Right quick.
Dodgers Playoff Baseball is back, and with it an annual postseason tradition.
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This is Sax and Cakes in.
The A app back Goward Proway.
Dodger legend Steve Sacks is joined by your favorite Dodger pregame host, Tim Kates. If you want to talk Dodgers, get in on the show on eighty six six nine, eighty seven two five seven now. While the Dan Patrick Show streams on the Ihearts radio app. We've been banished to the Internet until this Dodgers playoff run concludes. Here they are broadcasting live on AM five to seven LA Sports. It's Tim Kates and Steve Sacks.
God Sax the Kates in the AM on this Thursday morning in October twenty fourth, twenty twenty four. Thanks for being with us Southern California live and local. You're you're a home with the Dodgers AM five seventy l A Sports as we are one day closer to Game one of the World Series Dodgers and Yankees. I am Tim Kates, joined by two time World Series Champion, a Rookie of the Year, and one hell of a guy, Steve sack sacksy. Good morning, Tim Kates. How are you?
Tim?
Ah'm doing good. You're worried about nothing. See here we are.
We're embarking on the World Series, and you were just worried as hell about you know, we're ever gonna get there again? Yes, it's here.
It's I was worried it was gonna be a long week, that there'd be a lot of build up in the initial days and then a little bit of a well, downtime deprivation. Yeah, yeah, that's that's happened.
A little little, little little you know, you know, not so good with the missus.
Nope, nope, you know, a couple of arguments. Fault. We did go to dinner last night. Okay, good, that was fun. That's not her fault. No, no, yeah, we had a good time to talk and kind of catch up. You know, it's been a long month of October during this Dodgers baseball run. But what have an another way? And she doesn't like it, so be it. But yeah, we get
ready for Game one tomorrow. Today is going to be a busy day out of Dodgers Stadium, as both teams are gonna have their media availabilities and they're gonna do it out in the center field plaza area behind the Pavilions, which has all been redone since COVID and beautiful out there, and they're gonna have them there. All both teams will be there. They're gonna have a World Series type atmosphere
for media day, and I mean that buy. They'll have like podium set up and tables set up for all the players and all the media that's gonna be there. The food hundreds for the media. Well, there's always food for them. Yeah, yeah, of course.
Most guys want to know how long is the walk? Is their food? They want those two things. I don't want to bring the calories walking out there. That's one thing I was thinking of. Is the centerfield that's kind of track. You know, they might have the little carts you know to take them. Oh please, I'm serious now. They they want the they want the transportation ground transfer. Tation is always big when you're booking events, you know.
So they went to ground transportation and hopefully there's food there.
Well, I can tell you there's a huge parking lot that they can move their cars closer to where the availability is for the media, which I think a lot of them are probably gonna do because it is a long walk from from the from the press box all the way down to the center field plaza and then back up.
Yeah, you got to think the players are in the locker room and they've got to you know, make the walk and.
Oh that's easy. That's see. They got the tunnel underneath there that will pop out by the bullpens and then next kind of walk right over. But the media folks, yeah, they're gonna be huffing and puffing and hands on knees and taking breaks in between and half way out there, right, and that escalator better be working to go back up to the press box level. Problem if it's not and they have to take stairs, the media is going to be mad.
Need to get James Mims over there. They had the escalator. James, you know, James has been there forever for you can he can do the work over there.
It's going to be a busy one out There's both teams will meet the media. They'll have the podium set up. There's gonna be a lot of international nation media and this is the day you're gonna get all those silly questions about what their favorite music is. It's it's like Super Bowl media embarrassing, Like, you know what, who cares about a walk up song?
How about your barrel one up and get a base hit. Then we'll worry about your walk up song.
But we need storylines, we need, we need, we need things to be written about Aaron Judge And did he grow up a Dodger fan in Fresno? And Jan Carlstanton? Why did you change your name? You were Mike Stanton and then you're Jen Carlston. Come out now, okay?
H And by the way, Aaron Judge is from Linden. He it's a it's a little town. I drive there when I'm going down the freeway to LA from Sacramento. Here it's in Linden. He did go to Fresno State, Okay, but he's from a little town called Linden. Linden I've never even heard of. Just off the side of the road. I mean, it is a small one. It is a tiny You go through there, you'll miss it. You better watch out.
Isn't close to Fresno, Yeah, you know, it's down the there and you know, I think it's somewhere down not far from Drest.
Yeah, it's south of Stockton, Okay, it's south of Stockton.
Okay, so all right, well, well he probably grew up a Giants fan, so we'll get asked, tell you what.
I'm gonna google it right now. I'm gonna google map this thing right now. Perfect, and we're gonna see exactly where Aaron Judge is. Okay, I'm getting close now, Okay, So yeah, Linden Okay, that's a telling you it's not a big place.
So that makes sense why he was flirting with the San Francisco Giants a few years ago when he was a free agent, because it's close to home. Yeah, but you know northern California Bay area, Jason of course up there, and they're.
Getting everything else in the sacrament area from Lynden. So I grew up off Linden Road, so it's you know, it's fitting that it's gonna have to bring it into there. But I can find out where it is. But it's it's in between sac and and Fresno and Freso State. So chances are I think he was probably a Giants fan closer to San France.
Well, I'm sure a thousand different questions will be asked to him about that. And coming back to the West Coast, and you know you're gonna get the the question to to Jen Carl Stanton and the guys who are from California, like Aaron Judge, Are you in and out guy? Are you a five guys guy? Which burder is it? Are you a happy as though?
I mean, this is gonna be epic trying to get you know, a nice you know, media blitz out of him. What hasn't been said with showy O Tommy. What are they gonna pick out now?
Well, I I imagine you're gonna get a lot of the national media asking and what's it like to be here for the first time?
What if he brings out do what I've been here for seven years? If he brings out one of those.
I would love somebody to ask. And nobody will do this because he might get upset or you know, people around him might get upset, but heck, I'd love to ask him. Do you feel like you wasted six years of your career at ANNAHI? Oh my gosh, really, I mean.
That's a little harder.
You put up the numbers, but you didn't win. And now that you're in and I say it nicely because you know, because you're now in a World series in your first year not with the Angels, and your first year with the Dodgers and the production you put up as a fifty to fifty player. Certainly you were all an all star player at MVP player at ANAM, I
have no doubt about that. But team wise, I mean individually, yes, you're great, But team wise, do you feel like maybe if you'd gone to a different team you had a chance to win earlier in your career, you wouldn't be here for the first time? You're seven? Stinging stinging question right there? What if they have a valid question? Well, yeah, but what if they break out something like this, do you want to kind of like say, ha ha, I told you so to Mike Trout they bring up one
of them. I think that's a good follow up question. Well maybe the initial question. Yes, you know, I.
Mean, I mean, if they're gonna really you know, let's get real with it. Look what you did and Trout still and yeah.
I feel you know what, between you and me, Tim, I know, but nobody else is nobody else just us, just us right, nobody else listening.
I feel sorry for Trout.
I do too. I do because he is such a good dude, and he's just he's just languishing there. I mean, I want to see Mike Trout in the World Series, right, I want to see showhy. I want to see Mike Trout. This whole thing with all these great players.
With Judge and you know, Mookie Batson, Freeman and all these I just think it's, you know, don't for everybody When I say this, people say, don't forget Soto and John Carlo.
I'm not.
There's just a lot of them, you know. But I mean, I want to see Mike Trout in there, don't you.
I would love to have seen Mike Trout sometime in the last ninety years boiled make the postseason more than one time. I'd love to see him on a national stage. I would love to see him promoted. And we got into this yesterday about the lack of promotion for individual players in baseball, and it's it's been a thing forever. It's not something new that baseball just started not doing. Correct.
But Mike Trout is a superstar and has been, and maybe he's on the back end of that superstar, possible Hall of Fame career because of all the injuries that he's suffered. But you know, it's funny you bring it up. You put in Mike Trout and immediately the first article that comes up is how does Mike Trout feel right now after seeing shoe Hey Otani make the World Series.
I didn't read it. I just came up with that. I swear I didn't read it. I mean that's hard though, you know, I mean, yeah, think.
You know the biggest stage that he's been on the World Baseball Classic, right, Dacy Shohey for Team USA. What a year ago in Miami? I think it was. And that's or Arizona when they square it off and Otani's struck Hi Abrount. That's the biggest stage of Mike Trout's career.
It is.
And and see how players elevate one another. It's a great thing. And that's that's a it's almost like stepping stones. That's a cascading effect of you know, one guy helping the other.
And Mike Trout.
The reason I feel feel for the guy is he's such an un you know, he signs the big deal. He's probably thinking that, you know, Ardie Morino is gonna go out and get a bunch of pitching, not you know, and it's.
Always been the same thing. Boy, the Angels can sure score runs, but what's the issue?
What do you think the issue is? Why did they draft every single player? I think a year ago or two years ago, every single guy they drafted twenty one picks or whatever it was before the COVID thing, So it was a few years ago, it was everyone was a pitcher, every single player, right, So you know what, what do you think the issue is? You need pitching over there.
And for Mike Trout, he so loyal to the Angels. He'll always say it that he wants to be here, he wants to continue to be an Angel. I mean he is now thirteen years into his career. He came up in twenty eleven and now missed the season where he played twenty nine games. I mean he's played only one hundred games one time in the last four years.
About COVID, it's not gonna get better. As you get older, you start to break down a little bit. He's thirty three already. Yeah, God, I mean that that's I feel for the dude. I don't know if it's going to happen.
It's not gonna happen an Angel, you know, no I gotta get traded. Yeah, he's gonna have to go somewhere else. And if you're Mike Trout, you should have made that call to the front office and made that loud and claire shouting from the rooftops three four years ago that you wanted to get out of there, especially a year ago when Otawni left him free agency. At that point, you've really got to get the megaphone out and say I want out of here.
Yeah, but you know, he doesn't want to cause any waves or anything. Do you think that there's something still in there health wise where we could see three or four more, you know, big vibrant years of one hundred and forty five games plus.
No, I don't see it. So I don't see it. I think he's the agent part time. Oh yeah, ninety that's his future is a designated here. I mean he tried to give it a go after the tormniscus. Yeah, and everybody said, oh, he's good to go. He went to Triple A Salt Lake City, first game out there, went out to the outfield right back in saying that he felt something again discomforting his knee.
Yeah, but you know what, the guy's the guy's the thoroughbred man, and he he gets he wants to be out of the barn and run. I don't know how he's gonna sit, uh throughout through the game and just bat four times. I mean that would drive me crazy too. I got to be out there running around and you know, jumping over the wall and catching balls.
If I'm like Trout, maybe he's too heavy. And I say this because he's, like you said, he's a thoroughbread Yeah, he is so physically chiseled. He's a specimen six five. Oh, he's more than two thirty five. I'm I'm thinking I'm thinking he's closer to two forty two fifty. That's gotta come down. Well, you know what.
The thing about him, Look, there's only a couple of guys. And I'm just saying this from a sheer locker rooms.
You know.
Standpoint is, uh, I've seen a few specimens in in baseball where or in any sport where you just look at the guy and the guy shakes his head. He just goes that can't be real. I mean it looks like the statue of David. He makes a statue of David go away and hide. Okay, you know you know the three guys I've seen like that Judge. Uh No, I haven't been in there with him, but Bo Jackson is one. It's not even real. It's it's it's absolutely surreal. Okay, bo Jackson is one, Mike Trout is two, and Nick
Bosa from the forty nine ers. Really you can't even believe it when you look at it's this isn't real. It's it's sick. It's just how did God make that? It's it's unbelievable. Guys shake their head, They're like, I can't believe this.
It's it's it's got to be frustrating for Mike try I was talking to Mike.
I'm starting rep. I was talking to Mike Soshi one time. He says, yeah, bo Jackson, I know you talk about it in that body and I saw his body in the clubhouse and I can't believe it. And he says, at least I have to work hard to keep my great body. You know the same part as bo Jackson. Just crazy, Go hit Tim. Sorry, No, I just I feel for Mike Trout.
I mean, I you think about the superstars in this game, and I'm glad you brought up Trouty, because you know, the conversation right now in baseball going up to this World Series is how many future Hall of Famers are in this game and could it be one of the greatest World series we've ever seen when it's all said and done, ten, fifteen, twenty years from now, when these players' careers are all played out.
I'm thinking seven. Yeah, I mean there could be more.
I mean Will Smith's guy knocking on the doors, his numbers are equal to what Joe Mauer are out there. There are players that are still young in their career in the United States, like Yamamoto. I mean, he was paid to be Hall of Fame type player with the amount of money that he was given. Those are just two guys that aren't even considered Hall of Famers right now, but potentially could be you throwing both managers. You're throwing
Andrew Freeman as Brian Cashman. I mean, in this whole World Series with both these organizations, I mean there's a lot of chattering, and certainly this is one of the things you talk about leading up a couple of days doing World Series.
Yeah, you're absolutely right. Let's think off the top of my head. I'm looking at Judge Soto, possibly Kershaw is going to be in the first ballot, no question about it. Bets and Otani. Now, I mean there's five right off the top of my head, not counting anybody in administration.
Did you say, Freeman. Oh yeah, Freddy Freeman.
Sure. I think he's definitely got a great chance to be in the Hall of Fame. There's six of them already, said him. Yeah, so I got Judge Soto, Kersh, bets Otani, and Freeman. Uh, you know, right off the top of my head, Juan Soto, I said, Sodo. Obviously you're not listening.
I'm sorry, Stanton. I'm just trying to run down names and writing down here. Possibly Garrett Cole. Garrett Cole is another one. I mean, there might be ten. When you count the guys in the front office.
It's crazy. I mean, the best players in the sport are all in this World Series.
What if Anthony Rizzo wins another World Series? Not this year, of course, but maybe down the road. He was part of that Cubs team that broke the curse in twenty sixteen.
Yeah, probably on the bubble, Yeah, I would say one of those bubble guys.
Yeah, I mean really on the bubble Walker Bueller. I mean still has the rest of his career to play out. He'd have to just shove for the next five years. Yeah yeah, I mean think the World Series champ. How about Dave Roberts, Oh, he needs one more World Series when they win it this year. I think he's a lot because that'll put him as two as a manager, yeah and one is a player. Right, And we talked
about it during the NLCS. The amount of divisional titles, Championship series titles he's got right next to Bobby Cox, certainly not the same quantity as Bobby Cox, but up there as far as right behind Bobby Cox for the most all time. Yeah, I mean the star power the future Hall of Famers in this series is off the charts. Well right now, how about Tommy Edmond. I'm just hey, you know what, you can make a bit splash World series about Aaron Boone?
Yeah, hey, yeah, I mean true.
Okay, player, but manager if he can win a World Series. You know, he's known for the home run in the ALCS.
Yep, big one.
I mean they're saying this is the most star studded World series we've seen since nineteen ninety six and before that this is about nineteen thirty two.
Right way back then, when you're talking to guys like Melott and you know all those cats, right, but this you're talking about really a very defining World series for some guys. I mean, look at Freddy Freeman can really push himself over the edge into the no doubt land, you know, if they win the World Series here because he's you know, he's out there playing on one leg and still doing it. Sodo is pushing himself into that elite group, I think, and Judge is already in there.
And we're almost seeing a renaissance, if you will, of John Carlos Stanton because for a long time he was always the injuries and he was down so much. But now he's the one that's been lifting this team in the Divisional, in the Championship series. So we'll see what he does in the World Series. But he's been a guy that's been the big staple, and Judge really hasn't shined like we know that he can. It's been John Carlo that's been doing it so far.
Thirteen players and managers from the nineteen thirty two Yankees Cubs World Series were Hall of Famers or went on to be Hall of Famers thirteen. That's the record nineteen thirty two lot of Nubbs. I'm not seeing his name for that. Yeah, that's a babe, Ruth Lukeerrick, Bill Dickey,
Lefty Gomez, Herb Pinnic World Series. In the divisional era of the postseason nineteen ninety six is Yankees Braves series had eight Hall of Famers in there, Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Wade Boggs, Tim Rains, Greg Maddox, John Smoltz, Tom Glavit, and Schipper Jones, not to mention managers Joe Tory and
Bobby Cox. So this could surpass the nineteen ninety six Yankees Braves World Series and be right behind the nineteen thirty two World Series for the most Hall of Famers to play in the same series.
Yeah, wow, incredible, incredible. Yeah, and we're gonna get to view it really up close.
Yeah.
It's not like in the thirties when you got to see an overhead view from behind home Plateton. It was all, you know, dark and not good reception. Now look at it as today. You have cameras on the field, you have players miked up. I mean you can't get any more personal other than you want to go maybe shopping for food with them.
You know what I mean?
This is like really in depth stuff now that we're getting to enjoy.
Well, one lucky five to seventy LA sports listener is not just going to be able to watch it on TV or listen on the radio. They're going to be able to go to Game one of the World Series coming up at eight o'clock. If you were out at the Rogan and Rodney appearance yesterday a Hollywood Park Casino, we had one hundred signed up. One lucky winner was generated and selected as the winner. I don't know who
it is yet. I'll be giving it at eight o'clock and they will announce the winner and call them live on the air at eight o'clock this morning and tell them they are going. It's a Game one of the World Series. I'm amazing, I'm going up at eight o'clock.
I gotta be a lot of fun. Oh, in case you didn't get out there, yes, you date Hollywood Park Casino, you have a chance to go to Game two on Saturday by going out to Rogan and Rodney's appearance at BJ's Restaurant in brew House in Rancho Cucamonga between newt and three. Today, Rogan and Rodney show BJ's Restaurant in brew House. Go out there. You gotta sign up in person, register to win, and then tomorrow morning we will announce
a Game two winner that's going to the game. But coming up at eight o'clock this morning, our Game one winner for tickets to see the Dodgers and Yankees. We got a busy show later on this hour, David Vasse, we'll sit down with Charlie Steiner. Steve Yeger will join us in the eight o'clock hour. When we come back, your phone calls eight sixty six ninety seven two five seventy.
It's a star studded World Series. And when they're out of Dodgers Stadium, Sax see everybody's gonna see two statues Sandy Kofax and Jackie Robinson.
Nice.
How soon will there be a third statue? And who should it be? We'll get into it next. It's Steve Sacks, Tim Kates and you on this Thursday morning. The build up continues for Game one of the World Series right here at NFI seventy il I Sports Jaxson kateson AM
m five seventy LA Sports on this Thursday morning. The build up continues to Game one of the World Series tomorrow out of Dodger Stadium Dodgers Yankees Garrett Cole Jack Fularity Game one pitching matchup, first pitch at five oh eight from the GalF of Motors Broadcast Booth, as the Dodgers and Yankees will both have a media day today in the Dodgers center Field Plaza where they will talk to the media and it'll be lots of fun for
about forty five minutes each. And also both teams will go through a workout at Dodger Stadium today's saxy but while they're out in the center Field Plaza today talking to the media at their respective boost and it will be all spread out out so the media can talk to players in a group setting, but one on one. They'll be in the area around the two Dodgers statues in center field. In twenty seventeen, the Dodgers a statue for Jackie Robinson and in twenty twenty two the Dodgers
unveiled a statue for Sandy Kofax. So there are two statues in the center field plaza, which is being built out and the Dodgers have been a great job of that in the last six seven years of redoing the centerfield plaza area with new food areas and hangout areas. Sports in at LA has got their pre and post game stage out there. You've got great Dodger artifacts and memorabilia and different things to go see. It's not a museum, but it's a great spot to go out there and
see Dodgers of the past. And there's a whole section on the fence as Dodger Rookies of the year. And there's Steve Sacks right there in nineteen eighty two, your mug up there with the big thing about you. That's out in center field as well. So two statues, Sandy Kofax and Jackie Robinson. And when the Jackie Robinson statueing up, it was fantastic, it's Jackie. When the Sandy Kovax statue
went up, the first thought was who's next. And between then and now we've we've unfortunately lost Tommy Lasorda and now we lost Fernando Valenzuela. We've lost Vin Scully as well, and the question has been the last few years, who's gonna be the next statue? Dodger Stadium. You're gonna keep that thing going. And just like out of Crypto dot Com, you've got statues of Chick hern and Shaquille O'Neill and Kobe Bryant and Wayne Gretzky and all that at Dodgers statum.
Who's gonna be the third statue? Because there's gonna be one? Who should it be? And and I was thinking about this last night. My wife said, it's got to be Fernando, right, And I thought, well, we got Vin and you've got Tommy, but Saxy, I I think before they get a statue, you've got to give one to Fernando Valenzuela.
Yes, right, yeah, I think I think Fernando's got to be out there, Scully, And look, you can start by lopping off the guys at the top, I mean the Hall of Famers. You can start there. I mean, you know, for uh, the sorta right, certainly he's got to be in there, Vince Scully and then other guys that you know that aren't necessarily in the Hall of Fame, but made the huge difference, Like Fernando, they retired his number, and rightfully, so how about Steve Garvey? You know he's
right on the cusp. I think he should be in. Dusty Baker is going to go on the Hall of Fame. You could do one of him. You could go there's a lot of guys you could put statues out there, but you could start right at the top, guys that are on the bubble the Hall of Fame and guys that are in. Yeah, that's probably a good place to start.
And they got the Legends of Dodgers Baseball for players who aren't in the Hall of Fame. And as we mentioned, Fernando Valenzuela is one of two players that aren't in the Hall of Fame but have their number retired at Dodger Stadium in the Ring of Honor. I've just been thinking, like, since you know, the unfortunate passing sixty three years old, Vin was up there in age and lived a great life, and Tommy lived a great life and was up there
in age. And and now I think of Fernando sixty three years old, you know, gone too soon at the age of sixty three. Maybe he should go first. Maybe, I mean, we cherish and we honor Vin and Tommy and their icons with the Dodgers. A statue for Fernando to me would be I don't know, it just kind of feels right to nobody give Kim. Nobody would question why Fernando now and not somebody else. I mean, he was such a difference maker. He was he was Fernando
was an absolute one off. There'll never be another Fernando. He transformed the fan base in Los Angeles. He invigorated a bunch of fans not only to come back then, but they're still involved in that because of Fernando. This has been such a long term thing with him, and he really engendered a Mexican American population to always be Dodger fans now. I mean lots of times back then,
I think there was some some animosity. You know, the Dodgers were kind of like taking over some of the housing that was there in the Mexican American community, and you know, I think Fernando made everybody kind of get over that pretty quickly. That's that's what the story goes. So you know, he was different. See, he was a different difference maker. I think of the people who go to Dodger Stadium, the fans are there for one hundred and you know, or eighty one home games in postseason
and the diversity that's out of Dodger Stadium. And to have a Fernando statue go up next, and not to say that even and you know Tommy aren't going to get there, because they're going to get becausey're the greatest, but next to put one up there for Fernando, it would be a meeting spot for fans. Yes, every night out of Dodger statem pay question, let's meet the Fernando statue. Let's go see the Fernando statue. It'll get to I'll meet you at the Fernando right. Absolutely, it'd be a
meeting spot. It'd be a spot for people who are coming to their first game, or maybe bringing their child for the first game, or their parent for the first game, or the grandparents the first game in a long time. Hey, they put a statue up for Fernando, let's go see it. It would be a spot to gravitate towards. And it would be for any statue moving forward. And it is now for Jackie and for Sandy Kovax's statues, but I think for the fan base and to I mean yesterday sactually
calls on this station. We're heartbreaking and at the same time you realize how much he was loved, and maybe we forgot about that and what he meant to people and what he meant to a community here in southern California. To put up a statue next to have him be the next one in line behind Jackie and Sandy, it kind of feels right.
To do it, and people would love it because Fernando brought so much joy to this to this area and the organization changed it. Yeah, there's nobody that would ever doubt that. That's not a great thing to do. And here's another one I thought of too alongside that is, you know you kind of look at, you know, a player,
and he's almost synonymous with another player. You kind of put him in groups, you know, like Stanton and Judge are kind of like, you know, these two gigantic, you know, towering players, and you kind of put those guys together. I would put another possibility of Don Drysdale and put him next to Sandy. Yeah, right, because those he's a Hall of Famer, He's deservingly so. And I mean those guys were always synonymous with one another. Remember the contract
holdouts and all that and that happened. So I think that might be another possibility too.
Yeah, absolutely, Cofax, Drysdale, Drysdale, Kofax went hand in hand for so many years with the Dodgers. You know, that's the rich history of the Dodger organization. You're not struggling to find names. You're not struggling to find players or managers to put into Rings of Honors or Legends of Baseball or the Hall of Fame, or retiring their numbers. It's like the Yankees, the rich history that both these franchises have. You know, you can retire so many numbers,
you would have no numbers to give players. They all be in the seventies and eighties and nineties would be because all the numbers would be retired from you know, one to forty five. It's just yes, it's crazy. You just can't retire all of them. You wouldn't have any left here.
You have to go on triple digits eventually, you know you can't do that. But you know what's becoming more in vogue now as you see Aaron Judge Wards ninety nine. I mean, it's it's not a big deal now to oh I have a double digit number, not only double digit, but you're talking guys like you know, that are the interior line of the you know, football club or you know, the linebackers now, so it's not a big deal to
have those numbers. It was always good to have something under forty, probably, but now it's you know, or under fifty. Now it's just hey, whatever, you know, whatever, whatever suits you.
Eight six six nine eighty seven two five seventy. Should Fernando get the next statue at Dodger Stadium? There's two already with Jackie and Sandy. Should number three go to Fernando Valenzuela eight six six ninety eighty seven two five seventy. It was very cool yesterday. Ay Sports net LA did a two hour tribute to Fernando Valenzuela and talk to a lot of the same people we talked to yesterday
morning that we're on the station all day long. Yesterday and our buddy Nomar Garcia Paro was on the station or on sports and at LA and Nomar right when he came on reference he was listening to Saxon Kate's yesterday everybody listens to scatced it. It was talking about the calls and the emotion from the calls, and you know, it got to him and he was thinking about him and his family and his friends, and you know it's He's like, it's true. You know people people had a
connection with Fernando, and he's like it was. It was so awesome to hear fans communicate that. And it was yesterday, all day long to hear people talk about their stories and their families and what Fernando meant to him. And we heard it over and over again, from the golf course to a little league field, to a running at a park somewhere, at the store somewhere. Fernando meant so much to so many people, and especially the Hispanic community. I mean, I just feel like a statue is the
right thing to do. Yeah, I'd love And how about this, how about the story where Fernando came over with all the ladies from work and then the one person, the father couldn't couldn't get there. He was in the restroom, and so Fernando came back or actually brought the father into the booth and spent all that time with him and made the men cry. And that's that is just absolutely moving. And you know Fernando, hey, look, he was great for the Mexican American community, but he was great
for everybody. He everybody loved for now. I don't care where you're from or what nationality were, it didn't matter. Fernando was just he was just one in a billion. He was an amazing person. Eight six, six, nine eighty seven, two five seventy. Robert and Riverside, Good morning. You're on Sax and Kates and the Am. What do you think Fernando's statue? Next in line?
Fernando, what he what he means to California?
What he means?
I mean, we talked about Steve Sacks. Everybody loves Steve Sacks. Part of that's because you think of Fernando when you think of Steve Sax. You know Gibby, We love Gibby. But that's when we used to go to the Dodger games. My dad he's taking the Dodger games when I was little. You know, you know, the Latino community. The father's coming home from work, you know, taking you to a game in their construction boots and stuff like that. That's what you would see back in those days. Because no one
was going to miss a Fernando game. It was just it was just something something different. Man. You know, He's like you guys had mentioned. He's on the same level as Kobe, without a doubt, maybe even more, maybe even more than that. I mean, that's what that got meant to us then, so no doubt. It's got to be Fernando.
Robert appreciate it.
Thank you, Robert.
Talk there Saxy. It's in nice and and it's just it give me a spot where people gather and it's a meeting spot, like you mentioned, meet at the Fernando statue and me would mean so much to the community. But it also be I think, sort of like a flag in the ground kind of a this is a monument right here for the Mexican American community and this is this is all statue.
I'm so glad that the Dodgers are really reaching out and going to do this and really what they've done in centerfield because that was just a parking lot before and now it is such a gathering place. It's so so great for for all everybody. I mean, I'm sure it's great for the Dodgers too, but it's really great for the fan base.
They love it.
Every time I see people out there, they are just absolutely loving it. The food out there, the drink, the gathering, you know, all the memberbilia that you can get in the stores. It's it's awesome. That's a fantastic thing they're doing. It's a great and mazzy statues is gonna be just amazing. It'll be like a wonderland out there. Oh, it's gonna be awesome. It's gonna be it's gonna be a spot
where people are gonna want to go to. Coming from their Dodgers Datium for the first time, seeing the view from the top deck, going down, seeing the field level view, and then going out to center field and seeing the history of all the Dodger greats from the rookies of the years, the MVPs, the Cy Young Award winners, and seeing the statues out there, two of them now and again the third one should be Fernando eight six ninety seven to two five seventy. Coming up, we're gonna hear
from Charlie Steiner. Charlie Steiner, longtime Dodger radio voice for the last twenty years, stepped away from calling games this year. Charlie Steiner battling cancer now in remission, and that is certainly great news. We'll hear from Charlie Steiner as he sits down with David Vassa. When we come back, it's Saxon Kate's in the Am on this Thursday morning, leading you up to Game one tomorrow the World Series Dodgers
Yankees right here on NFI seventy ICE Sports. Saxon Kate's in the Am on NFI seventy LA Sports Live in local to nine o'clock this morning. Coming up eight o'clock, we're gonna announce the winner of the Game one World Series tickets. Hope you were one of the hundreds that signed up at a Hollywood Park casino yesterday with a Rogan and Rodney Moron had your chance to win tickets to Game two coming up.
Also, get back to your phone calls. Fernando Valenzuela. It just makes sense. The third statue in the center field plaza needs to be number thirty four for El Toro Fernando Valenzuela eight six six ninety seven two five seventy Saxy. Though this year we have not had Charlie Steiner on the radio calls twenty years as a radio voice of the Dodgers. He was out all year and we find out that he was in a battle and he is now in remission. But he was diagnosed last January with
MELLMA blood cancer. He had severe back issues. It has been a fight for Charlie Steiner for the last ten month plus and he has announced that he is now in remission. That is awsin goes yeah, I thank god. Indeed, remission is a beautiful word, he said talking to Bill Plashki La Times. In fact, Charlie Steiner just yesterday sat down with our own David Veasse. Thanks guys.
We are jorin right now by a man that has the unique distinction, along with only Red Barber, to call all play by play for both the Yankees and the Dodgers. And that's our very own Charlie Steiner, who is in his twentieth season with the Los Angeles Dodgers as they embark on this World Series against the New York Yankees. Charlie, great to share you with the fans. Hope you're doing well.
Come along, David, coming along.
I know you're looking at fondness of this World Series matchup. Like I mentioned, hard to believe you and the great Red Barber are the only two broadcasters to call games for both the Yankees and Dodgers. How excited are you for this World Series.
Well, let me say first, that is the height of coincidence that Red Barber and I are mentioned in the same sentence. But you know, it just happened to work out that way. As a kid growing up in New York, I was a Brooklyn Dodger fan. Then the Dodgers left in fifty seven. Then I became a Yankee fan because the Dodgers were gone. Upshot of it is and was.
I've been incredibly fortunate to have worked for two iconic franchises, the Dodgers in Brooklyn and of course in Los Angeles and the Yankees, and so to have broadcast for those teams, to spend time with the players that I have over the years, and here they are playing in the World Series. It's it's wonderful. I'm really looking forward to the next week or so.
Charlie, it's been forty three years since the Dodgers and Yankees played in the World Series. You covered those World Series not only eighty one, but seventy seven and seventy eight. Can you just describe the temperature of those matchups back then?
Well, here to a little personal aside that kind of involves you and Moe and me in nineteen eighty one, I was out here covering the World Series where the then RKO Radio network, and I would go downstairs as you do after a game and interview the players and come back with the sound bites and so on. That was the first time I met Rick Monday. What did I know from Rick Monday? He was the center fielder played for the Cubs, now with the Dodgers, and he has,
as everybody knows, that wonderful voice. And when the interview was over, I went back and fed the tape as we often do, and I said to the folks back in New York, I just finished talking to this guy, Rick Monday. He's got the voice, he's got a presence. Someday if he wants to get on the air, he can, he will, and he'll be great. What did I know all those years later and now the last twenty that Rick and I would work together. So eighty one was
a big deal. Eighty one was also the year that we were introduced to Fernando, So all of that has come full circle for me. And then sadly, with the news that we've received in the last day or two, it's we're reminded about a baseball means to us, what the individuals within the games mean to us. So I've thought about that a lot in the last couple of days.
Obviously, Fernando meant so much to Los Angeles in the baseball world, Charlie, but I felt like our interactions with him were similar in some ways but definitely unique. Up in the broadcast booth and in the press box. What stories can you share about Fernando the broadcaster and how he used to tease you and you used to tease him. I'll always remember those times.
Well, you know, and that's what it was he teased. He's got such a natural sense of humor. And you know, he knew Rick as a teammate, he knew me as one who covered him forty something years ago, So the teasing was quite from the heart. Neither of us or none of us had an axe to grind, and so
it was always fun. You know. We would stop into the Spanish booth immediately to the left of Valles, where Fernando would come into our booth, and you know, he wouldn't say much, but when he said it, it was funny. He had a great natural sense of humor. He was a guy that when we were on the road, would go to lunch with Fernando quite a bit. I was certainly honored when we retired his number to have hosted
that ceremony. So he was very special to us. Above and beyond Fernando being Fernando, he was just a good guy with a caustic sense of humor. That know Mo again as an old teammate, and May is one who covered him a long, long time ago. It's part of the family.
Fernando is not a guy that took himself too seriously. He left it on the field. He did not want to talk about his playing days that often. But can you describe being on the field with him last year when they retired number thirty four, could you get a sense that he was a little bit more emotional than what the daily interactions were with him.
He was, and I think there are a couple of reasons. One above and beyond everything else. He was a great player. He was very comfortable in his setting on the mound, his foot on the slab, that's where he was most comfortable. And now all of a sudden he is being asked to speak about the stuff that he really didn't like speaking about. He just liked performing, and boy did he perform. Well. It was one of those where, yeah, he was a
little out of a little out of sorts. Give him a ball, you know, let him look skyward, let him throw with his left arm, and there he was comfortable. Talking about it, not so much.
Charlie Steiner is joining us here on SAX and Kate's in the Morning. And Charlie, obviously you know the history of this Dodgers and Yankees rivalry. Fernando one of the characters forever, will be part of it for what he did in nineteen eighty one. But where do you put Judge Sodo, stanton Otani, Freeman Betts. Does it stack up to the Duke and Roy and Whitey and Mickey? Are these Is this the new chapter? Will they go down in history as part of this great rivalry history?
I guess the answer is I think so, and we will find out. But currently they are the biggest stars in the game. And that's what makes this particular World series so unique to me. In recent years, when there's been a World Series, inevitably there was one team that came in and they were the team to win, and then you have these other teams who kind of like backdoor their way in. They parallel park into the World Series,
as Arizona did last year. From the beginning of this season, go back to February and March, most baseball fans were hoping for and many baseball reporters and those who covered just thought, well, these are the two best teams. They're gonna be in the World Series. How often do you hear that and see that, and it never happens, But this World Series, these are the two best teams in baseball this year. I think it's great with great, big stars.
How badly does the game of baseball need this World Series matchup?
Charlie, Oh, I think they like it needed. I mean, that's what happens at the end of a season. But you've got two teams who are great, two teams that have a history, two teams with a bevy of stars. I don't know that need is the right word. It sure is nice to have, Charlie.
It's nice to have your voice back on a five seventy. We're all thinking about you, and we know you're gonna come back stronger and better than ever for year twenty one next year, and obviously you'll have a front row seat wherever you may be watching this World Series.
Thank you, David. That's exactly where I'm gonna be. Love it.
Charlie Steiner, one of the best ever to do it, Tim Steve Sacks, we'll send it back to you.
All right, thanks a lot of TV. Thank you, Charlie. Great news from Charlie Steiner. His melonoma blood cancer in remission. That's why he's been gone all season long, battling in that and certainly great news. Great to have best, Yeah, awesome to have Charlie back here his voice, and he'll be back full time coming up in twenty twenty five. But certainly this twenty twenty four run a lot of fun for Charlie having called Yankees games and Dodgers games
now for the last twenty seasons. All right, one hour down, two to go, eight six, six, nine, eighty seven, two, five seventy. We'll check in with David bad say again. We'll hear from Steve Jaeger coming up in the eight o'clock hour. Also in the eight o'clock hour, your chance for one lucky winner of Game one World Series tickets. Hope you registered yesterday out at the Hollywood Park Casino with Rogan Rodney. If you did be listening. As one lucky winner, we will call you on the air and
give you those tickets. It's Steve Sacks, Tim Katson. You you're on a FI seventy LA Sports