Well, we're joined right now by a man that was a great player for the Dodgers, but more importantly was beloved by his teammates and everybody that has ever come in contact with him. And that is the one and only Dusty Baker who is going into the legends of Dodger baseball.
Dusty, it's an honor to be here with you. This is the way it should be.
Well, hey man, you've been interviewing me for years and uh, man, it's a time goes by very quickly. And I never thought about, you know, being a legend or just I just thought about playing ball and uh, you know, doing everything that I could to help my team win. It's just, uh, you know, it's a little strange to you know, to be here right now because I you know, I never thought of myself like that. Yeah, and so, uh you know,
I thought I was a good ballplayer. But at the same time, you know, and I, you know, me going in the four guys like you know, Reggie Smith, I thought Reggie was the best player on the team. Wow.
Oh yeah, I mean we all did. And uh and you know, you know, Hope, you know, and get Ron Say and some of my other teammates in because you know, without those guys, you know, I was hoping, well, when I look back, you know, they made me better coming here from the Braves, and I was hoping that possibly, you know, I could have you know, made them a little bit better. But they made me a lot better because I wanted to come here as a kid, I wanted to win the Dodgers and winners. I loved the Braids.
I was born on the braids, so to speak.
But I.
Matured as a man in a pro you know, with the Dodgers.
I remember in the eighties when you played Dusty the two best smiles in Los Angeles. One was at the Forum with Magic Johnson and the other smile that was the best was out here at Dodgers Stadium. The joy that you had for the game of baseball. Could you feel how infectious it was for your teammates and for the city.
Well not really, Like I said, I didn't think about it. I love playing. I mean I love it, and you know I try to respect the game, you know, as much as I could, and try to respect my you know, my teammates. I uh, you know, we came to play, and we came to play every day. Uh, I mean, and it was it was fun, you know, I mean, and and and the media guys were close to us at the same time. The media and and and the
players were together. I mean, and that you know, I kind of missed that after a while because now things are a little bit more adversarial than they were back in those days. I mean, you know, we'd hang out, you know, you know, with Joe McDonald and and I mean, you know all these guys, Jim Hill, I mean were I mean we were like like one and uh so, uh.
We did Joe ever give you a ride in his Cadillac?
Yeah, yeah, if I needed it, you know what I mean. Yeah, you know when I every time I come to down the stadium, it's like, you know, I have very pleasant memories here, and uh, you know, like I just uh think about a lot of the kids that were here, like you you know, and now they're fathers and grandfathers. Look a few of them and just shows you how fast life goes. But you know, you try to enjoy it, try to do the right thing and treat people right.
You always did, Dusty.
I've never told you this before, but you're the reason why I fell in love with the Dodgers in the game of baseball. Just watching you listening to the games coming to Dodgers Stadium. I said, that's the dude I want to be like, because.
You were so cool and the way you played was it was another level.
I feel like I speak for a lot of people.
Well, you know, I feel like one of the luckiest guys in the world because, you know, a kid from Riverside who loved the Dodgers. I listened to Vin Scully every day on my transistor radio no matter what I was doing, if I was cutting the lawn or if I was you know, picking fruit in the yard or whatever. And you know, my hero was Tommy Davis. You know, I wore number twelve because of Tommy Davis and then went I was and when I was traded here to the Dodgers, you know, Tommy Davis was one of the
first guys that I thought about. And you know, luckily nobody had number twelve. I think they traded but short for me, who wore number twelve. So it was just there for me. And you know how many young kids play their heroes position bat in the order eventually where you know he vetted and you know wore his number. And on top of that, you know, sometimes you meet your heroes and and you wish you hadn't yeh, but but I mean this guy was as good a person
as as he was a hero to me. And you know, he gave me a lot of directions, showed me how to be and showed me how to be a pro.
That's amazing.
Dusty Baker is our guest, now your teammate. I spent a lot of time within one of them, Rick Monday. He gave me a lot of great stories about you.
Mojo. Yeah, he staided playing with Mojo.
Why did you love playing with him?
Well, because you know something, I never saw him loaf Yeah. I mean, you know, he would make you elevate your game because no matter if the ball was a pop up to the infield, pop up to the catcher, he ran hard all the time. He hit a ground ball, he ran hard all the time. And and and Mojo, uh, you know played the game right. And uh you know the other player that I had in San Francisco and iced to tell him her he remind me of Rick
Mundy's world Clark. Yeah, yeah, they never loafed. And you know, like I enjoyed playing and and and he'd always go back of bacup. He could call my name like no other.
He actually told me one of your nicknames was doctor Skald because he hit the ball so hard.
And then he told the story.
Gave it to me.
Oh yeah, that's why he remembers.
Yeah, but I talk about scalding people and then and then mo I think gave it to me.
He also recalled the story of one day joking Andrew Harr he blew out the gun on you and you were talking trash and he said that wasn't really cool, was it?
No, that wasn't cool at all, and joaking it up being my teammate in Oakland. Wow.
Yeah, it just shows you.
You know, a lot of times you're gonna have beefs
with certain guys on well anybody. The next thing you know, he's your teammate and you end up liking them because you know, the guys that you see on the other side of the field or how they present themselves isn't necessarily how they are off the field, you know, because most guys have like two personalities kind of you know, you got on the field personality and you have off the field personality, But I tried to be as consistent in my personality as I could.
Dusty, before I let you go the bond you shared with your teammates. Losing to the Yankees twice and then finally beating them, How much more complete is everything with you guys, not only winning in eighty one but beating those Yankees.
Well, you know something. I see Yankee fans now and they're still mad because we beat them one time, and I'm like, wait a minute, now, you guys beat us twice, and you know something. Seventy seven, I thought we had a great, great team, and we had outstanding and then seventy eight we were playing for Jim Gilliam who died of a brain aneurism that August, and so we had this number on our sleeves, and I think we were up to to nothing on the Yankees, and then we
went to the Well two to nothing. We played them there, and then we came back here for a three game series, and I don't think we lost the game of a series at home all year, and they beat us three in a row, and then we had to go back to New York to lose one in a row, to lose one and end up. I mean, I never you know, forget the you know, the pain and the hurt that we felt coming back home because I was like the longest trip home.
That was like a ghost trip.
You know, none of us really wanted to come home. We didn't want to go out into public, We didn't want to go to the supermarket, you know, because because we you know, we thought we were supposed to win. But you know fourteen for us, we won in eighty one, which wasn't our best team. So jove to show you. I mean a lot of times, you know, you win when you're supposed to win.
Man, I still have that picture of you drinking out of that champagne bottle.
I bet you could still taste that champagne.
Huh.
Well, I don't like champagne that much. Only on only on, yeah, exactly, only win. I never drink champagne.
And other than when we win, Dusty, Man, dreams really do come true.
You do get to meet your heroes.
You got to meet Tommy Davis, and I'm meeting my hero Dusty Baker many times. And man, I can't thank you enough for treating me like family. And you always treat everybody like family. And like I said, tonight, is about what you did on the field, yes, but more importantly who you are as a person in Los Angeles loves you, man, so thank you so much.
Yeah, well, thank you. And you know, like I said, I had some of my most memorable days, you know, playing here, and you know it taught it taught me how to win, and it taught me how to win as a as a manager, you know, playing here. I wouldn't trade it for nothing.
Winner, Dusty Baker, winning in life for sure.
Thank you. Dusty. Right there, he is the man.
He's about to be inducted into the Legends of Dodger Baseball. I think now from now on, I'm going out to that area where they're gonna put his picture and just you know, tap it. Every day that I come to the stadium right behind uh, right behind center field, They're gonna have you and everybody else in this Legends of Dodger Baseball.
They put you up like a plaque.
Really, I'm gonna go out there every day. I'm gonna send you a picture, okay, Man,