Sax and Cates In The AM (Hour 3) 10/21/24

The right quist.

Dodgers Playoff Baseball is back, and with it an annual postseason tradition.

Scam is back. Baby.

This is Sax and Cakes in the.

A APPA go with 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 e LA Sports. It's Tim Kates and Steve Sacks.

It's a matchup everybody wanted, the Los Angeles Dodgers and the New York Yankees. Game one of the World Series is coming up on Friday night as the Dodgers advance beating the New York Mets last night in six games of the National League Championship Series. It's Sax and Kates in the AM. Here. You're a home of showy Otani in the Dodgers AMPI seventy LA Sports. Thanks for being with us here until nine o'clock this morning. We're gonna be here every morning all week long leading up to

Yes, And remember, I want to tell them that the Dodgers have already beaten the Padres, all right, maybe the second best team in all the playoffs next to the Dodgers.

I believe it.

I mean that Padre team was stacked, right, and they went through those guys. And this is not just national coverage, this is global coverage of the whole world. You think about New York and the proximity to Europe, okay, not far. I mean you're talking about what five hour flight, six hour flight, So the Yankees have probably got a little bit more panache maybe over there because of just the proximity to New York. And so that's kind of the team.

Information on and off the field. He's got the respect of these guys in that Dodger clubhouse for what he does and what he brings to Dodger fans as the communicator of Dodger information, host to Dodger Talk. You hear him all over the station. Last night he was talking to everybody in that Dodger clubhouse. You've heard a lot of the interviews that Dave did last night right here

Hey, Honeywell's got that turtleneck gone.

It's all soaked with champagne. Brent Honeywell, how does this feel?

Win?

Is fun man?

Winning his best field in the world, especially when you're at the highest.

Level because.

Nobody else there's just two teams.

Less the best, best world stage. I wanted it my whole entire life, ever since I was a little kid I've been I wanted my whole life.

How does it feel to be such a big part of this Bullpen?

I can't do it without him down there. I could have done it without them. How about this guy, Max Munsey? What would you do without Max Munsey?

Here?

You're here in Munsey, this dude a few times?

Yes, all right?

Good?

Just making sure you can drive about.

Right now, David, I feel like I'm a got more champagne and beer than you.

Two.

Hey, no story for you, right?

This guy threw was.

It four innings or two dirts?

Or two dirts?

For us in New York?

He came out of the game.

What what did I tell you? He said, I want this game six?

And you were right.

How much does Brent Honeywell mean to this team? Just everything he brings. That's a dog. That's a dog.

Our whole Bullpen's dogs. But this guy put him in a musition. Hey, you need two outs, he's got you. You need three innings, he's got you. This guy who cares, Hey, you need someone to throw LIVEVP in San Diego.

He's got you this today.

This guy might have gotten Moovie Bets right because he threw him LIVEVP.

I don't know if you.

Guys do that.

He threw VP because he wasn't He wasn't active at.

The time he threw LIVP. Rookie Betts started going off.

Did you throw him a screwball?

No?

I fed him down the middle and said, cract, that's the ballpark.

That's what I said.

I told all three of them, I'm throwing it down the middle.

You know it's hit it as far as you can.

That's awesome.

Brent Honeywell might be the under copper MVD of this team. You never know.

You never know.

This guy's a dog. He's one of the heart beats of this team. It doesn't get stated enough. He doesn't get enough credit. This dude's amazing in him on the bus, in the clubhouse, in the bullpen. This dude's amazing. Lexie, What does this team mean to you?

As far as going back to the World Series.

You were here in eighteen, you want it in twenty. How bad do you want to ring for these guys? And how bad do you want to break this? This is one of the closest groups that I've ever been to Bardo.

Man, you know, we had to get some work to get here, but it's been amazing.

I mean, this is this is probably the closest keep.

I've had since twenty And you know when you talking about twenty twenty, when you're stuck in a hotel with everybody for forty five days, yeah, you're gonna get close. We're finding a way to do that while not being stuck together.

And this goes.

Back to you know, all the way back in Atlanta, we had a team meeting.

Tyler Glastan got told.

That he couldn't pitch anymore. That was a real kick in the gut. But we had a team meeting.

We said, hey, guys, look around.

We have all stars, we have Hall of Famers, we have guys making a lot of money.

In this clubhouse. We can still do this. And we had to get everybody to believe in that. And our season turned right there. And then we had five days off and we've.

Talked about that.

The last two years.

We've had five days off, right, we didn't know how to handle that, and coming into this year.

You know, we tried multiple things, right, they let.

Fans into the stadium for a city game. We're trying to make it a real situation. And this year us as players, we went to the front office and said, hey, this is what we're doing, and we told.

Them what we want to do.

And everyone stresses out about having the five days off, and we treated it as a.

Reward, because it is a reward.

You grind for eight months, going back to February spring training, this is in this is the reward.

Right.

We played the best of the bath and we said, hey, we earned the number one seed.

It's every ward. You get five days off as ever reward. So we wanted to treat those award. We brought into I Doo. We had unbelievable catering.

We had fun, We had fool table thing, bok tables.

Papa shots. We had a really good time. We were here together as a group, were for eight hours a.

Day, and you know in the past we were here for two three hours a day. We tried to make it as serious as possible.

This year, Rena said, no, we're here together. Boys.

I am not questioning you as a father, you as a husband, you as a boyfriend, whatever, but give me three weeks.

I need three weeks out of you to be with the boys. We're gonna cline through this together for.

Three weeks, and then you can be the best husband and father you can you've ever been.

But I need three weeks out of you.

So for eight hours a day and those five days off, we were here together. I'm just hanging out, have your fun, having some food, talking about what we're gonna do, get a picture, watching watching baseball.

We were just here for eight hours a day being boys, and I really think that's translated into when we're.

At now.

Well said, I think in New York, no three of us should share a room.

What I think all three of us we should hang out, spend quality time in New York when the.

Series goes there, David, I can't think of anything worse. Worse because I got your shower with my dad.

That's a bolt.

I'll take that out of maybe unbelievable candid stuff from Max Munsey and Brentney.

My tail off. I mean, it's beautiful, that's you know what I can't. I'm sitting here listening to this and I feel like I'm twenty eight years old again, going against the Olga. That's the same kind of stop that comes out of the guys today. It's no different. You know what, It wasn't any different in the thirties and forties either. They maybe not the same music, but they they had the same feeling, the same uh you know, the same you know, chemistry with all the players on

This is this is.

He said, just a bunch of guys being boys. This is the difference in this team. I really wholeheartedly believe that decision could have changed everything.

Absolutely, very candid stuff, Vira, very real.

And you're not any of that stuff from other reporters other than David Vassey. No, you know why, because they're not gonna let their guard down and talk like that. Percent it's not gonna happen.

One hundred percent that's why it has gone viral, and so many Dodger fans and baseball fans are like, man, this is real stuff. This is real, great information, and this is awesome to see what this team does to prepare and the buy in that this team has in

Yeah, I was surprised that he shared as much as he did because before the first game of the postseason, guys, Monsey laid out all of that to me, and at that point in time, we obviously didn't know where it was going to go. They might have done all that and got bounced in the first round. But the one thing that he felt good about and the rest of the team felt good about, is even if they lost, they wouldn't second guess whether or not they invested everything

Yeah, Dave, I know we like the Ribbia and all that. It's only because we are very fond of you. But that really shows, uh that you're not going to get an interview. You're not going to have somebody put their guard down and talk like that unless they have an extreme reverence in the highest regard for you. So kudos to you forgetting that interview. That's that's It says a lot about you, and it's just great. I also thought

They'd rather shower with their dad is absolutely hilarious.

Brandon Honeywell reminds all of us of Kenny Powers from Eastbound and Down and before the playoffs started they made him get a perm so he had a perm and he had the shaved side because he is that guy. He was basically out of baseball. He'll come out of the bullpen, he'll make a start. And you heard I mean I didn't know that he threw live BP to Mookie Bets and the rest of the team that I mean, that's who he is. He's just a guy that ball or do anything that it takes.

Dave, Dave, you know what you know, as you can see, is the Dodgers collectively as a team have put all their chips in the middle. They've completely bought in. Everything's moved to the middle. They have stepped over the line, and they have completely committed to this. That's a dangerous combination for the great Yankee team that's coming in here

It was Max Munsey and Will Smith. They got Kershaw barnesk on board, and they just wanted to get Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman to buy in. Those were the last two guys they needed to buy in, and those two guys were all in. And once it got started, My understanding is Mookie Bets was the leader and more involved in all this time together just as much as anybody else. So once they got those two guys to buy in, you know, Steve, you get the two best

Everybody follows it.

Yeah, Dave, well, let you save your voices. It's gonna be a long way. But real quick, what does the next four plus days look like for this Dodgers team? Game ones not till Friday night at five o'clock. What do you understand as far as maybe the schedule workouts. What they're going to do be between now and then.

Yeah, my understanding. Today they're going to get some treatment. There's no really work being done on the field. Maybe more rams up as the days go along. Thursday they have a World Series media day. Did they have that in nineteen eighty eight Saxy Media Day?

I don't remember that. No, I don't remember. No, I don't think so.

I'm sure Kirk Gibson was right there right at media day front.

Yeah, oh yeah, we had a media day.

We got John Shueho Sue who brought his camera that day.

Well, Dave want two guys to keep in mind as we get closer to the World Series rosters being said, do not rule out Bruce Dark Radol or Alex Vesia coming back and being able to pitch.

That'd be awesome to get both those guys back to help out the bullpend David, fantastic job last night. Tremendous work in the clubhouse. I can't say it enough how great these interviews were the candidates from all the players, Key Ahern Nandiz nobody else is getting that information out of him. Brent Honeywell Junior, Max Muncy, everybody you talk to,

Hey, thank you guys. If I if I had one wish in the I wish I had a time machine to be able to have this role with the eighty eight Dodgers and celebrate the fruits of victory.

What a team.

That's it. There he goes, and only David Vass said, what a great job last night. That that I told you that monthy Honeywell just candid Monthsy going off talking about what they did during the bring.

I mean, really, where where are you going to hear that stuff? No, it's great, you know you hear this stuff on the top it, you know. I mean they peeled the onion back there a little bit, right, That's beautiful stuff.

And the joking around at the end about hey, we should hang out together in New York and I'd rather shower with my dad.

Oh my god, that was absolutely hilarious. They they love David they do. If they if they didn't, they're not going there with them, believe me.

And they respect the ton out of David. So thanks to DV for popping on this morning, late night last night. You can hear it in his voice. It's been a long NLC, has been a long postseason so far. But guess what, Dodger fans, A World Series is coming up up. The ride continues, Saxon Kates in the am. Dodgers going to the World Series to face the New York Yankees. Your phone calls coming up. What a night it was as we celebrate another NLCS for the Dodgers and a

Yeah, and this is gonna be absolutely epic when you consider these two teams going out. I mean, this is it's like a build up that's been coming for a long time. I mean, we team people were talking about this in spring training. Look at these two teams. I mean, this is probably gonna be a World Series matchup. Ah, what are the odds of that? I'm looking at the Kentucky Derby. When does a favorite ever win the Kentucky Derby?

Not very much. And it's too hard to be here.

We are it's gonna happen. I mean, coming into this too, you're gonna have guys that are really hot Standings swinging a big bat. Soto swinging a big bat, Mookie Bets and and uh you know, Sho Tani are swinging big bat. I mean, this is gonna be just a major clash. This is gonna be This is gonna be profound. This is gonna be a huge event in our country, no doubt about it.

You know, this is a Yankees team with Jazz Chisholm. This is a Yankees team with the names you just rattled off. You throw Anthony Volpi, you throw in the catcher Wells. Yeah, throwing Alex Dugo, former Dodger who we seem to have forgotten about, batting ninth and playing left field for the New York Yankees.

And by the way, Tim, have you seen Chisholm throw from third base?

No, Holy cow, good or bad? He has got a freaking missile.

Really, Oh my god, you're talking about, you know, three feet off the ground the whole way from from in the hole, from like short left field. You're talking about three feet off the ground with a little hippitie hop when he gets near your first base. I'm telling you, this guy's got a cannon over there. I mean, way, do you see this? It's amazing.

He's a pickup they made for the Miami ro like that.

It's crazy.

Yeah, I mean, Anthony Volpi is a guy that they absolutely love, a New Yorker, a hometown kid there, twenty three years old, playing shortstop for the New York Yankees. He was annointed as the next Derek Jeter. Uh as far as possible legacy shortstop. Yeah that's true.

I mean, but you know, people, I mean, I'm I'm saying they weren't talking about it. But Derek Jeter's like, you know, generational. But now he's a good player, No doubt he's a good player. I wouldn't trade him for Tommy Edmund No, heck, no, no way, heck no.

Tommy Edmand now is cemented himself in Dodger history with eleven runs driven in and the NLCS Ty and Corey Seeger for the franchise record NLCS MVP.

I mean, yeah, Tim, remember this though, Rizzo, they're gonna have an opperatity. I think if there's one spot where you could exploit, you know, this team is going after Rizzo. That's and the fact that Judge isn't swinging a big bat. He may be you know it it's somebody sometime he's going to Yeah, uh, hopefully it's when the season's over. But Anthony Rizzo has got Remember he's got two broken fingers on his right hand. Remember he's a left handed hitter.

He broke his bat and.

Flared it over the shortstop. So if you can mitigate some of the power that's coming out of Rizzo and and not the same hitter with two broken fingers, uh, and and and and he's playing through this simply on a pure as much as you can stand pain basis. It's not really anything that he's gonna do worse to his fingers other than let him heal. But he's on he's on a pain basis only right now.

So it's gonna be a great series. It's gonna be fun to see these two teams, Uh square off. Everybody's wanted it, and we got it. Let's go to Glenn and him. It been waiting patiently. We appreciate that. Glenn, good morning, thanks for taking my call.

I want to talk about adding players. I know they haven't until Friday to add more players. What about Kris Shaw and Miguel Rojash Are they gonna be able to fight.

Good question. As far as Miguel Rojas is concerned, he's a possibility. H Clayton Kershaw has already you know, shut it down, so he's not ramped up, he's not ready to go. He is watching this postseason from the dugout. But Miguel Rojas, the adductor, we'll see if he's available to go. And that's a serious question that we're gonna have the next couple of days to talk about. Sexy is do you mess with the chemistry of the position players right now or do you leave it as it is?

You know, they'll give you at I'll give you a little subset, okay, of you know, so pitching is one thing, but you go to hit, you know, the hitting regular players. Okay, what about Freddie Freeman. I mean that's a no brainer. If Freddy's ready, he If Freddy is ready, he's going to be in there.

No question about it. But but I you know, I can't.

I can't take Edmond out.

How can you do that?

You can't.

I mean if Miguil Rojas, he's gonna have to be He's gonna have to be a guy off the bench right now, now, now, now for the regular season. Okay, sure, maybe different story because that's Edmund's role is to play everywhere.

Mm hmm.

So but right now you kind of ride the pony, right, and the pony's hot, so that's the pony you jump on.

Well, you think about Miguel Rojas's role, He's a shortstop. He doesn't really play a lot of other positions.

No, that's all he plays.

Yeah, And so if you're looking at him as a bench player, role player, since Tommy Edmans now playing shortstop, do you want Rojas off the bench where all he can play a shortstop? Or did you rather have a guy like a key Key Hernandez or a Chris Taylor who or Andy Pajas who can play multiple spots in the outfield. But for Chris Taylor who can play four different positions right right, and Rojas only one.

Well, Rojas will have to be specific in where he plays. If something goes down with Tommy Edmond. He can go into shortstop. Okay, he can do that, but you might use Rojas just off the bench to hit, you know, if you need if you need a guy to come in and hit, you know, maybe you use them.

There.

You got guys that can you can plug and play. Like you just said, k he can play anywhere too, right, So I mean for a short time you can do that. But for the long haul, Rojas is a shortstop and if he earns the position, that's where he'll be. I really do think that that position is going to be up for up for grabs this winter. Absolutely.

We check in with Father Gary here in Burbank. He has blessed the Dodgers all postseason a long hopefully that continues into the World series. Father Gary, good morning.

Hey, good morning guys. Listen, I want to thank you for indulging me and letting me participate in your shows these last couple of weeks. I'm really excited about this, so let me ask you something. Two things I want to say. One observation last night, the guys looked like they were celebrating, but it looked like they knew that they had more business to take care of. They weren't going bananas on the field. They were shaking hands, they were nodding at each other, they were patting each other

This is not it.

This is just another step into the direction we want to go. Then I have a prophecy for you, Freddie Freeman, MVP of the World Series record. That keep that that's going to be money.

All right, father Gary, we appreciate it. Hopefully you can bless that ankle a little bit and get some healing

I would get shocked, and everybody on the team would be good too. They would just want a World Series Look, the other thing about Freddie is he's a professional hitter. That's the best compliment you can ever give a baseball player. A guy's everyday player. He's a professional, he's in he's a professional hitter. And that's what Freddy is. I've seen him in stumps slumps before. I've seen him in practice

Next up with Saxon, Kate's and Am is the Dodgers a punch their ticket for a World Series bit against the Yankees.

Is Hey Man, Kim, Hey Steve, how are you guys doing this morning?

Man?

Thanks, beautiful day, beautiful day. Hey, Well listen, I have I did have a couple of comments here, but first I'm wondering if I could wish a happy birthday shout out to my brother Isaac Dodgers October baseball. It's pretty much like one in the same for our family. So I definitely want to wish my brother Isaac a happy birthday today.

Very nice. I just did.

Thank you awesome, man, awesome, I'm awesome. So as far as the baseball is concerned, man, I have been watching these Yankees. They I'm not gonna lie as a fan of baseball. They they do play some exciting ball, but I think that we are better messed up. Steve, you hit the nail on the head there with Rizzo. He doesn't look like the same Rizzo from back in Chicago, so I think that's definitely something we can exploit. But to the fans, hey, let's show up, let's show out.

All right? Is appreciate the phone call eight six seventy Mike, and Fresno has been waiting patiently. Thank you for Mike. Good morning, Hey, good morning boy.

Uh.

As a guy, that's harding to be on the phone with Saxton Kate, ask you, I'm I can't listen to you guys drive because they have someone else playing on iHeart right now. But uh, I just want to say I wanted to come down this week and be it all right, I'm not going to go to the game, but where's the best place to go watch the game where I'll have they thought the biggest atmosphere, like dog your atmosphere is.

That's a that's a great I'm not sure there's so many great Dodger viewing parties. Uh here in southern California, a lot of local spots around Dodgers Stadium. Uh, that's a good thing. When maybe we'll post it up on social media. Maybe we'll get into the next couple of days where some great viewing spots are for Dodger fans to watch the World Series.

Because probably not at the Kate's house. You don't want to get too much bad language of screaming at the TV. Yeah, because uh yeah, that wouldn't be a lot of fun. First of food to be gone quickly, and second you'd probably not like to hear the third commentary from the radio TV and me uh during the game that it gets quite annoying from people and they's why what kind of food you supporting at the house? Too?

Well, it depends I like to go to the pizza. There's a local spot here in Bourband called dinas Dino's Pizza, which is a great spot. I love doing that. The wife can made chicken and steakkebobs last night, so that was that was fun to have. So but uh yeah, I'm into the pizza and a wine. So that's that's a big thing for us.

We we got the scoreboards right down on the right down the street from me, right around the corner, and the best pizza everywhere, just amazing and the place is jam packed. Okay, best pizza. What kind of pizza that we Talcaroni? Just stay listen. I like the plain stuff. No, but pepperoni and mozzailla, thin pepperoni, mozzarella and a Coca cola.

That's all I like.

I don't know why people have a beer with it and they blow the whole reason for having a pizza. No, it's pizza and Coca cola.

The best ever. Okay, because I mean, people'll start people started saying Chicago deep dish. Det I don't like the thick.

I want the New York feel like you just gained fourteen pounds by the time you go to bed.

That's true.

I don't like it.

The only thing good about New York in my mind is the pizza, the New York pizza, the big fat you know slices that you can fold up and eat. The chubbies. Yeah, yeah, those they're big. Those are good, they are those are really good.

Yeah.

But I like the thin slice. Brother, I'm telling you, Pepperoni really good. Well, you you're like like an adonnas. You watch what you eat, your count your calories, you have cheap days. You're one of those guys.

Actually, I'm not.

I wouldn't say that. I wouldn't say that at all.

He is.

Steve sax Up Jim Gates with you here until the top of the hour. We're here all week long, getting you ready for Game one of the World Series. Yeah, it's happening, Dodgers Yankees Friday night, Dodgers Stadium. We'll have all the action, We'll have all the lead up, all the build up, all the previewing, all the great guests right here on NFI seventy LA Sports, Sax and Kate

I don't think that's a bad thing. I mean, you do. I wish we had one extra starter, five guys that can go out there and tow the line and do it the traditional way. Yeah, But the Padres found out when they got into the tooth of the Dogs what happened, Well, it didn't go too well for them because they were

I love the whole Dog's mantra. I love the borrowing of a postseason run. And you know, naming the group after and solidarity together. I mean, you mentioned the Stuntman back in nineteen eighty eight, you mentioned the run with the White Sox and the group they called out of the Bullpen. I mean, it's it's something that's pretty cool, and it's it's something you don't see a lot. But yeah, for this Dodgers team, this group, I mean, with all the superstars, they have to see that group of relievers,

And it's amazing how much the game has changed. It used to be, you know, those guys down in the bullpen, you had guys that would mop up because the expectation of the starter was to go nine. You'd have guys that would mop up, guys that would just come in. And the middle relievers were almost like triple A guys. I mean, they were just like, you know, who cared. I mean, now every guy has got a you know, the target, two guys that this one guy can get out.

Eric in Hollywood, wrap things up on this Monday. You got about thirty seconds.

Go ahead, Eric, god Jert Day shed World Series, Here we come.

Tommy was a beast. Bullpen is a force to reckon with the hubant rally towel says, let's.

Go all right, Eric in Hollywood, appreciate the phone call. Eric's ant to let's go Dodgers Dodger Nation. It's a it's a thing on Dodger Talk.

So yeah, yeah, he's got to figure it out, right, Yeah, he does.

He does.

We're gonna be with you every single day this week leading up to Game one of the World Series on Friday night. We're gonna get a coverage from New York. We're gonna go back to nineteen eighty one and that team that made a World Series run against the New York Yankees. Will check in with some of your former teammates during the week. So yeah, a lot of phone calls we got some great stuff in store coming up tomorrow, Wednesday, Thursday.