Mookie Betts (2-1-25)

We are coming down the home stretch here of Dodger Fest. We are alive at Dodger Stadium. Thank you to Freddie Freeman. I kept it together, you know, I didn't freak out or fanboy out too much. Mookie bets with Freddy Freeman. When do you think the line is when I could stop asking him about that walk off grand slam.

I'm gonna set it at.

For I don't know if I told for what.

I don't know.

Hey, by the way, the way I knew that was a grand slam out of the ballpark was watching you from my vantage point.

Oh yeah, I saw.

You jump off.

Remember that.

I remember that, and that I remember seeing that that moment of his bat hitting the ball and the this what it looked like. I just instantly jumped and uh yeah that was that was amazing.

That was That's what I saw. I saw you jump. I've never seen you jump that high before. And then Magic Johnson was right there and he like pointed at me after after they I'm all.

Like, this is yeah.

That was crazy man. That was for him to do that. I mean really the impressive thing was just he what what he was going through together? Yeah, that was what he's going through to get ready and you could not tell. I mean, I guess you could tell, but you couldn't tell.

At the same time, that seemed like, probably behind the scenes, kind of set the tone for everybody else, whatever nagging injury you had going on, this guy's going out there with a broken ankle and bad ribs and all that.

And it was like, no matter what, you just got to get ready to play and get ready to play and give us what you got. And everybody did. I mean even show, you know, show played through uh hurting his shoulder right there, and that was huge.

That was that was for him, just.

To show up and play every day and prepare like that.

Like you said, it's just set the example.

You know. What I also remember was the first conversation you and I had in spring training last year, how you were on a mission. You had a chip on your shoulder from day one, and and you it came to fulfillment. You silenced all the critics.

Yeah, that was that was good man, That was really good.

I was proud of myself, proud of myself for really kind of locking myself in in uh, in the cage and and really getting to it and getting after it and then but you know it was really my teammates. Man, that my teammates that that was the they're they're the best, They're the best. I mean, those guys really rallied behind me. You know, they were in the cage support me. I mean it was it was really like unbelievable stuff that nobody would ever hear or see. You know, those are

A lot of that.

You got the same guys coming back.

Yeah, that's the beauty. That's the beauty about it. So I know, I'm good. I know I got my boys. We we're gonna ride together. That's for damn sure.

That's what's special. You get to try to run this back with the same group of guys.

Yeah, I mean obviously, you know doing it. There have been no back to back so well, I mean there's been something. It's been so long and so for us to have an opportunity to do it, you know, that's something special. Shout out to our front office for giving us the opportunity.

Yeah, so it'll be tough. You know, we still got to play good Dodger.

Baseball so you just came back from Japan. Ye's been on this radio station all last year, and I know you're now the face of a certain extent.

No, I mean I'm doing some work with him. But yeah, that's cool.

Oh, Tany's the supporting cast, you're the main guy.

No, that's that's a lot. That's a lot everywhere everywhere I walked, everywhere we drove. You know, his signature was there, he had been there, his picture was there.

So it was really neat. It was really neat.

It was really neat to see how how much a country supports a player.

Did you realize how big he was there? I mean we hear about it, but you got to see it firsthand.

Nah, Yeah, you don't really, you don't really. You can.

You can picture it all you want, but do you really see it to really see how how much he, uh, he affects that country.

It's wild.

Hey, Mookie Bets he dips his toe on Ventura Boulevard once in a while. I heard you were in the Grete one eight this off season taking ground balls and shortstop putting in a lot of work.

I mean I've been I've been working, man, I've been working and so we'll see. You know, I'm a big I'm a big, big person that thinks about you gotta do it in the game. You can do it in practice all day, but if you don't do it in the game, then none of it really matters.

How does it feel? I mean, it's got to be somewhat of a relief to prepare instead of yeah, for a full off season, instead of five days.

Yeah, I was, man, I was. I never.

I've never I've never started training this early in my life.

And so after a long season, after a long.

Season, like.

The work I put in this off season, nobody would even fathom it. And so I really feel like I'm a new person there. So, like I said, we'll see.

All right, before I let you go in, you got your little boy with you on your lab. Mooki's doing double duty daddy daycare today.

Yeah, it's tough, but it is what it is. You know.

He comes here and I want him to see what daddy does and maybe he don't want to do it one day.

He's so cute too, Thank god, he looks like his mom. All Right, Hey, MOOKI, I've been driving around the valley the last couple of days since I heard Adam Silver talk about floating out that you know, people think you're coming to Dodger Fest and you want to talk to Mookie Bets about baseball, not me. I had been bowming at the mouth waiting to talk to you about this.

I feel like you would you would change change the game, that would change the integrity of the game, because I feel like there's like a pace and the timing that that you develop playing basketball, just like you developed playing anything else.

But you know, even though there's a pitch clock in baseball, there's still twenty seven outs.

Yeah, there's still twenty seven outs. I mean there's change.

There's change that that people may not like that end up being a really good thing. So you know, you just got to be open minded to it. I'm not saying I agree or disagree, but you simmer on that yeah, I would have to think about that, because you know, there that's some changes has been.

Really good, like the pitch clock. I know, I don't want.

People to get hurt by any means, but you know, just from a player position player perspective, it really.

Does speed the game up. You know. So my tweaks.

For the NBA enlarge the court, which brings the three point line back, and maybe it's a little bit more challenging for bigger, more athletic players.

So now you're just trying to Now we're just trying to create a game. That's how good is that? Like, that's how good Wemby is. We're trying to create a game to slow him down. I mean, come on now, I just like can't do that.

The players in the seventies and eighties weren't as big and fast as what they.

Are now, right right, I mean simmer.

On that one too. We'll we'll regroup. Maybe you have it on their next podcast. You have like an NBA guy you were on all the Smoke. I enjoyed that.

That was that was that was super cool. That was super cool.

Here and two real basketball minds, So I'll be curious to ask them.

Two basketball minds bowing at the altar of a great baseball player.

Yeah, I guess I wouldn't call it that, but I did. Yeah, but it was fun. It was fun. Those guys are awesome.

I love it all right. So when I see you in Arizona, when you're making that long dry through the desert, you'll be hearing my voice in your head saying, no way, no way to a forty minute game. Expand the court.

Of a of a guy and let you know what I come up with.

Okay, sounds good. We love you, mooky La really putting their arms around you, Mooki, and I think it's always sweet when a great athlete. People don't appreciate it. They always want more, They want more, and you delivered, and I know there's more.

Thank you, sir, Thank you, sir.