Mookie Betts (10-4-25)

Mookie talks to DV before Game 1 of the NLDS against the Phillies.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
And now an exclusive interview with David Bassey for Dodger Talking.
All right, we are in Philly for Game one of
the NLDS. Mookie bets already loose after I got him
in the right frame of min my goofiness and skinny
fat humor. Mookie thanks a lot for the time, appreciating
of course.

Speaker 2 (00:18):
Brother, always always going to come talk to you.

Speaker 1 (00:21):
I feel like the Dodgers are being overlooked to a
certain extent. I mean, you guys have been playing well
now for three weeks. Do you feel like you're playing
your best baseball as a group at the right time.
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (00:35):
I don't think any of us you are even really
paying attention to it. I think for the most part,
we're just being present in the moment, taking one pitch
at a time, and just doing what we can to
help to help the team win. I mean, we all
love each other, we know what it takes to win,
and we know that now is the time where we
really got to come together.

Speaker 1 (00:52):
How fun is this for you? It feels like we've
been waiting for this matchup between the Dodgers and Phillies
for the last three years. It's final here You've played
in East Coast environments before. It should be fun tonight.

Speaker 2 (01:04):
Oh yeah, it's gonna be a lot of fun. It's
you know, this is kind of what you dream dream of,
you know when you're a kid and you you know
you're you're making up the game, the game winner, in
the in the in the backyard. You know, we're fortunate,
we're blessed to be able to kind of live out,
live out our dreams. And so being playing in a
rough environment, you know it's gonna be we know it's
gonna be tough. They're gonna be good, the fans are

(01:25):
gonna bring it. But uh, that's what that's what makes
it beautiful.

Speaker 1 (01:29):
Experience. You always hear that, whether it's the NBA playoffs,
major League Baseball postseason, how much do you believe what
you guys went through last year has helped you to
get through this season?

Speaker 2 (01:41):
I think, uh, you know, anytime, anytime you have experience,
that's always gonna be a positive thing, especially if you
know how to use it. And I feel like with
Doc and with the guys here, we all went through
it together and you know, we had had a positive
experience in the postseason, and so we can use those positive,

(02:04):
those positive things to kind of bind us together, especially
this year going this year. I mean, we we hadn't
really played well at all this year, so it's like
we really really there's nothing that can really phase us
at this point. I mean we there's not nothing we
haven't been through already, and we know that from experience,
how to get how to get out of it.

Speaker 1 (02:21):
Mooki your first spring training with the Dodgers, I remember
we talked a lot about Kobe, the Mamba mentality, your
connection to him at that point in time, and he
always talked about the journey. It's not the destination, but
the journey. Have you started to understand that more than
ever this season, that your journey is going to be
even sweeter when you get to that destination.

Speaker 2 (02:43):
Yeah, I mean I think that's exactly what it is.
You just take the things that you learn along the way,
and that's the beauty of it. It's like, you know,
when you get to the end goal, it's kind of
kind of sucks because it's over, right, because you kind
of really really enjoy You gotta really really learn how
to love going through the days of the dog days,

(03:05):
the good days, the in between days. You have to
learn how to make the in between days positive in
some way, form or fashion. You got to learn from
just everything, and so I think when you get into
that mindset, you just want of learning over you know,
every day pretty much. I mean, you go through the
journey and once you get to the destination, it's all
it's like, Oh, you didn't even realize you were there,

(03:26):
you know, you're just kind of lost in the journey.

Speaker 1 (03:28):
I remember also being with you at a point in
time in the season where it felt like you hit
rock bottom in Tampa, but luckily America's DH was there.
And also you told me about, you know, your wife Brianna,
how much she helped you at that point in time,
and it seemed like all of that came together at
the right time for you.

Speaker 2 (03:46):
Yeah I did it, did I mean yeah, yeah? I
really did hit like an all time low for myself
and I just didn't really know where to go. And
having them to help me through it was huge. But
it also took some of me, you know, some of
me personally, just kind of changing my mindset, changing but
really changing what was important to me. I think that

(04:08):
was the thing. And winning I know that was important
to me, and being here and showing up every day
for the boys is very important to me. And so
if I can do those things, you know, and the
rest of it was just gonna be what it was,
you know. But showing up and things that really were
important to me achieving those that definitely helped me through
this year.

Speaker 1 (04:27):
The thing for me that I love the most is
obviously your success. But it feels like you're getting a
little bit more hangtime these days when you round second
base and salute your teammates. So I'm looking forward to
that in Philly, for you to get that Jordan Kobe
type of hangtime, because the happier you are, the higher
you go.

Speaker 2 (04:47):
Yeah, well try and get this one. That'll be fun,
but we'll see how shakes out.

Speaker 1 (04:53):
Thanks a lot for the time, Mookie. Always great to
see you smile and can't wait to see you on
stage one day with that guitar.

Speaker 2 (04:59):
Thanks about this is