Harold Reynolds (12-14-23)

David Vassegh talks to Harold Reynolds from MLB Network following Shohei Ohtani press conference.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Corvalis's favorite son. But he wasan Oregon Duck fan growing up. Who
could not be when Dan Fouts wasthe quarterback. But certainly San Diego loves
him too because he was an Aztec, a great ambassador for Major League Baseball,
and a man that predicted the Dodgerswould sign. Among all the chaos
and hysteria last week, Harold Reynoldswas very poised to tell us no Outani

(00:25):
to the Dodgers. And Harold,here you go at Dodgers Stadium for the
press conference. Tell it was bigto see all the people here today.
It was incredible. I'll go backstoryon why I was so adamant about the
Dodgers. I've gotten to know MarkWalter, the owner of the Dodgers,
over the last four or five years, and I can give the backstory now.
But I remember All Star Game herein LA and guys are taking VP

(00:48):
and players are out there, andHe's going, I want that guy right
there. I'm gonna get him intwo years his time Battletani, you know,
And that was his plan. Youhave to start planning along the way
if you're gonna land one these players. And just watching the way Mark's gone
about things, whether it's the Lakers, whether it's the Dodgers, whether it's
you know, the Chelsea soccer teamor Gugenheim. He's got a plan in

(01:11):
what he's trying to do. Weinterview Stan casting today earlier today, and
Stan said they tried to sign Otaniout of high school, and then they
tried to sign him when he cameover here before he went to the Angels,
and he was like, this wasour opportunity. So they've had their
eyes on him for a number ofyears, and you got to put together
a plan. And when you're gonnahave to a player of this magnitude and

(01:32):
you're gonna go throw your kind ofmoney at him. Seven hundred million dollars,
your kind of money you got,I guess that's Petro money. Petro,
Yeah, Petrous is living on thehill with that kind of money.
See there you go looking down,still worrying about his Trojans, thinking maybe
he used to use some of hismoney for nil get some players, no
doubt, maybe they start winning again. Hey, Harold, when do you

(01:53):
look at Otani? Do you thinkhe's aware of the business asset that a
lot of people view you a massI mean you mentioned it. Gougenheim's a
big, big company, Wall StreetCompany, a lot of a lot of
different assets around the world. Doyou think he understands all that. Oh,
there's no doubt about it. Theone disappointment I have is I don't
speak Japanese. But this guy ishighly intelligent, very well schooled. Even

(02:19):
some of the answers he gave todayoff the cuff, being able to answer
those and say, hey, I'mnot versus a doctor, but here's what
when I mean to be able toanswer those things and not not dodging it,
he's just telling you who he isis very sharp. Reminds me a
lot of Derek Jeter, you know. And if I was speaking a lot
of English to show, hey,I would hear a lot of Derek Jeter

(02:40):
in him. And Derek was alwaysforward thinking, business savvy, very smart.
I remember talking to Derek one timeand I didn't see him doing his
Ford commercials anymore. And I waslike Derek because everywhere in New York he
had the Ford commercials and he goes, no, I'm about I'm about owning
things now, and that's show Hey, how can a guy be offered seventy

(03:02):
million dollars and be able to sitthere and go only need two because you're
making so much money off the field, you know. So he understands his
markability, he understands what he's tryingto do, and then when it comes
to baseball, he understands, Igotta win and the only way you're gonna
win in this sport is putting peoplearound you. And so he's very aware

(03:23):
business savvy. Uh. You knowhe was talking about they went through the
numbers. If you're listening between thelines, he already had figured out how
much money he was gonna do.They start talking about the CPT up there.
How many players are you here talkabout that? You don't. So
that's that's a guy who really hasa business sense as well as you know,
being the great ballplayer. You describedthe story of what Mark Walter told

(03:46):
you two years ago. But doyou believe o'tani made his decision before what
he set up there? Do youbelieve he made it before Friday? No?
I don't I think he really.I think he might. Obviously you
have ideas, but when you getcourted the way he did, I'm sure
teams grave tremendous pitches. And here'swhat I shared on our show today.

(04:08):
He has a unique perspective. Thenyou me owners anybody, any player in
the big leagues who's ever walked onthe planet. He has a unique perspective
because of what I'm gonna tell you. He pitched and he hit. So
now when show Hey's sitting there lookingat the Toronto Blue Jays, He's going,
well, I pitch the Bobashet,I pitched to Blad Junior. How

(04:28):
did I dissect them? What wasin our pitchers meeting? Will this guy
hitting ten years? I think hehas a real perspective, Mookie Bets,
Freddie Freeman. He faced these guys. Not only has he faced the hitters,
he faced their pitching staffs. Sowhen he's sitting there going, I
want to pick a team that isbacking up what they're saying. And their
Dodgers have been winning for ten years. But why, he really gets a

(04:51):
truer sense than anybody to see ifsomebody's going to be around for a long
period of time. Will this guyleaving free agency? What's the talk in
the clubhouses? He understands all ofthat, and on top of he faced
them and played against him. It'spretty fascinating. Great l I like that
idea. I like that not onlyis he on MLB Network, but he's

(05:11):
a great ambassador for the game ofbaseball. Harold Reynolds is joining us here
on a five to seventy LA SportsLive from Dodgers Stadium. All right,
all the bright lights things are beingtaken down here, Harold. You've been
in the clubhouse with some of thegreat players, great teams, King Griffy
Junior. When all of this isn'taround in the clubhouse, How does Otani
fit in in that clubhouse and getthat chemistry going with so many new players

(05:35):
that are coming to the Dodgers.Well, I think number one, he
doesn't have to lead. You alreadygot Mookie Bets, Freddie Freeman. He's
joining the team that's already grounded,and so that helps you. Got Clayton
Curse. I didn't even mention that, But you already have some veteran guys.
So it's not like he's walking inthere going I got to take over
this club and lead. So Ithink that in a self helps him tremendously.

(06:00):
But he's been in the league sixyears, and when you're a player
of his magnitude, everybody wants tomeet you and everybody. He's been on
All Star teams. He goes anywherethey're sending over jerseys and bats to ask
him to sign it. And youget a real sense of guy's personalities greater
than you do when you're playing againstthem. If they can sign your stuff

(06:21):
or not, will he send itback? What kind of person is he?
And his teammates will tell you thatguy's good people. Oh, I
don't know, man, you know, so they'll let you know. And
how somebody reacts to you in thatprivate circle of players takes you to a
whole nother level. And his awarenessand his reputation around players is stellar.

(06:44):
It's at the next level. Hetakes time, he cares, he likes
people, he's a likable guy.He's tried to learn English. He's funny,
he's got personality. So those arethe things the Dodgers are gonna get
to see what mostly guys in theAmerican League see and know. And it's
gonna be fun to watch a wholenother side of baseball in the National League

(07:05):
see how cool this guy really is. Harold Reynolds has a great track record.
He called Otani to the Dodgers.Yamamoto Otani was in the meeting with
Yamamoto. You don't call in thebig dogs if you're not serious. Do
you believe the Dodgers double down andget the other big star from Japan?

(07:26):
Well, I've been saying that allalong, and I thought that even before
I knew he deferred money, becauseI just know that they have the ability
to go do that. But Ihad no idea he's been in the meetings.
You know. I know that they'rethey're close, they're good friends from
playing in WBC and all that.And here's the thing. I'm looking at
this Jackie Robinson statue, and here'swhat we don't do in America. All

(07:46):
right. We always talked about JackieRobinson and he played by himself, and
he wanted to play with other blackplayers, and it was lonely, and
it was times that it was welldocumented. Right, Well, so hell
Tany's over here in Japan, andso why don't we look at that for
the Japanese player. We always go, oh, there's a great Japanese culture.
Well, there's great black communities whenJackie was playing, but it did

(08:07):
not mean he had teammates. Sohail Toddy's been playing by himself. Maybe
he wants a Japanese teammate he cantalk Japanese with, he can go deeper,
and knowing a little bit of Spanishand having played with a lot of
Latin players, there's a lot ofthings in language that you can't translate in
English that goes deeper with deeper meaning. And if Shohey maybe has somebody in

(08:28):
his culture on his team that hecan speak to in his own native tongue,
maybe it goes a little deeper.Maybe he wants a teammate that can
identify the things he's going through,like Jackie had somebody when the rest of
the black players started getting the bigleagues and he had a chance to identify
with Harold. What does it meanto you being at Dodger Stadium and the
Dodgers building that statue, the firstever statue at Dodger Stadium? Does it

(08:50):
still give you chills? You've beenhere for the All Star Game, but
being here broadcasting and being such agreat ambassador yourself, what does it mean
to you being in the shadow ofthat statue. It's a powerful statue,
and it's just a powerful I lookat Jackie Robinson's life and it's not just
a baseball story. It's an Americanhistory story. He changed American history.

(09:15):
He changed the civil rights movement.You know, Martin Luther King said there's
no civil rights movement without Jackie Robinson. And you think about what he was
able to do to cross racial barriersand be able to stand up, and
people go, I want to belike him, or be accepted like Jackie,
be able to knock things down.And I think for African Americans to
be able to say, I'm onthe same footing looking for Jackie. And

(09:37):
the thing about Jackie is he hadto be great. He couldn't just be
part of it. He had tobe exceptional or else it would not have
worked. So all those things Isee when I see that statue. You
were a second baseman too. Ohyeah, no doubt about it. And
trust me, I learned about JackieRobinson and I was honored to play second

(09:58):
because of him. I play withthe guy named Dave Henderson who wore number
forty two, and I remember comingup and I'm a youngster, I'm like
twenty one years old, and Ihad heard about Jackie, but I didn't
know about the number forty two andit wasn't retired at the time. And
I said, Hindu man, whyyou're wearing forty two. You know,
nobody wasn't number that big, youknow, because you wanted twenty five or
nineteen or smaller number. And hegoes, that's Jackie Robinson's number. And

(10:20):
that was the first time I'd everheard that was Jackie Robinson's number. That
was nineteen eighty three. Wow,that's amazing. And that's knowing the history
of the game. And now you'repaying it forward being a great ambassador man.
Also to be here with you,and again too kind invited me on
the makeshift set here like you didin Nashville. Seriously, a lot of
admiration for what you do and howmuch you love this game and how much

(10:43):
you wanted to grow. I appreciateit. And yeah, I think you
know, you see an international startera day honored and show, hey,
this game is global and a lotof things were moving. So it's really
cool. You like Tyler Glass nowtoo. I love Tyler Glass now.
He was my number one pitcher outthere on the market. And the Dodgers
are hitting big right now. They'rehitting big. So I guess we'll see

(11:05):
you back in October for the WorldSeries. Planning on it. Absolutely,
we'll meet back out here by theJackie statue. Sounds good, We'll do
it again there. He is theman, a proud asstach even though he
is from Corvallis. Petros he love. Tell Petros how much he loved the
Ducks. Harold, I tell youwhat Petros knows, how much I love
the Dutch man. I go backwith my brother. Don was a running
back at Oregon when I was akid, and he played baseball as well,

(11:26):
and he played in the big leagues. But I was the ball boy,
you know. So Dan Fouts isthrowing me passes, and George Martin's
on that team, and then throughbaseball just traveling with the club and hanging
around being the bat boy. Soyeah, I throw my oh and enjoy
it. Thank you, We loveyou, Harold Reynolds. Thanks a lot

(11:48):
for the time. Appreciate you brother. Thank you