Bobby Witt Jr (6-15-24) - podcast episode cover

Bobby Witt Jr (6-15-24)

Jun 16, 20246 min
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Episode description

Bobby talks about last night's incredible play at SS, growing up loving baseball because of his dad's passion for the game, and his experience playing in the WBC.

Transcript

The Dodgers and Royals getting said for game two of this three game series, and we're joined right now by Bobby widd Junior. Bobby, thanks a lot for the time, and welcome to Los Angeles. Yes, thank you, thank you, and happy belated birthday. I guess that was not the greatest birthday. You guys did not get the win, but it was the first time you played at Dodgers Stadium. Did you have a chance to take that

all in? Yeah, it was. It was pretty special. Just the weather out here, the fans, I think there was almost fifty thousand here last night, and just the atmosphere was great. Stadium is great. It's just kind of there's a history here. And so even with my dad playing playing here and I think he hit his one and only home run here, so which is pretty special to be able to kind of play here. And yeah, do that. Do you know who that home run was off of?

Pretty sure as ishmael Valdez. Oh yeah, mister blister. He had a lot of blisters back in the day. Yeah, that's awesome. Were you here when your dad hit that homer? No? No, his last year was in two thousand and one, and I was born in two thousand, So I can't remember what year he hit the homer, but it was before. They might have been nineteen ninety five or something. Yeah, oh man, you're making us all feel old. Yesterday was Bobby's twenty fourth birthday.

And I guess when you come to a stadium like this or Fenway Park or Yankee Stadium, there's a lot of history on this field. Some players are not able to really appreciate it. What's the balance there, Yeah, it's something huge. You got to enjoy every moment and just take it all in because once your career is done, once baseball is over with, the game is going to keep going. And so really it's just to take it, take it all in. That's even what kind of talk to Dave Roberts

a little bit just now. You just said, just take it all in, enjoy it, go out, venture out, and just be where your feet are. And so that's pretty much a big thing for me is just to enjoy everything that I do because you never know when your last day is going to be playing baseball, and once it's done, it's going to keep going, So enjoy every moment and just have a lot of fun. Bobby,

we know where your feet were last night in the seventh inning. That was one of the most incredible catches a that I've ever seen, and be one of the most incredible baseball IQ plays I've ever seen. How did you have the presence of mind to not try to make that play by yourself, but to find your second basement. Yeah, it's just one of those reactionary plays you just kind of just happens and then next thing you know, we

get a double play. And so yeah, I just knew that try to make a play on the ball first to try to help help our pitchers out. And then once that happened, I knew that if I try to make a play towards first, someone's gonna be there. And I Loften was there and he made a great throw and make it quick transfer and everything got the double play, and so it was great. So it's another case of you trusting your teammates that they would be in the right spot, no doub Yeah,

one hundred percent. And that's kind of what we're doing here. We do our work where you try to get prepared each and every day, but then we got to pull for each other. That's how we got to do it and just get to the next guy. And that's our mentality, and that's it's it's been working a lot and just got to keep getting better every day. It feels like you're a rover. I know this is not softball, but it feels like the Royals have three outfielders on the left side.

You get to a lot of fly balls, pop ups and shallow left field. Yeah, it's just kind of just try to some of the stuff we do in the offseason. Just put your body in crazy, crazy movements and just try to get good jumps on that. And then I had a little bit of a football background. I was a wide receiver, just going after the football and try to catch touchdowns and so that's baby had something to do with it. Just I just want to try to make plays on the ball.

Yeah, we saw that it looked like you were a wide receiver in the seventh inning last night. Yeah. Yeah, just those are the fun ones for sure. Bobby wit Junior is our guest driving in. I was listening to Buster Only's podcast and he had JJ McCullough on, and he was describing just the conversations you had with the team on wanting to stay long term in Kansas City and it wasn't about you, it was about the team. How are they going to build a winner? It feels like you guys are

taking that step this year. Yeah, definitely. That was something that was huge that JJ and the whole front office did and the moves they made, the veterans we brought in with the core group that we have here is a lot of fun and we got a great team here and that is why the reason I call this place my home now. And so it's just one of those things where it's just got to keep getting better every day and just keep vibing with the team and enjoy it. We know your name, we know

your dad, Cavin Bigio's now with the Dodgers. There seems to be more players in Major League Baseball right now than ever before that had dads that played before them. Can you put your finger on why that is? I don't know. I just fell in love with the game at such a young age, and I don't know if it's just because of how much passion my dad

has for the game, just because of he growing up. That's every day we had baseball on, We're talking about baseball, whatever it was, and so it's just it's one of those things where I just loved it ever since I was growing up, and I wanted to follow his footsteps in a way, and so that's definitely like a dream of mine. But then also just didn't I was playing at every other sport too, but baseball was just where my heart was at. Shortstop spend your life, I assume for a very

long time. Do you have an appreciation for what Mookie Betts is trying to do? Yeah, definitely. It's it's incredible just to see his work ethic that he does to put in the work even I got a chance, I had the opportunity to play with him and with the WBC whenever. Yeah, And so just the work he was putting in because he knew he wasn't gonna be playing short for that team, but he was just still putting in the work because he knew that there was a chance he'd be playing short last year.

And then just the work that he puts in just to become a shortstop. And I know, I think he said on a podcast something that's one of the most toughest things ever done. But he's I think doing a great job. Did you feel like you grew a lot as a baseball player, being part of that team USA team. Yeah, definitely, just being around

those guys, seeing their routine, seeing their work ethic. There are reason why those guys are All Stars every year in the way that they handle themselves, They take care of their body, and just it was great to pick their brains and just be a part of that team. Hey, Bobby Witt Junior, way to introduce yourself to Los Angeles. It was awesome to share you with Dodger fans and you certainly are a champion of a person. So

thank you for the time. I really appreciate it. Yes, thank you, thank you for having me

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