2-23 Dodger Talk

Dodger talk with David Vassegh, live from Camelback Ranch

Episode Transcript

(00:17):
Welcome to Dodger Talk. David Vassewith you until the bottom of the hour.
That's where we lead you into UCLAUtah College Basketball. Don't forget Saturday,
first Dodger Cactus League game of theseason. The Dodgers will be in
Merryvale taking on the Brewers. Ourpregame coverage begins at eleven thirty, with

(00:38):
first pitch at twelve ten. Iwanted to take the time out to come
into the office of one of themost important people behind the scenes in the
Dodger organization. He is the directorof team Travel for the Dodgers and was
a big part and still remains abig part of the Dodger organization going back
quite a few years. And that'sSky Okasaki. Scott. Thanks a lot

(01:02):
for the time and remind us howmany years now it's been with the Dodgers,
you know, Dave, It's beenso long, I've lost count.
I think I'm in my twenty thirdyear with the organization, potentially my seventeenth
year handling the travel and logistics.I feel like your device is now that
technology has grown since you first started. I'm not sure if you ever get

(01:23):
a chance to close your eyes formore than twenty minutes. Yeah, I
do try to sleep when I can. Of course sleep is important, so
yeah, but it's it's it's beena good ride so far, and every
day is different, and you know, I enjoy showing up to work every

(01:46):
day. We hear about the playersgetting used to each other with so many
new faces, But for you,what's it like now not dealing with the
same personalities, the same tendencies,the same likes. You have to get
to know a new group of players. Yeah, every year it's a little
different. Your group is probably abouteighty percent the same, and but you

(02:07):
know those twenty percent that change.There could be a lot of people that
change in that twenty percent, andobviously Trey Turner, Justin Turner before that,
Kenley Jansen. So you know,it's it's been different, but it's
been a good camp thus far.And obviously we have familiar faces, especially

(02:30):
of course Freddie Mookie and you know, Clayton and Austin Barnes and Max Munsey,
Chris Taylor are all the same guy. So it's again that that twenty
percent is different, which is good, but the eighty percent you're still familiar
with and so it's nice. It'sjust nice to be here. Speaking of

(02:52):
Freddie Freeman, we go back tolast year when the entire team dressed up.
You chose to dress up like FreddieFreeman with the black sweats up to
your belly button and the same shirtthat he wears. What inspired that and
how did he receive it? Well, it was kind of a it was

(03:12):
my default costume. Yeah, Iactually wanted to. I had a Brucely
yellow jumpsuit costume that didn't arrive intime, and since we were in San
Diego, I had timed it whereI would get at the day of our
check into the hotel, but itdidn't arrive in time, so I was

(03:36):
scrambling for a costume. He's wearingLulu Lemon pants, which I have,
and we obviously have the same blueshirt that was team issued. So I
just kind of threw the idea togetherthat I would be Freddie Freeman for Halloween
and it having to work out.Okay, it sure did. I saw
the big smile from Freddy as yourevealed the costume. Scott Kasaki, the

(04:00):
Dodgers director of Travel, is ourguest. We are taking you to the
bottom of the hour on Dodge orTalk. As we lead you into UCLA
basketball and Scott coming to spring training. The last couple of years hard to
come here and not think about thetraumatic experience that the entire world had an
experience with. March twelve, twentytwenty, is when things got real for

(04:23):
the sports world in relation to thecoronavirus. That's the day baseball was shut
down. We were here at CamelbackRanch. I remember Ross Stripling was supposed
to pitch a game that day.But I feel like that day and that
year, your job went to anotherextreme. Yeah, I mean when you

(04:44):
bring up that topic, I thinkwe can all think back as to what
we were doing, where we were, and certainly I was in this office
when you know, everything was goingcrazy, and as one of the people
who handle where to go, whereto be, the scheduling people were asking

(05:08):
me what do we do? AndI really didn't have an answer, And
of course I was looking for guidancefrom our front office or from Major League
Baseball, and we were all learningon the fly together as this all developed.
So, I mean, when youthink about how the world handled things

(05:29):
back on, you know, inmid March of twenty twenty, there was
so much we didn't know and obviously, you know, just the things that
happened to everybody with their daily lives, even go into the grocery store and
not being able to buy toilet paper. It's crazy to think that that was
the case then, but you knowit was, and you know everybody was

(05:51):
in that together. So very interestingtime. And but you know, obviously
we got through it with twenty season, which ended up very good for the
Dodgers, of course, no doubtwinning the World Series championship. But going
back to that day March twelfth,before we get to the bubble, at
that point in time, it feltlike players became parents and husbands and not

(06:15):
baseball players, scrambling to try toget back to their loved ones. I
know a lot of them live herein Arizona and did back then, But
how were you able to keep yourcomposure with everybody somewhat frantic to get back
to their loved ones. It wasan interesting situation. Obviously, some people

(06:36):
stayed in Arizona. Things were betterfrom a supply chain perspective, so everybody
had a different situation. I recallClayton Kershaw going back to Dallas. Some
people drove to Los Angeles. Somepeople stayed like I said, in Arizona,

(06:59):
some people bowl. Because we didn'tknow exactly what was going on,
decided just to stay here because atsome point the idea was maybe this was
only like a week or two longthing and we would get back to training.
So with so much up in theair, I think for the first
week or so, it was kindof a wait and see approach, if

(07:21):
I remember things correctly. But obviouslyyou know, it wasn't a wait and
see approach. It was just kindof things happened from there, but certainly
interesting times, and I'm very thankfulthat everybody was very mature and level headed.
Scott Kasaki, Dodgers director of Travel, is our guest. All right,

(07:45):
take us back to the twenty twentybubble, the Dodgers in Texas for
three and a half weeks on theirrun to winning the World Series Game six
over the Tampa Bay Rays. Westill remember the image of Austin Barnes embracing
Julio Rias after the final strikeout ofthat season. What was that bubble life

(08:05):
for you? You know, Iwas very fortunate enough to have my family
with me, and I was speakingwith somebody in our Baseball Operations department Michael
Voltner, and he told me itwas a vastly different experience for him because
he didn't have his family with him. So his month in the bubble was

(08:28):
miserable as opposed to where I wasable to have my wife and kids with
me. It was, actually,when I look back on, a great
family experience. Obviously, kids werein Zoom. So if you were to
take a situation and somebody would tellyou, hey, you're going to live

(08:48):
in this place. You can't goanywhere. But the campus is kind of
big. It's a four seasons andyou can only go to a stadium and
back for baseball games. You can'tgo to any parks or any stores,
or there's a swimming pool, there'sgreen areas, there's activities for children,

(09:11):
but that's it. Oh and somebody'sgonna cook your meals for you, clean
your room and do your laundry foryou. Would you take it? And
many people did. It was amonth long, which kind of was enough,
but that was kind of like,that was the experience in a nutshell.
There were many other children who werethere, which was great, and

(09:35):
obviously winning the entire thing was madethe entire experience great for everyone. You
know, we had Halloween there andkids adults dressed up for Halloween, and
we had Halloween at this at thishotel, which really made it special for

(10:01):
everyone. And talk about a familyexperience, it was a Dodger family experience.
So that was I really looked backupon October of twenty twenty as something
that was an absolutely a great timefor me and my family personally, not
only professionally of course for the team. Do you remember the vibe the night

(10:24):
after the Dodgers went down three gamesto one in the NLCS to the Atlanta
Braves. Do you remember the feelinggoing back to that Bubble Hotel? Yes,
I felt waking I remember waking upthe night after the team had lost
and we were down three one.I didn't want to leave because I didn't

(10:48):
know what it was going to belike, or I guess we had.
Everybody in the world had sacrificed intheir own way, and you know,
living in this under these strange circumstances, you sort of don't want to You're
so invested in it and you didn'twant it to end, especially of course

(11:09):
we had we felt like we hada good team. You know, we
had the most wins in twenty twentyin the regular season, and we felt
like if things had gone our way, could easily have been two two with
the Braves, but it was threeone. So but we felt like we
had You could see us winning three, you know, you could see us

(11:31):
winning and making this this series threetwo, and then if you want three
two, you could win three three. I mean, you were just optimistic
at that point, right, Sowe certainly had the team to do it.
I don't think I don't think manypeople believed we were losing, right,
And I think that was the thementality of that team and what made
the team so good, right,yeah, yeah, And they came back
from three games to one to advanceto the World Series. Not sure if

(11:54):
you're aware of this, but JoeKelly's new book is out, and he
said that Major League Baseball was tryingto discourage him and the Dodgers from being
co mingling if the Astros got there, and he said that his wife was
approached by MLB and he was determinedto greet the Astros if they showed up
at your Bubble Hotel. Do youremember that? And have you bought Joe

(12:16):
Kelly's new book yet? I haven't. I haven't bought Joe Kelly's new book.
I haven't seen Joe here in springtraining, but certainly planned to at
some point. The I do rememberthat time. I do remember the possibility
of the Astros and just not knowingwhat was going to happen. So I'm

(12:37):
glad it was the race. Allright, We'll leave it there. UCLA
basketball is next. I know weshare a common fandom when it comes to
UCLA basketball and the generation of Bruins. We have the same same generation of
UCLA basketball that we grew up watching. Don McLean was at Tarantula Hill last
Friday, so I get to rubelbows with dmat quite Off. Yeah,

(13:00):
I mean I grew up watching UCLAbasketball. I showing my age. I'm
about the same age as m inbetween Ed and Charles O'Bannon. I remember
as a kid watching Don McLean andTracy Murray. When I played in high

(13:20):
school, I wasn't a very goodbasketball player, but we were going to
play if we had won in thistournament. My coach came to me,
saus Scott, you're gonna guard TiasEdney from Long Beach Polly and I looked
at him and I was like,this is the fastest human being I've ever
seen in my entire life, andI thought to myself, there's no wack

(13:43):
and guard this guy. We lost, so we didn't end up playing Long
Beach Polly in the next game.But I certainly have always admired his game
and the way he approached things.So yeah, big u c l A
fan them way back. Enjoyed watchingthem the past couple of years. They've

(14:05):
been very good. They play asa unit, so it's it's fun.
I enjoy watching. Some people mayfind this strange a good college game more
than I like watching an NBA game. Yeah, I think we're all in
the same boat these days with theway they play in the NBA. There
he goes the Dodgers Director of Travel, Scott Kasaki, big UCLA fan and

(14:26):
obviously great insight on what was takingplace during the twenty twenty bubble on the
way to the Dodgers last World Serieschampionship. From Scott to look, who's
here a star on MLB Network thesedays. He went from player to broadcaster
with not much training and has donea fantastic job. And that is the

(14:48):
one and only Yonder Alonzo. Thanksa lot for the time, great to
have you out here at Dodger Camp. Oh well, listen, thank you
for the kind words. But yeah, definitely was thrown into the fi.
But you know what, I've enjoyedevery minute of it, and I'm learning
every single day. And you know, I always tell guys this is is.
I always take care of the playersbefore the show, and I always

(15:09):
talk about my experience. And oneof the biggest things that I've also enjoyed
is, you know, I talkabout baseball, but I don't go over
for anymore. And if I don'tgo over for anymore, life is good.
But you don't forget how hard thegame is. Well that's the reason.
That's why I'm so happy, becauseI don't forget, and every day
is a good day as long asI don't go over for yonder, You're

(15:31):
in a tough spot because you justfinished playing a lot of guys that play
were your teammates or you played againstthem, So how do you separate?
Well, you know what, I'mas real as it gets. And again,
I always protect the player. Iknow the you know, the line
that comes with media and then theplayer. I understand the privacy of a

(15:52):
player. I understand the you know, friends and media is completely different.
So, uh, protecting the player, i'd all call it's kind of my
goal to But again, I tryto also do my job and try to
you know, when I do this, it is always about trying to talk
to a ten or a twelve yearold and get them to listen and learn

(16:12):
something about the game of baseball.It's very hard. And then after that,
you know, just be as realas it gets. How much teaching
are you gonna have to do,not only for us but for yourself with
these new rules. Well, Ithink the rules are great. I think
the rules are great for the fans. I think the rules are great for
the players. I think it's greatif you can take down cut down thirty

(16:33):
minutes of a game, you know, it's crazy. I will watch them,
watch the Padres and the Dodgers allyear around, and you have a
six o'clock game ending at eleven o'clockat night. It's just unheard of.
Right at ten thirty for me,now, I think the game will be
a lot more fun. You know. I wish when I played they banned
the shift, I would have probablystill been playing. Yeah, but you

(16:55):
know, I think it's gonna begreat overall. I think the bigger bases
are better. They're they're not asslick as well, they're a little lower
all of it. In general,I think April will be a learning curve.
Of Spring training will be a learningcurve. But other than that,
it's going to be a lot offun. Yonder, when you look at
the pitch clock and you look atthe new rules, the shift, I'm
still not sold these teams are notgoing to find a way to load up

(17:17):
the right side. Are you convincedthey're not going to try to circumvent the
rules and the spirit of the rule. Somebody's gonna try it, But it's
just a matter of a task.I mean, there's still rules in place.
I think this is going to bethe first year. I would think
that later on there will be moreadjusting with that, but I think in
generally it's just a really good stepmoving forward. Yonder Alonso is our guest

(17:40):
on Dodger Talk. He does agreat job on MLB Network and Yonder,
I'm curious, from a guy fromthe outside looking in on the NL West,
how close is it going to bebetween the Dodgers and Padres. Look,
I think it's going to be close. I don't necessarily think the Dodgers
are gonna win a hundred eleven games. I think they are going to win

(18:03):
over on hundred games. Look andand you know what, it's kind of
it's kind of sad for me sometimesbecause you know, they everybody forgets what
the Dodgers did. They want onehundred and eleven games. Man Like,
these guys they want a division.You know, they ran away with the
division. So it's like, givethem credit, man, Like, this
is a really good team, ifnot one of the best teams in all
of baseball. And I think thisyear. You know, sometimes the best

(18:26):
moves are the ones that you don'tmake. And you got to give credit
to to everybody there in the frontoffice and Dave Roberts. They just have
a way of doing things, andthey have a way of, you know,
always being on top and being twosteps ahead of everybody. I think
it is still prime to again winthe division. And you know, if
they stay healthy, they can winthe division. And I think that's a

(18:47):
big question mark not only for thePadres or the rest of that division,
but for the Dodgers as well,if if they can stay healthy, and
you can ask any team that,right, if you can stay healthy,
good things are going to happen.So it's a matter of health, is
a matter of communication. I thinkthe balance schedule is going to be very
important now you know, everybody playseverybody you know, and it's going to
be it's going to be a lotof fun. Yonder. You saw a

(19:07):
lot more Red Sox games than weever saw. How much does j D
Martinez have left in the tank?Can tell you something about j D.
J D. I've known j Dsince he was ten years old. We
played in literally together, so wow, you know, can we go way
like way way way, way wayback. So you know, JD is
is special to me. J Das has always hit since he was ten
years old. I think the JDis is, you know, the grass

(19:32):
is greener on the other side sometimes. And I think here in La the
weather is going to be very goodfor him. I think the gaps are
going to be fantastic for him.You know, people don't realize, but
but the way to go at DoctorStadiums is in the gaps and j D
is a gap to gap hitter.So he's going to benefit tremendously from a
really good lineup, a very steadyEddy lineup, a very consistent lineup,

(19:55):
and he's going to have a lotof opportunities. And I'm really looking forward
to watching JD do his thing.What's the impact he'll have on Mookie Bets,
Well, I mean it has tobe honest, I think the impact
he's gonna have on everybody. Right, this is a guy who's a peer
of a hitter as it gets,a guy who really prepares himself. I
think Mooki is at a level alreadywhere both of those guys are helping each
other out right. If not forme, it's not so much the Mookies,

(20:18):
is the Gavin Lux and the Vargas. Those are the guys that that
JD is really going to make animpact on. So I'm really looking forward
to seeing that growth. Yonder Alonso, our guest before I let you go,
If you look around Yonder here atDodger camp, not a lot of
media, not a lot of cameras. Why is that? I think they're
at the Padres camp. Yeah,well, you know, I don't know

(20:41):
because I'm not there, but Iwill say, you know, when you
look at the Dodgers and you lookat what they've done on paper and what
they've done you know the past tenyears, They've been in the postseason the
past ten years, right, SoI think this team is it'll be all
right, They'll be just fine.How do you feel about the Padres handling
those exttions because these guys have performedunder those expectations. I think the Padres,

(21:03):
I've been dealing with that now forthe past three or four years,
so it's not really a secret.And if anything, they've overcome a lot
of these expectations. When you knowlast year, all the things that happen,
and yet they're still in the postseason. They still were able to face
the Dodgers, and there were youknow, there were a couple innings away
from being in a World Series.So it is what it is. I
think this division is is probably thebest division in all of baseball, and

(21:26):
you're going to see some really goodbaseball and I can't wait. You feel
like Manny Machado is finally getting hisdue. It feels like last year people
started to give him the respect thathe has long deserved. You're asking I
think, if anything, you're askinga wrong guy that because you know my
brother in law, so you know, for me, I don't see Manny
any other way, but you knowmy family and it is what it is.

(21:48):
I don't see him for the baseballplayer. I see him for the
guy that I see after baseball.So and what he does for my family
and what he does, you know, obviously being married to my sister,
for us coming to ten years now, and you know what he does with
his nephew is my kids. That'sthe Manny that I know. And you
know, I you know it soundsthis may sound awful, but once once

(22:10):
we leave baseball, yeah, youknow, and we get in a car,
baseball is kind of over. Right. We talked more soccer and basketball
and football. Yeah, TikTok.I mean like baseball is just baseball and
that's what we do and we loveit and you know, we're professionals at
it. But you know, youlook at him and you look at the
growth from when he was in Baltimoreor even prior to that, when I
knew him when he was fifteen yearsold to now, right, because man

(22:32):
a leader and I and he deservesit. He deserves having the right to
to kind of lead a team,and he surely has done it. And
you know, everybody in the worldloves Manny and everybody in our camp loves
him and we're looking forward to thisyear. Well, I loved him.
He treated me great when he waswith the Dodgers. And I know guys
in the clubhouse love Manny Machado too. That you know. That's good and

(22:53):
it's funny. A lot of peoplesay, you know, when they meet
him for the first time or theyhang out with him for the first time.
I'm like, man, you know, Manny, wow, man amazing,
and I'm like, yeah, youknow, yeah, you know it.
Don't judge the book by its cover. I'll say that exactly. He's
got a lot of swag and I'mnot sure he can be seen in public
with me after that embarrassment in Milwaukee. I told him that. But by

(23:14):
the way, how is your arm? It's I got my jump shot back.
I love Hey, listen, youbrought that up. I wasn't gonna
say that you brought it up.Man. That's it. I'll leave it
at that. Thanks y'all. They'regreat to see you in person. I
know you're always on our TV,but great to see you in living color
out here. My pleasure. Ilove coming here. Then I'll do it
for us tonight on Dodger Talk avery quick show as we lead you into

(23:37):
UCLA basketball. Pregame coverage is comingup next from Utah number four Bruins taking
on the Utes tonight on AM fiveseventy LA Sports. We will be back
with you on Saturday morning at eleventhirty for Dodgers on Deck just in front
of first pitch of the Dodgers firstCactus League game this season, again the

(24:00):
Milwaukee Brewers. It will take placefrom Merryvale, Rick Monday and Tim Nevert.
We'll have the call at twelve ten. Michael Grove will be on the
mound for the Dodgers in Merryvale onSaturday, so we look forward to talking
to you then. Up next nowis UCLA Basketball. Enjoy Sea