1: You know, guys when they're in scoring position, it's a
Speaker 1: different mentality. That's my guy to knock in. I have
Speaker 1: to figure out how to knock him in and look
Speaker 1: with the defense and what the other team is giving.
Speaker 2: Maybe you can translate some hitting lingo that Freddie threw
Speaker 2: on us a couple of weeks ago. He said he
Speaker 2: feels like his swing is where he wants it to be.
Speaker 2: Even last year he said he had this cut swing.
Speaker 2: Hard to believe his swing was not on yet last
Speaker 2: year either.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think he's when he's cutting the swing, you know,
Speaker 1: he cuts it off and he's not barreling it up
Speaker 1: or staying on the ball as long as he would like. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there are times when maybe he'll get a hit and
Speaker 1: he still hovers around, you know, he's still hovering around
Speaker 1: three hundred and doing what he was doing. But at
Speaker 1: the same time, it might be off the off the
Speaker 1: end of the bat or the way the ball is
Speaker 1: coming off your bat. It's not coming off with that
Speaker 1: backspin that you like. Sometimes it has kind of that
Speaker 1: we call like a flare or just kind of you know,
Speaker 1: tails away, especially when you're going the other way. So
Speaker 1: that's sometimes you're cutting the ball off. You're hitting it
Speaker 1: maybe not square right behind us, so you don't create
Speaker 1: that backspin you like.
Speaker 2: All right, now we got it. You explained the Freddie
Speaker 2: Freeman next level hitting to the common man like us.
Speaker 1: We listen. Like I said, he he is fun to
Speaker 1: watch and he is special in watching his consistency, his
Speaker 1: joy for the game, and how hard he works. It's
Speaker 1: truly truly something to admire. No More.
Speaker 2: Garcia Para is our guest in front of first pitch
Speaker 2: between the Dodgers and Mets, a four game series here
Speaker 2: at Dodgers Stadium, and no more. You obviously played in
Speaker 2: so many big games. What does a weekend like this
Speaker 2: past one, dude, to kind of get you a little
Speaker 2: extra something to get through? You know, the hot summer
Speaker 2: months of June.
Speaker 1: Well, listen, I think you know you you had their
Speaker 1: certain series that you know, okay, there's a lot of
Speaker 1: height behind it. There's you feel that, you feel that
Speaker 1: the energy from the fans as well, and you want
Speaker 1: to play well. You're playing against a good team, and listen,
Speaker 1: the Dodgers can't let up. I think as a Dodgers
Speaker 1: you look, you're thinking, hey, this is just part of
Speaker 1: what we have, all the run of all these good
Speaker 1: teams that we're playing that are going to be in
Speaker 1: contention or you assume they're going to be in contention
Speaker 1: down the stretch. So you're trying to win the series.
Speaker 1: I know it's cliche, but it's true. You do have
Speaker 1: to take it one game at a time. You can't
Speaker 1: look past you can't you couldn't look thinking past the
Speaker 1: Yankees and think of the Mets. So now that you
Speaker 1: go out there, you tip play a tough series. Now
Speaker 1: you've got to come in and play a series against
Speaker 1: a tough team that just beat you over at their
Speaker 1: home field, and you want to return the favors. So
Speaker 1: you're like, listen, we got to be at the top
Speaker 1: of the game, and then you have to continue that.
Speaker 1: It doesn't stop after that because then you're going over
Speaker 1: there and you're playing a hot team over the over
Speaker 1: the weekend after this week finishes. So you just got
Speaker 1: to be on. And you know this is not the
Speaker 1: bad time to be on because you're going through May June.
Speaker 1: This is when you're right in the thick of it.
Speaker 1: This is when you're kind of feeling where you're supposed
Speaker 1: to be and this is who we are, and the
Speaker 1: weather's nicer, this is the heart of it, and you
Speaker 1: love these this month.
Speaker 2: Hey it's hot, the weather's warmer, but no, Mar's hair
Speaker 2: is still perfect. You'll see it tonight on sports net LA.
Speaker 2: Thanks a lot for the time Nomar appreciates Dave.
Speaker 1: Always great talking to you.