Dalton Rushing (6-11-25)

Dalton talks about finding a routine as a backup catcher, his first experience playing the Padres, and navigating the catcher-umpire relationship. 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
And now an exclusive interview with David Bassey for Dodger Talk.
The Dodgers are closing out this series in San Diego,
and we're joined right now by Dodger catcher Dalton Rushing. Rushing.
Thanks a lot for the time, appreciate it.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
Yeah, absolutely, it's good to be here, David.

Speaker 1 (00:16):
Surprisingly, you're more awake than most of your teammates this
early in the day.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
Yeah, gotta wake up. It's a day game. Gotta be ready.

Speaker 1 (00:23):
Hey, what's the experience been like for you so far?
You've gotten your feet wet. Have you found a routine
in this new role of not playing every day?

Speaker 3 (00:32):
Yeah, it's coming along. It's starting to figure some things
out and understand what I have to do to stay ready.
Haven't obviously perfected it to this point and haven't done
exactly what I would like to do or what I
think I could do to help the team. But yeah,
that's part of it. It's part of this journey. It's

(00:53):
part of getting your feet wet, like you said, and
being able to understand your role.

Speaker 2 (00:58):
It's not easy playing just a week.

Speaker 1 (01:00):
Everybody thinks you just show up and you're fresh and
ready to go, but it's a bigger challenge than what
some would expect.

Speaker 2 (01:07):
Yeah, it's tough.

Speaker 3 (01:09):
It's tough to catch a groove, but uh, like I said,
that's it's my role and it's something that I personally
have to figure out to uh whatever I have to
do to help the team. And that's something that we're
kind of getting on right now.

Speaker 1 (01:21):
To make it to the major leagues, you obviously had
to do something right and the Dodgers valued it. Is
there any point in time in your baseball life where
you were a backup and not playing every day and
being the guy?

Speaker 3 (01:32):
No, not to this point obviously until now. So yeah,
that's that's kind of the adjustment that we're we're trying
to make and yeah, moving forward, whatever, like I said,
whatever I have to do to stay ready, to be
ready to help the team, just do my part.

Speaker 2 (01:50):
I'm gonna be willing to do it.

Speaker 1 (01:51):
Dalton Rushing is our guest in front of first pitch
between the Dodgers and Padres. This is your first taste
of being part of the team in this type of atmosphere.
What's it been like for the first two games, even
the night that you were not starting.

Speaker 2 (02:05):
Yeah, it's cool.

Speaker 3 (02:06):
It's something that you obviously dream about when you put
your head down on the pillow at night. You you
want to play in these atmospheres. You want the fans
to be this act of every single game. It's a
blessing playing in LA because you get this atmosphere most
of the time. So you kind of you become accustomed

(02:27):
to the crowd. You become accustomed to the way that
they act, the way that they show emotion to the
players on off the field. And Yeah, like I said,
I think it's pretty special getting to see it in
San Diego, a division rival right now, a team that
we're going to see down the stretch, we're going to
see throughout the year, And yeah, I think it's really

(02:49):
good for me to be able to see it early
on in my career.

Speaker 1 (02:51):
All right, take us behind the plate. Being a rookie,
being new to the league. What's it been like developing
the relationships with the umpires, maybe talking to them as
the game is going on. Do you have any conversation
with the umpires as far as trying to keep each
other in the game together.

Speaker 2 (03:08):
Yeah, it's uh.

Speaker 3 (03:09):
You you meet a lot of these guys for the
first time. You kind of have to understand the way
that they operate. Each umpire is different, just like a player.
Each player is different, they all click differently, they all
respond to things differently. So being able to, like I said,
understand them, understand their style of calling a game, the

(03:32):
relationships that they want to build with the catcher, that's
I think that's the most important part. And obviously the
more that more time you get to spend with them
back there, the more comfortable you're going to be. And
like I said, once again, you're going to be able
to understand them as an umpire a little better.

Speaker 1 (03:47):
Are you a talker behind the plate?

Speaker 3 (03:49):
I usually have quite a few conversations in between, not
as much as far as like mid pitch, mid at bat,
anything like that.

Speaker 2 (03:57):
It's usually like posty be in between ennings.

Speaker 3 (04:02):
Like I said, just ask him on some pitches that
you have questions about. Understand that they are going to
They're gonna make mistakes, just like you are. And as
long as you can be right there beside them through
their mistakes and whether you're helping them on something you
think or call you think you should have got, or

(04:23):
a call you think they missed, whatever it is, the
better feedback you give them in a positive manner is
only going to help you as a.

Speaker 2 (04:30):
Catcher, all right.

Speaker 1 (04:31):
Dalton Rushing is our guest. He's in the show with
the Dodgers in LA, but before he got here, he
was in Oklahoma City. The Thunder are in the NBA finals. Rushing,
how many Thunder games in the minor leagues did you
have a chance to go see?

Speaker 2 (04:45):
Never got to see one.

Speaker 3 (04:46):
Actually we were always out of town for the playoff games,
so yeah, I never really got to go to a game.
I watched plenty, but didn't get to go to one.
It's a pretty good team though. I think they have
a really good chance of winning title, so that'd be
pretty cool to see.

Speaker 1 (05:02):
Did Sga ever show up at Comets games?

Speaker 2 (05:06):
He did? He did not. As much as a lot
of us would have liked him too, he did not.

Speaker 1 (05:10):
What's it like being in a triple A city like that?
But it's a big city and you got an NBA
team right next door.

Speaker 2 (05:16):
Yeah, it's uh, it's good.

Speaker 3 (05:18):
It's a lot to do, keeps you busy on off days,
keeps you busy on day games, and you get a
little afternoon to go do something for the city a
little bit. Uh, Like I said, I haven't got to
see any Thunder games, but them being as good as
they are, it would obviously be really good time to
go watch them.

Speaker 1 (05:35):
Well, that's in the past, la is in your future.
We'll go to a Laker game together.

Speaker 2 (05:40):
I would I would love to do that. Let's go
do that.