Roki Sasaki (1-22-25)

David Vassegh goes one-on-one with the newest Japanese right hander after his introductory press conference at Dodger Stadium

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Number eleven won't say. As they say in Japanese, the
great Roki Sazaki is joining us live on Dodgers Radio
and five seventy l A Sports. Roki, Welcome to Los Angeles.
Thank you oh muchos gracias.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
Roki.

Speaker 1 (00:20):
Will Ireton is by his side as well. Roki, You
and I were at the same place yesterday as well
the Laker game. Lebron really put on a show for
you last night.

Speaker 3 (00:30):
James.

Speaker 2 (00:45):
I thought he was just going to pass by and
not recognize or acknowledge, but I was so happy that
he was able to say Hi, Roki.

Speaker 1 (00:52):
Uh. They showed you on the big board, the video
board last night at Crypto dot com. The fans are
very aware of the dog signing you and what you
mean to this franchise. What was it like to be
shown and to get the cheers that you got without
even having put on this jersey yet.

Speaker 3 (01:17):
Uniform.

Speaker 4 (01:26):
They we just got to this.

Speaker 2 (01:38):
I'm very pleased that the fans recognized me, and you know,
I'm really looking forward to working hard so that they'll
recognize me more genuine more.

Speaker 1 (01:49):
So, Rookie. We've heard so much about this dinner with
shoh and Yoshi Amamoto, What was that dinner like for you?
Obviously you've known them for for a long time. What
was the dinner like? And did they pay?

Speaker 3 (02:04):
Sure side they must get more Madnau.

Speaker 5 (02:18):
Recog the great there must see.

Speaker 1 (02:28):
Did they pay?

Speaker 2 (02:31):
The answer to that is, I haven't paid, so I'm
pretty sure they picked up the tab.

Speaker 3 (02:36):
And also about the.

Speaker 5 (02:38):
Almost looks this hi.

Speaker 4 (02:43):
Something like tim you to go up nor cool.

Speaker 2 (02:57):
I had a great time, and you know, the the
atmosphere is more about you know, as former teammates just
having a really good time rather than them pitching about
the you know about the organization.

Speaker 1 (03:10):
Rookie Sazaki is our guest here on Dodgers Radio M
five seventy l a sports wearing his Dodger white home
jersey with number eleven on it. Obviously you achieved great
things in Japan. You're a very competitive person. How much
did this environment really play to your decision to want
to be here believing that the competitiveness of this environment

(03:33):
can make you better?

Speaker 4 (03:36):
So do you.

Speaker 3 (03:39):
Know what.

Speaker 5 (03:44):
They said?

Speaker 2 (03:58):
I think being in this competit of competitive environment is
gonna just create more joy when I'm able to achieve
the goals that I want in this kind of atmosphere
not necessarily a factor in choosing whether I wanted to
join this team or not.

Speaker 1 (04:15):
Rokie, We're excited to have you here. We've heard so
much about you, and I feel like I could post
you up, you know, in in the if we ever
play a horse or something in basketball. I don't. I
can't compete with you in pitching, but maybe, uh basketball,
you and me can can play some horse in spring training.

Speaker 2 (04:33):
Bus Jos. I'm pretty confident with my basketball skills, all right,
all right? Can we get a?

Speaker 3 (04:48):
I love I can't make shots, but I'm confident.

Speaker 1 (04:52):
All right, all right, me too. I can't. I can't
make shots. I could just talk a lot. Can we
get a?

Speaker 2 (04:57):
I love l A, Rokie, I love l A.

Speaker 1 (05:02):
Oh yeah, Rokie Sazaki. Welcome to Los Angeles. Thank you
so much. Happy to have you here.

Speaker 2 (05:08):
Will.

Speaker 1 (05:08):
We're happy you stayed.

Speaker 3 (05:09):
Thank you. You look great.

Speaker 1 (05:12):
There it goes, Rokie Sazaki and Will Ireton in a
three piece suit guys live at Dodger Stadium after a
celebratory press conference.

Speaker 3 (05:20):
That's a beautiful, well done, dare