It's the Dodgers and Royals from Camelback Ranch. As the Dodgers are getting closer to leaving for Tokyo, Japan, joining us right now is a man that got to experience South Korea with the Dodgers last year. He'll be on the trip to Tokyo. That is the one and only land and Knack. Always great to see you, and I always appreciate you finding me in this madhouse of a clubhouse.
Uh yeah, man, anytime.
I always enjoy hopping on with you, even in all this craziness.
What was it like for you? I always hear about players talk about the journey is greater than the reward. What was the journey like for you last year and be part of a World championship team.
It was very rewarding.
I mean, obviously it kind of been the up and
down year. Got to debut or got to almost debut in Korea and experience that trip, and then to come back debut at home at Dodger Stadium early on in the year, and then kind of bounce up and down, back and forth between OKC and the big leagues, and then to get to kind of stick near the end after going through that and being able to make the post season roster, pitching the World Series, and then us be able to to win that thing and be able to hold the trophy.
I mean, it was just an unbelievably rewarding year.
Nobody was on the same victory tour as Jack Flaherty, but you had a few.
Moments of your own.
The Dodgers called you in for Hockey Night, I think and Rams game. I think that's where you were with the trophy.
Yeah, we went to a few places with it.
Yeah, we Rams game with it, went of course to the of course of the hockey game, and I think we took it to a couple more places that I'm blanking on right now.
I went to a lot of stuff.
I stayed out in California for the offseason, and so one kept hitting me up and being like.
Hey, you want to go to this when we go to this? So we got to.
We got to do some fun stuff, got to yeah, meet some of the Rams players, meet Flavor Flav jingle Ball, and do a bunch of stuff.
So it was it was, we had a we had a good time with everything.
Was it a little different of a reception that you would have gotten not being a World champion.
Oh yeah, you could definitely feel the excitement and people bringing around the trophy. It's definitely a little different when people are seeing.
That thing traveling around.
So it was it was fun to have, like have that moment.
With the fans.
Landon neck is our guest in front of first pitch between the Dodgers and Cubs.
All right.
Part of the reason why there's so many people every day around Dodger Camp is not only being World champions, but now you've got three Japanese pitchers in your starting rotation and Roki Sazaki being the newest one Otani obviously gonna pitch this year. What's it like being around them and being around this every day?
It's awesome.
I mean, yeah, obviously not every team gets to experience this kind of thing, and here where you just have the media constantly coming through and just excitement all the time.
So I mean, it's it's a lot of fun to be able to, for one, just see the reaction to everybody Whinever, Yamamoto, Shohy and Roki all come through and so it's a lot of fun to be around it and then kind of see how those guys work because obviously Japanese training is a little bit different, So it's kind of fun to be able to see the way they go about.
Things and do things and what makes them elite.
And so yeah, just being around this all the time, it's it's a great experience.
Does Yamados still have the lawn darts the bow and arrows?
Oh?
Yeah, that's never going anywhere.
I know he that's what makes his arm feel good and that's what gets him ready to go. So I know he's he's always gonna have the lawn darts.
Have you ever tried that?
I have tried maybe once. I can't get the feel for it. So I know We've had some other guys messing with it. I saw Bobby Bobby messing with a little bit.
He's actually was pretty good. But uh, but yeah, I not so much. It's not kind of my thing.
Speaking of Bobby Miller, you guys have come up through the minor league organization together to be here now, to be together in the big league clubhouse. What's it like to just have that journey with somebody else, with a couple of other guys.
It's awesome.
Yeah, to be able to to kind of come up here with the guys that you came through the system with.
To be able to be in the clubhouse, to.
Have Bobby, Gavin, Kyle, Emmett's River or like all these guys, to have them all in Ben, To have all these guys.
In the locker room with us, I mean, it's awesome.
Maybe have to have your guys here to share this experience with and.
It's I mean, it's it's been great.
The obvious question is what's Gavin Stone like as a locker mate.
He's kind of a pain in the butt, but you know, he's not too bad.
His hair.
His hair looks a lot better than it did at FanFest. I'll tell you that.
Oh yeah, he's looking nice and clean cut right now.
I gotta give it to him.
I'll ask you this in front of him, because even though he's not pitching this year, it's part of the equation. What is it like having such a talented roster, such a talented pitching staff. How do you go about your business and not allow all that other stuff to interfere with preparation.
I think part of it is just kind of embracing how much time you have around here, being able to kind of see how guys go about their business, pick their brains and just be able to appreciate the kind of talent you have in here that creates a winning culture. And so you kind of just kind of look around, pick your brains, learn what you can, and just take care of your own business, take whatever you can from it, and just learn and get better every day.
So you block out, you know, just the numbers game.
Yeah, I mean, if you focus too much on the numbers game, you're gonna drive yourself crazy on that part. You can only can what you can, and so you really just kind of put your head down and know when the opportunity is there.
You know you're ready for it. However, the roster shakes out.
What's landed NAC trying to control as far as getting better this season this spring, we're just trying to.
Get things as locked in as possible.
We uh, we started to lock in a little bit of the slider and a new change up at the end of the year last year.
So do you want to give away all these secrets in front of Gavin Stone?
I trust him a little bit. I think I think he's good over there. So but yeah, I was just kind of getting.
Things ready to go.
And so we're feeling good about where we are right now and just want to keep building.
Gavin Stone, do you want to rebut on what type of locker mate Landing Nack is.
He's a good locker mate. Credit to Landon, he lost a lot of weight this ye this offseason.
Well you can say that I'm a skinny, fat guy. I can't go after anybody's weight.
I mean, hey, you know, I mean we've tried to do a little bit, you know, we uh we tracked kind of the calories of offseason and try to work to drop a little bit, feel a little better coming a little uh little slimmer this spring, and so body's feeling good right now.
That was a great ice breaker. Thank you, Landon, of course gotcha. Thank you Gavin Stone. That was a great icebreaker.