Episode Transcript
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(00:01):
All right, here we go HollywoodPark. It Angle with Fred Rogan Rodney
p on five seventy LA Sports.This is a good crowd. Everybody got
here early. I do have totell you when I got here, and
I get here about ten fifteen fora noon show. Yeah, there are
already people sitting in my house.And the folks here at Hollywood Park told
(00:21):
me some folks got here at eightthirty this morning. They were ready.
They were ready and excited about whatwe're going to do. So we're here
for three hours and during the periodof the program today, we are going
to be giving you a chance towin Dodger tickets, sweet tickets for the
game on May sixth at the stadium. We also have a pair of tickets
(00:41):
to go away for the Tom Bradyroast that'll be at the key Of Forum
and that will be on May fifth. That roast will be on Netflix.
But now, I mean, wecould sit here and talk for fifteen many
nobody wants to hear about you,Fritz. I know we could set up
the show. Yeah, we couldtell you everything we're going to do today.
No, but you're here for onereason at this point in time.
(01:03):
Shall we do it all? Right. Let's bring him out. Key K
her name, Bring him out,Bring him out, Bring him out,
Bring him out. Keith K isin the house. How you doing,
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brother, I'm doing well? Areyeah? Good? Good? They've been
here for us at eight thirty inthe morning, waiting for you. Man.
I appreciate that. Thank you,guys, and thanks for coming down.
Because you played in Arizona yesterday,you probably got home late last night,
not a lot of sleep. TheDodger gallup tonight. So thank you
for coming out here and seeing everybodytoo. Of course, can him as
a chance to hang out with youguys. Uh, you know when you
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see this response, Key K,and let's face it, I think you
were one of the most popular playersthat has ever worn a Dodger uniform.
When you see this and you feelthis, how does it make you feel?
It's humbling. I've said it manytimes. I'm not afraid to say
it. Uh. I'm gonna beforever in debt with you guys. The
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love that the Dodger fan base hasshown me since day one is something that
I wish I could find ways torepay them for it, because, uh,
you know, the season is verylong, and uh, there's a
lot of times throughout the year thatthis can feel like a like a job.
And every time I play at DodgerStadium and my name gets called and
I hear the fans, it's youknow, it's a I don't need a
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lot to show out my energy,but uh, the days that I'm dragging
a little bit, the energy,the energy comes from the crowd. And
you know, this love and supportis something that you know. Uh,
not only UH makes me excited tocome to the to the field every day,
but uh, it also is likea confidence booster because it's a failure
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and it's it's easy at times toto not feel confident, but uh,
anytime I step a Doctor Stadium andI hear the fans, it's it's hard
not to feel confident because you know, these people love me for a reason,
and uh, I gotta I gottashow I gotta show show up,
show up for them. Yeah,and you do that, key K,
And I think that's the reason.And I'm I'm I'm speaking for myself as
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as a fan as well, butI think for a lot of fans.
You talk about repaying the fans,you repay them every time you put on
that uniform. You really do,because you are unselfish. You do whatever
it takes. You play eight thousandpositions for the team. But I think
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people love your heart and your passion. Man, when you go out to
play, and they know that everytime you do put on that uniform,
you're gonna give it one hundred percent. And I think that's all that fans
want. They want to know thatthe guy that they root for and they
cheer for goes out there every singleday and gives it his all. And
you do that for the Dodgers andfor the Dodger fans. Am I right,
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thank you? Thank you. Letme ask you this because you know,
you did get away for a coupleof years, which which was tough.
Yeah, and we all missed you. And but now that you're back
and we we love that you're back. Can you talk about and you did
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go You went to a historic franchisein Boston. I mean that's don't don't
get me wrong, that's it's incredible. There's a few of those around the
league. But when you leave andthen you come back and you put on
that Dodger uniform, talk about whatthat means and how different it is to
put on that uniform and play inDodger Stadium. Yeah, like you said,
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going going away from here for acouple of years to a place like
Boston, the Red Sox place withso much history. I feel like in
a way, being with the Dodgersfor so long prepared me to to go
to Boston. And you know,understand the way that that that wearing a
Red Sox uniform carries just the sameas you know, wearing the Dodger uniform.
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And uh, you know, toto to get back last year after
three years. Not I didn't getto come back play against the Dodgers or
anything. I didn't get to seethem. I I only saw the guys
at Walker Buildings Bueler's wedding after thetwenty twenty one season. But uh,
getting to come back and getting toto play at home a fresh game was
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at home. It was kind oflike an out of body experience, just
driving into the field and uh,you know, driving getting in that elevator
and going down and going through thatthat uh that uniform, that trophy room
to get to the clubhouse was itwas all so bizarre to me, like
getting in the clubhouse and seeing allthe all the same faces, seeing R.
J It was Uh, it wasunbelievable. It was uh for me,
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Uh, I had an idea Iwas going to get traded, but
for me to get traded to theback to the Dodgers, it was like,
what is going on right now?And to me, it was it
was best case scenario, you know, coming back home and getting the chance
to not only put up the doctoruniform again, but to play at Dodger
Stadium again. This because my lastyear, I mean, it was tough
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not being able to I knew thatit was going to be my last year,
and it was tough for me tonot be able to play in front
of the fans. And then obviouslywe won the World Series and I wasn't
able to to kind of share thatmoment with, you know, my teammates
and the fans and all that.But getting to come back for two months
last year was was incredible. It'skind of it was like rejuvenating, even
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though I don't feel like I'm thatold. But for me, it was
a kind of a no brainer tocome back this year, signed as a
free agent to come back, justbecause all the memories came back, all
the love came back, and andit just it just feels right. You
know, you said that at timesit's a very long season and there are
times it's a job and you've gotto really get yourself up. Well,
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if it's a job, then youknow it's a business. And as you
grew here with the Dodgers and thisfan base embraced you and loved you,
you find a situation where you hadto go. How hard was it for
you to go the first time fromthe Dodgers. It was extremely hard.
It was it was basically all kindof like a It was a personal selfish
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decision. I wanted to go outto a team where I was going to
get the chance to play every day, and I got that opportunity in Boston,
and I the thing that suck waslike I have to leave, but
I don't want to leave. Idon't have any I don't like have that
many reasons other than I just wantto go out and play baseball every day
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instead of doing what I'm doing nowlike I was doing then. And it
was just hard, especially you knowwhen you're competing for a World Series championship
each and every year when you're hereand that's what you play for. You
played to win, you play towin championships and in a sense, you're
you're you gotta be okay with youknow, you're leaving to a team where
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maybe you don't have the same chanceto win, but you're gonna get a
chance to go out and perform anddo what you love. And uh,
it was just one of those reallyreally hard decisions that I've had to make
in life. And I mean,it all worked out and look at look
ahead the way how the world works. And I'm back here now. And
I love when you came back here. I love that you actually announced you
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were back before the Dodgers did.I thought that was great that you announced
that you had returned before the clubeven announced you would return. Did they
say anything to you about that?No, they know better. I just
there are some reports coming out towardsthe end of me signing of kik Is
about to make a decision, andit just made it seem like free agency
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is such as it should. Maybeyou shouldn't be to the extreme of show
hey, but that's just a veryspecial you know athlete that But I think
that I think free agency does youknow you you should get the right to
be private about it. And it'sa it's an extremely important decision in people's
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lives, and you're moving families towherever it is you're moving, and you
know, I just don't I didn'tappreciate. I don't I don't always appreciate
how the media works in free agencyand speculating this, speculating that, and
throwing rumors out there, and youknow, I kept reading things and I
was like, none of this isaccurate, Like where are the people getting
these things from? And obviously thatengages fans and then it makes sometimes it
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makes the fans of those teams getthe wrong idea or whatever. And I
was like, why are they makingthis such a big decision, Like I'm
not I haven't signed because I'm waitingfor this or that. It's just things
happen't happen, and and I justwanted to make sure that everybody knew from
me that you know, I wascoming back, and I didn't. I
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don't like the race to be firstwith the media because a lot of times
they're wrong. So I was like, why not get it from the you
know, sources say they always getprotected or sometimes they make it up and
they say it was a source.And if you're saying it yourself. There's
no way you're making it up oryou're wrong. So that's what I did.
Yeah. I always say the media, especially social media, is a
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town without a sheriff. Right.People can say and do whatever they want
to do. So the fact thatyou're able to take control of your own
narrative, I mean that that thatreally is important. Thank God. I
say this all the time. ThankGod it wasn't around when I was playing.
Yeah, I'm my wife Holly saysthat all the time, because that
might have been I might have beenunder the jail. Social media was around
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when I was playing. Kik.You play multiple positions, right, and
and and again go back to yourunselfish nature of playing for this team and
playing You mentioned going to to Bostonto be an everyday guy. Was that
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something you were craving when you werehere the first time with the Dodgers?
Like, look, you you playshort stuff, you play third base,
you play left field, you playcenter, you play second base, you
play wherever they wanted you to play, and you played it well. There's
a big time value to that,and it feels like the Dodgers embrace that
more than any other team. Theywant guys to be versatle like that.
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But it comes a time where youwant to be in the lineup every night
and every day. How important wasthat for you when you had you had
to make that tough decision, Imean it was it was kind of everything.
I I've never really cared at whatposition I played. I mean,
I think going to me going toBoston was kind of a testament of that.
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I went to Boston, It'd bethe second every day, second baseman,
and I ended up playing center fieldevery day. And I was only
going to play center field the secondyear, and then I ended up playing
center a short second, and thenI'm supposed to go back to play center
field and I end up playing shortstop. Like I just as long as
my name is in the lineup.But I didn't really care what position I
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played. I Uh, I didn'tcare if it was a different position every
day. I just wanted to bein there. And I knew that I
could bring so many things at thetable. You know that on a daily
basis, I can help you winthe game, not just at the play,
but like I can do things onthe basis, I can I can
do things for my teammates, Ican do things on defense, that I
was like, I think, I'mI'm valuable as an every day guy,
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and that's just what I wanted todo, and I wanted to prove that
I could do it at a highlevel on a daily basis, and I
I feel like I proved that intwenty one and then injuries came, and
that's part of what happens in sports. And you know, I think everything
is meant to be. Everything happensfor a reason, and I think that
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injury was meant to happen because ifit wasn't for that injury, I probably
wouldn't wouldn't even read back here.Yeah, where do you feel most kind
of is a tough question because youprobably feel comfortable everywhere. But if you
had your choice, you woke upin the morning, said I today it's
opening Day, or it's the seventhgame of the World Series, what position
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would you want to play? Wheredo you feel most comfortable? I mean,
right now, I feel comfortable everywhere. Obviously, I would say,
don't give me that key case leastcomfortable first base, because it's the one
that I played in the least amountof my career. But I always answer
that question with the middle infield andit's what I grew up playing. It's
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what I have the most fun.And like, I enjoyed the infield more
than the outfield because the game isquicker, you're more involved in the game.
You can communicate with your teammates alot better than in the outfield.
Uh, there's less fans talking trash, and uh, I want to get
it in the outfield, man,I want to hear about that. Yeah,
and you and you can hear itout there. Oh yeah, you
know. Yeah, there's some stadiumsthat they're right there behind you. And
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uh, they're they're good. Theydo their research, they research their families,
name and all that. So sometimesthey get mean. But you ever
want to turn around and say somethingto them all the time, But you
don't. You also don't want togive them the pleasure of I just sometimes
I laugh because you know, yousometimes you kill them with kindness. But
sometimes I think the best thing todo is just to ignore them and don't
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give them the pleasure of letting themknow that you can hear them. But
I didn't know I was that goodin center field. So to answer your
question, probably I would probably saycenter field, just because in twenty one
I got to play a lot ofit, mostly every day, and I
not only enjoyed it, I learnedto love the outfield a little more,
but found I found out something aboutmyself. And I'm a really good centerfielder,
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so I would say center field.You know, it's interesting about that
if if you look at the dimeat in every position, there's really a
different skill set required for every position, from third base to right field to
center field the second base. Howhave you been able to develop the ability
to play everywhere? I think I'vealways said if you can play short,
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you can play anywhere. And Igrew up playing short stuff, and you
know, it kind of teaches youhow to you know, how to be
athletic in a sense of moving leftand right in and I kinda you know,
I think the outfield just comes naturalto me. It's to me,
it's I call the outfield like adog, you know, playing fetch.
You just go get the ball andyou like bring it back, you go
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back in. But uh, Ijust I don't know. I think I
think being being in the infield forso long, and especially as short and
second like, it gives you adifferent perspective and it teaches you how to
read a swing and and read alike no kind of kind of have an
idea of where the ball is goingto get get hit based on pitch location
and things like that. And thatis something that has translated really really well
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for me in the outfield because it'sallowed me to get really good jumps.
I'm not the fastest of guys.Usually center fielders are burners, and I
just I get I depend on myon my quick bursts first step, and
that's something that I developed in theend field and it translates even better in
the outfield. So I had alot of free time in my early years
of the Dodgers, and I reallytook advantage of batting practice. I didn't
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make batting practice just batting practice,but I also made a fielding practice.
So I made sure that I wasgetting a lot of work in and a
lot of different positions every day.And that's basically that's how I got comfortable.
And obviously the more you play indifferent positions, like, you can
practice all you want, but ifyou're not playing, you're not gonna you're
not gonna improve at things. Andobviously practice makes you better, but the
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game is what actually you know makesyou take it to the next step.
So me staying on top of thingsduring practice and then having you know,
more and more time playing different positionsallow me to get better at each of
those positions. We've had different guyson and I've talked to different players that
play both the infield and the outfield. And you mentioned this earlier, like
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you like the infield because of theaction. You feel like you're into the
game a little bit more, andit's right up on you. Where you
play the outfield. You can gothree innings and not see a ball hit
to you or not have any actions. Do you feel like you hit better
when you're in the infield or theoutfield or does it make a difference.
It don't. I haven't really noticedthat I would have to dig in do
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like in the numbers, but Ido. I do hear that like people
that are not used to playing likedifferent positions, when they start doing it,
they all talk about how it's affectingtheir hitting because they're like they don't
feel comfortable on the field on defense, and then they're just so worried about
defense that they kind of like puthitting aside for a little bit to it.
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For me, I've been doing itfor a long time now, so
like, I don't even really thinkabout it. I do feel that when
I'm playing outfield, I'm a littlemore tired towards the end of the game
than when I'm playing the infield.But that's about it, honestly. So
when you're in the outfield, youfind yourself out there and you're just waiting
for something to happen. I mean, you're playing fetch basically, and nobody's
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thrown the ball to you, Soyou're just standing there. What runs through
your mind? What are you thinkingabout when you're just out in the outfield
by yourself, You have your ownthoughts and you're waiting for something to happen.
What runs through your mind out there? Is this something we can talk
about on radio? Yeah? Right, I just think about the last episode
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of Family Guy. Like, honestly, like I have such bad add that
it's just a constant battle to justlock, keep keep paying attention to don't
take Yeah, it's so easy ondefense, especially in the outfield. It's
so easy to take pitches off whenyou like you kind of go through the
motions on like one or two pitches, and usually when you take a pitch
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off, that's when the ball comesto you. And usually when you take
a pitch off, it's when it'sa ball comes to you. And it
always happens to be at a bigpart of the game, and if you
don't make that play, it cancost you the game. So for me,
I just it's a constant battle oflock it in. Don't listen to
the fans. Don't worry about whathappened on unhitting, Like, don't worry
about what's what happened, what's gonnahappen after the game or before the game,
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Like, just stay in the momentand live pitch like I For me,
I want to feel like every pitchof the game is going to get
hit to me, every single oneof them. And that's the best way
I can stay locked in. Andto be honest with you, that's I'm
just constantly battling myself to stay lockedin. Do you really have a d
D with the age too, theHernandez disease. I mean, so it's
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it's it's a battle for you notonly when you're playing, but probably every
day because you're just wired that way. Yeah, my brain works a little
faster than what I can the wayI can ward it, but yeah,
I mean it is what it is, you know, Keek. I think
one of the things people love aboutyou is that not only are you a
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great player and you play multiple positions, but you you have fun and it
shows when you get to the ballpark, when you're playing, you are having
fun, whether it be you know, dancing in the dugout, whether it
be you know, getting a hit, pumping somebody else up. It feels
like you're having fun. And alot of guys it is you talked about
being a job. It is ajob, but also it's still the game
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of baseball. And how have youbeen able to keep that kind of in
perspective and still have fun as ifyou were a little kid, you know,
when you go out and play.This is something that it goes back
to like very young age and kindof like my dad trying to prepare me
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for you know, the next stepafter you know, high school baseball and
things like that, and he wasall in with me as long as I
wanted to play baseball. You know, I dream was to be a big
leaguer and all this, and youknow, in a perfect world, I
would have gone to call and thenwhatever happened after college would have been great.
So my dad was just kind ofpreparing me for that. And he
obviously if the dream was to likego to school in the United States and
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all this, and he always said, the American people are not gonna like
your personality, you know, whenyou're kind of you know, I was
six years old and I was apower ranger and I was doing cart wheels
and short and kind of like kepthappening as I grew older, and you
know, I, like you said, I always had to like to have
fun, like being loud, butthat's just being me, Like it's just
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you know, word vomiting and thingslike that. And I learned that if
if I told him, I waslike, I can't be anybody else,
then the way I am, thenyou go. I signed professionally and I
try to go the you know,the strict straightway, like be serious and
all this, and it just youquickly realize that if you're not yourself,
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it's hard to perform, and it'shard to you know, uh, to
be free and play loose, andit's easy, it's easy in the big
leagues to get tight, to getuptight, and and to feel the stress
or the pressure and this and thatbut I just feel like I played the
best when when I'm being me andnot really worried about what people are going
to think about me of the wayI am or things like that. And
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I try to. I try to. I always I try to be thankful
each and every day at it foryou know, to another day in the
big leagues. I'm getting to dowhat I love. This is my eleventh
season in the big leagues, andit's felt like it's it's still twenty fifteen,
my first year with the Dodgers,and it goes by so fast,
right, And like I said atthe beginning, it's so hard for this
to become a job, and youknow, it's so long. It's such
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a grind of the traveling and thisand that that you know, you just
sometimes you need that other person inthe locker room to like be a beat
so that you feel a beat.And even the days that I don't that
I don't have it, I tryto fake it, and those are the
days that I'm the most obnoxious.But I just I realized that I'm either
(23:02):
I'm going to perform the best,whether I'm being me like playing lose free
happy and or honestly I play reallywell when I'm angry, but playing mad
and playing angry for one hundred andsixty two games is not It's it's very
exhausting, and I just choose to, you know, to play free,
be happy, and you know,if I'm not in there, I'm trying
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to cheer on my teammates and bepositive and help help pick them up.
And that's just me, man.I've always been the same, And I
like to have fun. I liketo make people laugh. I like to
make people smile. And we're playingat the end of the day, We're
playing a kids game for a living, So why not enjoy it to the
fullest while we're at it, becausesoon enough, I might be sitting where
you are, you know, interviewinganother athlete or something like that. So
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as long as I'm playing this game, I want to enjoy it to the
fullest because you never know when it'sgoing to end or how fast it is
going to go. So I'm justtrying to make the most of it.
Our guest is kyk Hernandez. Yeah, from Hollywood Park and Inglewood. We
are here all afternoon. Keyk iswith us. Now come on down be
a part of the show. Morewith Gee K bred Rogan and Rodney Pete
(24:10):
on A and five to seventy LASports. Oh yeah, ha ha.
We are back Hollywood Park Casino,Inglewood, key K Hernandez in the building.
(24:41):
We are here till three o'clock.Very soon we'll start giving away sweet
tickets for the Dodger game on Maysixth. And also today we are giving
away a pair of tickets to theTom Brady Roast. It'll be held at
the Key of Form and that willbe on May fifth. Key K Hernandez
of course is here. Yeah,kick a Din shut down the casino.
Look, I'm looking over there.Nobody's playing right now. Everybody's here,
(25:02):
everybody's here, everybody's here checking out. KEK, key K. My friend
Bob Watt just sent me a textand he said, have KEYK tell the
story of what his minor league managerbelieved he didn't speak English because key K
spoke Spanish every time he saw him. Yeah, that happened. Where did
it happen? To us? Aboutit? Twenty fourteen, Oklahoma City.
(25:23):
Before they were the Dodgers, theywere the Triple A team for the for
the Astros as well, and Iwas playing there. I started the year
in Double A, and the TripleA manager was h he was sick.
He had cancer. He was gettingtreated for cancer. And I got called
up to Triple A and we hadan interim manager. So I had never
(25:45):
met Tony Di Francisco, the actualmanager for the team. I had never
met him before. And I thinkafter like a month of being there,
he came back. He came backto the team, and he joined the
team after an eleven am game.There's a lot of games when you're in
the minor leagues, kids games,summer camps and things like that, and
probably two o'clock and we just gotdone with the game. We win the
(26:07):
game, and we get back inthe locker room. He's waiting for us,
and every time every every person that'swalking in, he's greeting that person
blah blah blah. And when whenI get in, he's like, kik
Hernandez, Hey you Puerto Rican.You're pretty good at baseball, he goes,
he goes, how's your English?And uh, they asked that question,
Yeah me be me. I youknow, I thought about it right
(26:30):
away, and I was like,oh, man, sorry for what I'm
about to do, but you knowyou're after your f right now. And
I was like English, English class, very very go English class boot.
And then he joined the team thenext day and he believed me. He
believed me, and I every timefor the next month that we talked to
(26:52):
each other, he had a translatorcome in and every time he would call
me to the office, the GregoriaPetit. Uh. He was. He
he was a veteran guy. Hewas probably thirty one thirty two at the
time. I'm twenty two years old, and uh, every time we go
in the office, of course Ihave better English than him, and he's,
you know, he's translating for me, but in reality he's telling me,
(27:14):
like, bro, you gotta stop. Like he's like, I'm not
as good as you are at this. You're creep. You're keeping a straight
face. I don't know how todo this, like and I was like,
just tell him you speak English.I was like, no, I'm
not going to do it. Andlike I would be we would be playing
games. I'd be in the dugouttalking to my speaking English to my teammates.
I would go out to the mountaintalk to the picture of American picture
on the mound, like just meand him having a conversation, and he
(27:37):
never. I don't know how henever saw it. He never like realized
what was going on. One day, this on, This went on for
four weeks and one day we're playingpretty bad and he, uh, we
got done on a day game andafter the game, he calls every position
player in his office and we're allcramped up in that little office and he's
just cussing us out. He iscussing us out, wearing us out for
like ten fifteen minutes, just yellingat us, telling us how bad we're
(27:59):
all or baseball, how bad weplaying, blah blah blah, and I
feel like we've had enough. Itwas like this meeting is dragging, you
know, he's just saying the samething or over and over. He's just
making up cuss words at this point, and I raised my hand and he's
like, what, what theF doyou want? And I was like,
I just want to let you knowthat I speak perfect English. And he
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was so embarrassed that he had didn'tknow what else to do, and he's
just he's like, you guys canleave, you guys can leave. But
yeah, that was it. Yeah, I love that. That's a great
story. So so that being said, show he speaks perfect English, then
is what you're saying. We're workingon it. We're working on it.
He understands a lot. He understandsa lot. You know. Obviously speaking
(28:45):
is h he's different. He's gettinga lot, he's getting better every day,
but understanding and speaking and talking tolanguage is a lot different. And
I'm glad that he's on the teamand he not only a special talent,
but you know, the situation thathappened while we're in Korea and all these
things, and it's easy for thatto become a full distraction, maybe not
(29:08):
for the team but for an individual. And the way that he's carried himself.
I don't know if it's because wedon't understand the language or what,
but like he's been a complete proabout it, and ever since that day,
I don't know if it's it's itwas us showing us, showing him
our support and letting him know thatyou know, we're we're with you,
we're standing behind you, and andwe got your back. Regardless it opened
(29:33):
his mind or whatever it is,but he's he's shown so much personality since
that moment, and he's he's he'sa joy to be around and sneaky,
sneaky clowns, sneaky funny. Yeah, yeah, yeah, big time.
You know, since you have beenwith the Dodgers and for so long and
been in this organization, you know, people are always talking and looking to
(29:56):
the Dodgers. You can't get awayfrom it. They're the top road draw
in baseball. Now you have himon the team. Had you noticed,
it's even more so now, moreeyes, more focused, more expectation,
like nothing I could ever imagine.Really, yeah, I don't When people
ask me who I play for,I don't say the Dodgers anymore. I
say I play for the Beatles.It's like that. It feels like it
(30:19):
feels like we're we're in a rockband, you know. Showy. It's
like the true definition of rock star. It's it's it's crazy, man.
It doesn't matter what city, doesn'tmatter what country. Like it's it's uh,
it's it's it's something. And uh, you know, the like I
said, the way that he handleseverything, the way that he carries himself,
it's a he's a pro. He'sa pro. And uh. The
(30:42):
showy experience has been has been anexperience. How cool is it being on
a on a team like this,and you know, I know, outside
people talk about it and in themakeup of the team, but when you
as a player, and you know, as a player, you know who
can play and who can't play.You know who's gifted and got that.
(31:03):
But being on a team like this, how cool is it? Knowing up
and down that lineup you've got somany players that can play on this team.
Is it a cool thing? Oris it a thing where there's so
much pressure because everybody expects you towin and how are you guys able to
kind of put that aside and likewe just got to go out and play
(31:25):
every day, not worry about whathappens in October right now, but just
go play even though there is tremendousamount of pressure to win the whole thing.
I would say it's more it's coolmore than anything. It reminds me
in a way of our twenty twentytwenty twenty team in the sense of,
like you know, on paper,where if not the best, we're top
(31:47):
three in the league and we're supposedto win. But I mean, it's
just it's just cool because for meas a as a as an athlete,
you know, you you just youappreciate your peers and when they do things
at an elite level the way thatsome of my teammates do it, and
for me, I think for me, it's just it's it's there's no other
(32:09):
way to explain to them cool manlike to to get to like I played
with Mookie in a sixty game season, and after sixty games, I was
like, this dude is the bestplayer in baseball position player wise, Like
there's nobody that can affect the playerthe game in all the areas the way
that he can. And last yearI was only with him for two months,
(32:30):
and then this year I see himand he's he's in a shortstop out
of nowhere. It's a shortstop andhe's doing it at an incredible, like
incredibly high level. And for meto see that athlete go about his business
for one hundred and sixty two days, to see and show hey man like
I the most I played against showHey in the season was five games,
(32:51):
and to see show Hey. Ofcourse I wish he was pitching this year
to see the full, like thefull experience, but just to see the
way that you know, he goesabout his business. The there's levels to
this and there's just guys that arein a different level and it's just it's
just amazing to see what those guysdo and to think that those guys are
(33:13):
on your team and not on theother team. It's you get to appreciate
them in different ways. And Imean last year, Freddie Freeman, last
year I got I got to theteam in the midst of him hitting five
hundred for like thirty games. That'sunreal, you know. And I was
like, man, this guy isunbelievable. And then you got guys that
do it more quietly. Will Smithquietly hitting like three seventy this year,
(33:36):
like probably the best offensive catcher inall baseball. You added to Oscar Hernandez
to this lineup, who I sawclosely in the als, Like just it's
it's unbelievable. You know Tyler lastnow he was with the Rays. I
was with the Red Sox. I'mvery glad that I don't have to face
that guy anymore, you know.Seeing Yoshinobu, of course he had the
(33:58):
starting career, and you know,people, we'll started panicking and then you
see every single start after Korea,and he's got like a like a one
after Korea, like yeah, youknow the type of talent that we have,
and in that room, it's forme, it's it's you're with Dodgers.
You you know that, you knowit's World Series or bus and maybe
you think about it for a minute, but then you forget about it and
(34:20):
it's just play baseball and you know, just let everything else take care of
itself. But I've gotten used tothe mentality of World Series or bus,
So for me, it's nothing new. So I don't think there's any any
out of pressure because of our ofour superstar level in our roster. So
if life is a series of moments, and it's those moments that create memories
that we carry with us. Okay, you don't want to go backwards,
(34:43):
you don't want to brag about yourself. Good, we got that. We'll
wait for you. What will bragfor you? But when you look back
at some of the moments you've hadwith the Dodgers, those moments, what
are the ones that pop into yourmind immediately that you'll never forget. Come
on, man, Julio striking outof Damas to end the World Series.
(35:05):
Okay, I mean, come on, man, the Cubs, the Cubs
when you three times the Cubs.The Cubs three homer game was of course,
it was the greatest game I'll everhave in my life, and not
just because of the numbers, butthe game and the moment I did it.
(35:28):
You know, did you tell meabout that game real quick? Did
you how were you feeling going intothat game? And then after you hit
the first one, did you go, I'm kind of seeing the ball pretty
good today. Then you hit thesecond one, You're like, man,
this is I'm really seeing it.And then the third one? What were
you feeling going into that game?It was? It was I had a
lot going on. Uh, youknow, that was the year that the
(35:51):
hurricane heading Puerto Rico, the bighurricane area, and there's there's a lot
of you know, uncertainty and andthings in my mind because my family's still
back there and there's no power,there's you know, there's no way to
like they had to drive like thirtyminutes to get into a certain area of
the highway where they could have cellservice to you know, pull up and
(36:15):
be able to like exchange the textmessage. Just little things like that and
having all that off the field mademe visualize the night before the game for
the first time. Ever. I'dnever done visualization before, and that was
the first night that I did likesome visualization because I needed to like get
(36:37):
away from that and like find away to go to sleep so that I
could lock it in for the forthe game. And every every way I
I I envisioned myself in that gametomorrow night, it was just me going
out and balling out. There's Ienvisioned it in so many different ways,
and every single thing that came upto my mind, it was it was
(36:58):
me having success. And I waslike, all right, this is awesome.
I should do this more often.Well, haven't done this before,
but uh, I just went tosleep and I woke up the next day
and it was kind of this.I woke up and with that like confident,
upbeat mood. And I remember talkingto my mom that morning. She
she she drove to to get serviceand I told my mom and I told
(37:20):
my mom. I was like,Mom, I'm gonna go deep tonight and
I hadn't hit a homer in theplayoffs before, and She's like, no,
don't don't do that to yourself.Don't put your don't put that much
pressure on yourself. I was like, no, if that I'm going deep
tonight, like just watch h.At the time they were putting H they
were using a power generator to geta just to power the TV, and
then they were they had this bootlegANTANNA that they created with like hangers and
(37:44):
stuff just so that they can getone of the local channels that was going
to broadcast the game. And Iwas like, make sure you get to
my grandparents' house early so you canwatch my first at back as I'm going
deep, and I had a MyBP was stupid that day. I probably
took thirty swings and twenty five ofthem were homer, So I was really
I was like, if the gamegoes any anything like the VP, it's
gonna be a good one. Andsure enough, first pitch I saw that
(38:05):
night, it was a homer.Second pitch I saw that night was a
granny. And then it wasn't untilthe lasted bad that I hitted my third
homer. But I don't I didn'trealize what I did, what I had
was doing, or what I haddone till the day after that. I
got home and every channel that youwould scroll through the TV had a going
on, and it was that backthat was when I was like, damn,
(38:28):
I just agree. I just hitthree homers tip of the Dodgers in
the World Series for the first timein thirty plus years. That's met a.
You know, all those names onthe team me I did that,
and that was pretty cool. Butthere was a other than the World Series,
I think for me, like,there was two other moments that stand
out besides aside from the three homergame, and and that was a twenty
(38:49):
twenty coming in in the in Gameseven of the NLCS and hitting a pinch
hit homer to tie Game seven.That was that's always gonna rank at the
top of my bats in my career. And then in twenty seventeen, Game
two of the World Series, itwas the bottom of the ninth or bottom
(39:09):
of the tenth and we're down oneand I had I was in the game.
I entered the game and double switchlate in the game to play defense
because we were up. And thenyou know, they came back, but
I came up to the plate downby one run around first Will pitched Logan
Forsyth gets to the second base.There's a riding on the mounta and back
(39:30):
in those years in twenty seventeen,you know, I had that label that
I couldn't hit right handed pitching andthis and that, and you know,
two outs in the bottom of theof the ninth or tenth inning, down
by one big as a bat inmy career at that point, and at
Dodger Stadium, to you know,and I got a game time single in
the bottom of the tenth and youknow, as close and a bat as
(39:52):
I've had, and you know herein that stadium to stay my name,
they changed pitchers right after that atbat, so I was standing on sec
base time for five minutes while thenew picture comes in and warms up,
and I kid, you know,for like five minutes the stadium was chanting
my name, and I just Inever had goosebumps for that long in my
life. That's that's been a badthat's always gonna stand stand out for me.
(40:15):
Our guest is kyk Hernandez. We'rea Hollywood Park at Inglewood. We're
here those three red Rogan Rodney Peteon any five seventy l a sports Oh
(40:45):
that's right, Hollywood Park Casino.We are back angle Wood. Today's afternoon
delight is Throwback Thursday. Yes comesby Naughty by Natsua with their head feel
Me Flow, as Freddie Lexis sayevery day, feel him Flow. You
know that? Yeah you do?Oh my God, nineteen ninety five from
(41:07):
the album Poverty's Paradise Again. Today'safternoon delight is feel Me Flow by Naughty
by Natsa. While the crowd isstill here. And now, to be
very honest with you, given thesize of the crowd and the people that
want to talk to Key K,if you look directly in front of us,
we now have security. We havesecurity. We now have security here.
(41:29):
This might be a first. Yeah, I don't think we've had security
at one of the shows. Asa matter of fact, not only do
we have one security member, wehave two. We do we do and
another's acting as security. And I'lltell you one thing. You see the
guy right in front of us,Yes, I wouldn't be messing with that
guy. He's a big fellow's bigfella and yes he's what, he's got
(41:49):
what he needs. I think heplay for the Rams two years ago.
Yeah, I would not mess withthat guy. You know the great thing
about doing the Hollywood Park shows whenwe have Dodger players down here, and
if you kind of go through thecard catalog in your mind Rodney. We've
had Chris Taylor, We've had EvanPhillips, We've had Max Muncy, we've
had Bruce Starr, Grederol, andtoday we have KEYK. And I think
(42:14):
the thing that makes these shows whenwe have the Dodger players wh it's so
special is because to me, it'smore of an intimate setting. Oh yeah,
and they share things and they tellstories and it's not that quick pop
after the game where you run upand go, hey, how to go
tonight? And great job. Theythey're more open. I thought, well,
(42:35):
I thought Bruce dar Grattarol was terrific, what was it last week?
And KEYK was just spectacular today.Absolutely, and it feels, you know,
like like you said, it's anintimate atmosphere. Hollywood Park Casino.
First of all, they do agreat job of setting this up for us.
We love coming here because it isan intimate setting and you don't feel
(42:58):
like you're at a big arena.You don't feel like you're at this this
press conference or anything like that,so you can have the time to tell
stories, to really get in depthwith your stories, as KEYK shared with
us today. So it's just beenfantastic in the crowd. We we thank
you all for coming out. It'sbeen uh, it's been unbelievable. Still
(43:19):
a line out the door to uhto take pictures with Kei Ki. He
may not get out of here foranother hour, I'm telling you, yeah.
And you know, we also haveto point out if you weren't where
it's at the top of the programthat not only did the Dodgers play in
Arizona last night and one yes right, a very successful it's to nothing yeah
road trip for them. Uh,they get in late last night, he
(43:40):
jumps up, drives down here today. Gotta go home and get dressed.
Yep, because you got the BigDodger Gallu tonight, The Big Dodger Galla
tonight, the Foundation and we allknow what the Dodgers mean to us,
but what they mean for the communityof Los Angeles and what they do is
really incredible with a number of ofthe organizations that they help, charities building
(44:02):
fields around around Los Angeles for kidsto play in a safe area of baseball.
It's truly amazing. So the BigDodger Galla is tonight. All the
players show up and have a goodtime. I think Ed Sharon is headlining
tonight. So again for Kik toshow up after coming back from Arizona,
didn't having to go there tonight,Uh, big, big thank you to
(44:24):
him. And of course tomorrow theDodgers play Atlanta the Brave. That's the
one we've been looking for it.It's the preview for it, Okay.
And you know what, Rodney,what I thought about this this morning.
Yes, and I know the conventionalwisdom is now we're gonna have a chance
to see, you know, howthese two teams stack up. Maybe maybe
(44:45):
I'm underestimating this or undervaluing it,but honestly, I don't think it really
matters how the series goes. Youwant the Dodgers to win. It's still
so incredibly early. The Dodgers don'teven have their entire pitch staff correct.
And I think it'll be a funseries, and I think there'll be a
(45:05):
lot of interest, But I don'tthink I'm gonna take too much out of
it. No matter what happens.You may not take anything out of it,
Fred, but trust me, froma player standpoint, even from some
of the fans standpoint, you wantto you want to see how you stack
up against a team that you Alot of people believe you're gonna see in
October. All right, right,and so yeah, it's it's early.
(45:27):
It's it's early May, and westill got a several months to that.
That comes in October where it reallymeans a lot more. But when you
play a team like Atlanta who's peryou know, parenhally being in the playoffs
and being your chief rival, whenit comes to get into the World Series,
you want to see how you stackup. It doesn't matter how early
it happens, whether it's May,whether it's April, whether it's June.
(45:51):
You want to see how you stackup. And you remember that you take
things away from that game as aplayer. As a player, you take
things away from that Okay, hepitched me this way, he went at
me this way, or this guyloves to do this. So you make
mental notes because you know at somepoint you're probably gonna see them later on.
All right, Well, that seriesbegins tomorrow night at the stadium.
(46:12):
Now our business at hand here iswe continue on and we'll be here till
three o'clock. We are giving awaysweep tickets. We are a five seven
tickets the game on Monday, Maysixth, So you'll have an opportunity.
We're giving those away throughout the afternoon. We also have a pair of tickets
to give away to the Tom BradyRoast at the Kia Forum on May fifth.
(46:34):
That'll be broadcast on Netflix. Sowe've got a ton of stuff to
do and we're going to continue todo it. If you're driving around,
if you're in the area, comeon down to Hollywood Park Day. Come
down when we come back. Someonethat you know, and someone that you
listen to, and someone that isfar smarter than the two of us.
(46:54):
Fred Rogan and Rodney Pete on AMfive to seventy LA Sports
All right, here we go HollywoodPark. It Angle with Fred Rogan Rodney
p on five seventy LA Sports.This is a good crowd. Everybody got
here early. I do have totell you when I got here, and
I get here about ten fifteen fora noon show. Yeah, there are
already people sitting in my house.And the folks here at Hollywood Park told
(00:21):
me some folks got here at eightthirty this morning. They were ready.
They were ready and excited about whatwe're going to do. So we're here
for three hours and during the periodof the program today, we are going
to be giving you a chance towin Dodger tickets, sweet tickets for the
game on May sixth at the stadium. We also have a pair of tickets
(00:41):
to go away for the Tom Bradyroast that'll be at the key Of Forum
and that will be on May fifth. That roast will be on Netflix.
But now, I mean, wecould sit here and talk for fifteen many
nobody wants to hear about you,Fritz. I know we could set up
the show. Yeah, we couldtell you everything we're going to do today.
No, but you're here for onereason at this point in time.
(01:03):
Shall we do it all? Right. Let's bring him out. Key K
her name, Bring him out,Bring him out, Bring him out,
Bring him out. Keith K isin the house. How you doing,
(01:32):
brother, I'm doing well? Areyeah? Good? Good? They've been
here for us at eight thirty inthe morning, waiting for you. Man.
I appreciate that. Thank you,guys, and thanks for coming down.
Because you played in Arizona yesterday,you probably got home late last night,
not a lot of sleep. TheDodger gallup tonight. So thank you
for coming out here and seeing everybodytoo. Of course, can him as
a chance to hang out with youguys. Uh, you know when you
(01:56):
see this response, Key K,and let's face it, I think you
were one of the most popular playersthat has ever worn a Dodger uniform.
When you see this and you feelthis, how does it make you feel?
It's humbling. I've said it manytimes. I'm not afraid to say
it. Uh. I'm gonna beforever in debt with you guys. The
(02:19):
love that the Dodger fan base hasshown me since day one is something that
I wish I could find ways torepay them for it, because, uh,
you know, the season is verylong, and uh, there's a
lot of times throughout the year thatthis can feel like a like a job.
And every time I play at DodgerStadium and my name gets called and
I hear the fans, it's youknow, it's a I don't need a
(02:40):
lot to show out my energy,but uh, the days that I'm dragging
a little bit, the energy,the energy comes from the crowd. And
you know, this love and supportis something that you know. Uh,
not only UH makes me excited tocome to the to the field every day,
but uh, it also is likea confidence booster because it's a failure
(03:00):
and it's it's easy at times toto not feel confident, but uh,
anytime I step a Doctor Stadium andI hear the fans, it's it's hard
not to feel confident because you know, these people love me for a reason,
and uh, I gotta I gottashow I gotta show show up,
show up for them. Yeah,and you do that, key K,
And I think that's the reason.And I'm I'm I'm speaking for myself as
(03:21):
as a fan as well, butI think for a lot of fans.
You talk about repaying the fans,you repay them every time you put on
that uniform. You really do,because you are unselfish. You do whatever
it takes. You play eight thousandpositions for the team. But I think
(03:42):
people love your heart and your passion. Man, when you go out to
play, and they know that everytime you do put on that uniform,
you're gonna give it one hundred percent. And I think that's all that fans
want. They want to know thatthe guy that they root for and they
cheer for goes out there every singleday and gives it his all. And
you do that for the Dodgers andfor the Dodger fans. Am I right,
(04:05):
thank you? Thank you. Letme ask you this because you know,
you did get away for a coupleof years, which which was tough.
Yeah, and we all missed you. And but now that you're back
and we we love that you're back. Can you talk about and you did
(04:26):
go You went to a historic franchisein Boston. I mean that's don't don't
get me wrong, that's it's incredible. There's a few of those around the
league. But when you leave andthen you come back and you put on
that Dodger uniform, talk about whatthat means and how different it is to
put on that uniform and play inDodger Stadium. Yeah, like you said,
(04:47):
going going away from here for acouple of years to a place like
Boston, the Red Sox place withso much history. I feel like in
a way, being with the Dodgersfor so long prepared me to to go
to Boston. And you know,understand the way that that that wearing a
Red Sox uniform carries just the sameas you know, wearing the Dodger uniform.
(05:10):
And uh, you know, toto to get back last year after
three years. Not I didn't getto come back play against the Dodgers or
anything. I didn't get to seethem. I I only saw the guys
at Walker Buildings Bueler's wedding after thetwenty twenty one season. But uh,
getting to come back and getting toto play at home a fresh game was
(05:30):
at home. It was kind oflike an out of body experience, just
driving into the field and uh,you know, driving getting in that elevator
and going down and going through thatthat uh that uniform, that trophy room
to get to the clubhouse was itwas all so bizarre to me, like
getting in the clubhouse and seeing allthe all the same faces, seeing R.
J It was Uh, it wasunbelievable. It was uh for me,
(05:54):
Uh, I had an idea Iwas going to get traded, but
for me to get traded to theback to the Dodgers, it was like,
what is going on right now?And to me, it was it
was best case scenario, you know, coming back home and getting the chance
to not only put up the doctoruniform again, but to play at Dodger
Stadium again. This because my lastyear, I mean, it was tough
(06:15):
not being able to I knew thatit was going to be my last year,
and it was tough for me tonot be able to play in front
of the fans. And then obviouslywe won the World Series and I wasn't
able to to kind of share thatmoment with, you know, my teammates
and the fans and all that.But getting to come back for two months
last year was was incredible. It'skind of it was like rejuvenating, even
(06:36):
though I don't feel like I'm thatold. But for me, it was
a kind of a no brainer tocome back this year, signed as a
free agent to come back, justbecause all the memories came back, all
the love came back, and andit just it just feels right. You
know, you said that at timesit's a very long season and there are
times it's a job and you've gotto really get yourself up. Well,
(06:59):
if it's a job, then youknow it's a business. And as you
grew here with the Dodgers and thisfan base embraced you and loved you,
you find a situation where you hadto go. How hard was it for
you to go the first time fromthe Dodgers. It was extremely hard.
It was it was basically all kindof like a It was a personal selfish
(07:21):
decision. I wanted to go outto a team where I was going to
get the chance to play every day, and I got that opportunity in Boston,
and I the thing that suck waslike I have to leave, but
I don't want to leave. Idon't have any I don't like have that
many reasons other than I just wantto go out and play baseball every day
(07:42):
instead of doing what I'm doing nowlike I was doing then. And it
was just hard, especially you knowwhen you're competing for a World Series championship
each and every year when you're hereand that's what you play for. You
played to win, you play towin championships and in a sense, you're
you're you gotta be okay with youknow, you're leaving to a team where
(08:03):
maybe you don't have the same chanceto win, but you're gonna get a
chance to go out and perform anddo what you love. And uh,
it was just one of those reallyreally hard decisions that I've had to make
in life. And I mean,it all worked out and look at look
ahead the way how the world works. And I'm back here now. And
I love when you came back here. I love that you actually announced you
(08:24):
were back before the Dodgers did.I thought that was great that you announced
that you had returned before the clubeven announced you would return. Did they
say anything to you about that?No, they know better. I just
there are some reports coming out towardsthe end of me signing of kik Is
about to make a decision, andit just made it seem like free agency
(08:46):
is such as it should. Maybeyou shouldn't be to the extreme of show
hey, but that's just a veryspecial you know athlete that But I think
that I think free agency does youknow you you should get the right to
be private about it. And it'sa it's an extremely important decision in people's
(09:07):
lives, and you're moving families towherever it is you're moving, and you
know, I just don't I didn'tappreciate. I don't I don't always appreciate
how the media works in free agencyand speculating this, speculating that, and
throwing rumors out there, and youknow, I kept reading things and I
was like, none of this isaccurate, Like where are the people getting
these things from? And obviously thatengages fans and then it makes sometimes it
(09:31):
makes the fans of those teams getthe wrong idea or whatever. And I
was like, why are they makingthis such a big decision, Like I'm
not I haven't signed because I'm waitingfor this or that. It's just things
happen't happen, and and I justwanted to make sure that everybody knew from
me that you know, I wascoming back, and I didn't. I
(09:52):
don't like the race to be firstwith the media because a lot of times
they're wrong. So I was like, why not get it from the you
know, sources say they always getprotected or sometimes they make it up and
they say it was a source.And if you're saying it yourself. There's
no way you're making it up oryou're wrong. So that's what I did.
Yeah. I always say the media, especially social media, is a
(10:15):
town without a sheriff. Right.People can say and do whatever they want
to do. So the fact thatyou're able to take control of your own
narrative, I mean that that thatreally is important. Thank God. I
say this all the time. ThankGod it wasn't around when I was playing.
Yeah, I'm my wife Holly saysthat all the time, because that
might have been I might have beenunder the jail. Social media was around
(10:37):
when I was playing. Kik.You play multiple positions, right, and
and and again go back to yourunselfish nature of playing for this team and
playing You mentioned going to to Bostonto be an everyday guy. Was that
(10:58):
something you were craving when you werehere the first time with the Dodgers?
Like, look, you you playshort stuff, you play third base,
you play left field, you playcenter, you play second base, you
play wherever they wanted you to play, and you played it well. There's
a big time value to that,and it feels like the Dodgers embrace that
more than any other team. Theywant guys to be versatle like that.
(11:20):
But it comes a time where youwant to be in the lineup every night
and every day. How important wasthat for you when you had you had
to make that tough decision, Imean it was it was kind of everything.
I I've never really cared at whatposition I played. I mean,
I think going to me going toBoston was kind of a testament of that.
(11:43):
I went to Boston, It'd bethe second every day, second baseman,
and I ended up playing center fieldevery day. And I was only
going to play center field the secondyear, and then I ended up playing
center a short second, and thenI'm supposed to go back to play center
field and I end up playing shortstop. Like I just as long as
my name is in the lineup.But I didn't really care what position I
(12:03):
played. I Uh, I didn'tcare if it was a different position every
day. I just wanted to bein there. And I knew that I
could bring so many things at thetable. You know that on a daily
basis, I can help you winthe game, not just at the play,
but like I can do things onthe basis, I can I can
do things for my teammates, Ican do things on defense, that I
was like, I think, I'mI'm valuable as an every day guy,
(12:24):
and that's just what I wanted todo, and I wanted to prove that
I could do it at a highlevel on a daily basis, and I
I feel like I proved that intwenty one and then injuries came, and
that's part of what happens in sports. And you know, I think everything
is meant to be. Everything happensfor a reason, and I think that
(12:46):
injury was meant to happen because ifit wasn't for that injury, I probably
wouldn't wouldn't even read back here.Yeah, where do you feel most kind
of is a tough question because youprobably feel comfortable everywhere. But if you
had your choice, you woke upin the morning, said I today it's
opening Day, or it's the seventhgame of the World Series, what position
(13:09):
would you want to play? Wheredo you feel most comfortable? I mean,
right now, I feel comfortable everywhere. Obviously, I would say,
don't give me that key case leastcomfortable first base, because it's the one
that I played in the least amountof my career. But I always answer
that question with the middle infield andit's what I grew up playing. It's
(13:33):
what I have the most fun.And like, I enjoyed the infield more
than the outfield because the game isquicker, you're more involved in the game.
You can communicate with your teammates alot better than in the outfield.
Uh, there's less fans talking trash, and uh, I want to get
it in the outfield, man,I want to hear about that. Yeah,
and you and you can hear itout there. Oh yeah, you
know. Yeah, there's some stadiumsthat they're right there behind you. And
(13:54):
uh, they're they're good. Theydo their research, they research their families,
name and all that. So sometimesthey get mean. But you ever
want to turn around and say somethingto them all the time, But you
don't. You also don't want togive them the pleasure of I just sometimes
I laugh because you know, yousometimes you kill them with kindness. But
sometimes I think the best thing todo is just to ignore them and don't
(14:18):
give them the pleasure of letting themknow that you can hear them. But
I didn't know I was that goodin center field. So to answer your
question, probably I would probably saycenter field, just because in twenty one
I got to play a lot ofit, mostly every day, and I
not only enjoyed it, I learnedto love the outfield a little more,
but found I found out something aboutmyself. And I'm a really good centerfielder,
(14:41):
so I would say center field.You know, it's interesting about that
if if you look at the dimeat in every position, there's really a
different skill set required for every position, from third base to right field to
center field the second base. Howhave you been able to develop the ability
to play everywhere? I think I'vealways said if you can play short,
(15:03):
you can play anywhere. And Igrew up playing short stuff, and you
know, it kind of teaches youhow to you know, how to be
athletic in a sense of moving leftand right in and I kinda you know,
I think the outfield just comes naturalto me. It's to me,
it's I call the outfield like adog, you know, playing fetch.
You just go get the ball andyou like bring it back, you go
(15:24):
back in. But uh, Ijust I don't know. I think I
think being being in the infield forso long, and especially as short and
second like, it gives you adifferent perspective and it teaches you how to
read a swing and and read alike no kind of kind of have an
idea of where the ball is goingto get get hit based on pitch location
and things like that. And thatis something that has translated really really well
(15:46):
for me in the outfield because it'sallowed me to get really good jumps.
I'm not the fastest of guys.Usually center fielders are burners, and I
just I get I depend on myon my quick bursts first step, and
that's something that I developed in theend field and it translates even better in
the outfield. So I had alot of free time in my early years
of the Dodgers, and I reallytook advantage of batting practice. I didn't
(16:11):
make batting practice just batting practice,but I also made a fielding practice.
So I made sure that I wasgetting a lot of work in and a
lot of different positions every day.And that's basically that's how I got comfortable.
And obviously the more you play indifferent positions, like, you can
practice all you want, but ifyou're not playing, you're not gonna you're
not gonna improve at things. Andobviously practice makes you better, but the
(16:32):
game is what actually you know makesyou take it to the next step.
So me staying on top of thingsduring practice and then having you know,
more and more time playing different positionsallow me to get better at each of
those positions. We've had different guyson and I've talked to different players that
play both the infield and the outfield. And you mentioned this earlier, like
(16:53):
you like the infield because of theaction. You feel like you're into the
game a little bit more, andit's right up on you. Where you
play the outfield. You can gothree innings and not see a ball hit
to you or not have any actions. Do you feel like you hit better
when you're in the infield or theoutfield or does it make a difference.
It don't. I haven't really noticedthat I would have to dig in do
(17:14):
like in the numbers, but Ido. I do hear that like people
that are not used to playing likedifferent positions, when they start doing it,
they all talk about how it's affectingtheir hitting because they're like they don't
feel comfortable on the field on defense, and then they're just so worried about
defense that they kind of like puthitting aside for a little bit to it.
(17:36):
For me, I've been doing itfor a long time now, so
like, I don't even really thinkabout it. I do feel that when
I'm playing outfield, I'm a littlemore tired towards the end of the game
than when I'm playing the infield.But that's about it, honestly. So
when you're in the outfield, youfind yourself out there and you're just waiting
for something to happen. I mean, you're playing fetch basically, and nobody's
(17:57):
thrown the ball to you, Soyou're just standing there. What runs through
your mind? What are you thinkingabout when you're just out in the outfield
by yourself, You have your ownthoughts and you're waiting for something to happen.
What runs through your mind out there? Is this something we can talk
about on radio? Yeah? Right, I just think about the last episode
(18:21):
of Family Guy. Like, honestly, like I have such bad add that
it's just a constant battle to justlock, keep keep paying attention to don't
take Yeah, it's so easy ondefense, especially in the outfield. It's
so easy to take pitches off whenyou like you kind of go through the
motions on like one or two pitches, and usually when you take a pitch
(18:47):
off, that's when the ball comesto you. And usually when you take
a pitch off, it's when it'sa ball comes to you. And it
always happens to be at a bigpart of the game, and if you
don't make that play, it cancost you the game. So for me,
I just it's a constant battle oflock it in. Don't listen to
the fans. Don't worry about whathappened on unhitting, Like, don't worry
about what's what happened, what's gonnahappen after the game or before the game,
(19:11):
Like, just stay in the momentand live pitch like I For me,
I want to feel like every pitchof the game is going to get
hit to me, every single oneof them. And that's the best way
I can stay locked in. Andto be honest with you, that's I'm
just constantly battling myself to stay lockedin. Do you really have a d
D with the age too, theHernandez disease. I mean, so it's
(19:37):
it's it's a battle for you notonly when you're playing, but probably every
day because you're just wired that way. Yeah, my brain works a little
faster than what I can the wayI can ward it, but yeah,
I mean it is what it is, you know, Keek. I think
one of the things people love aboutyou is that not only are you a
(19:59):
great player and you play multiple positions, but you you have fun and it
shows when you get to the ballpark, when you're playing, you are having
fun, whether it be you know, dancing in the dugout, whether it
be you know, getting a hit, pumping somebody else up. It feels
like you're having fun. And alot of guys it is you talked about
being a job. It is ajob, but also it's still the game
(20:23):
of baseball. And how have youbeen able to keep that kind of in
perspective and still have fun as ifyou were a little kid, you know,
when you go out and play.This is something that it goes back
to like very young age and kindof like my dad trying to prepare me
(20:44):
for you know, the next stepafter you know, high school baseball and
things like that, and he wasall in with me as long as I
wanted to play baseball. You know, I dream was to be a big
leaguer and all this, and youknow, in a perfect world, I
would have gone to call and thenwhatever happened after college would have been great.
So my dad was just kind ofpreparing me for that. And he
obviously if the dream was to likego to school in the United States and
(21:08):
all this, and he always said, the American people are not gonna like
your personality, you know, whenyou're kind of you know, I was
six years old and I was apower ranger and I was doing cart wheels
and short and kind of like kepthappening as I grew older, and you
know, I, like you said, I always had to like to have
fun, like being loud, butthat's just being me, Like it's just
(21:30):
you know, word vomiting and thingslike that. And I learned that if
if I told him, I waslike, I can't be anybody else,
then the way I am, thenyou go. I signed professionally and I
try to go the you know,the strict straightway, like be serious and
all this, and it just youquickly realize that if you're not yourself,
(21:52):
it's hard to perform, and it'shard to you know, uh, to
be free and play loose, andit's easy, it's easy in the big
leagues to get tight, to getuptight, and and to feel the stress
or the pressure and this and thatbut I just feel like I played the
best when when I'm being me andnot really worried about what people are going
to think about me of the wayI am or things like that. And
(22:17):
I try to. I try to. I always I try to be thankful
each and every day at it foryou know, to another day in the
big leagues. I'm getting to dowhat I love. This is my eleventh
season in the big leagues, andit's felt like it's it's still twenty fifteen,
my first year with the Dodgers,and it goes by so fast,
right, And like I said atthe beginning, it's so hard for this
to become a job, and youknow, it's so long. It's such
(22:41):
a grind of the traveling and thisand that that you know, you just
sometimes you need that other person inthe locker room to like be a beat
so that you feel a beat.And even the days that I don't that
I don't have it, I tryto fake it, and those are the
days that I'm the most obnoxious.But I just I realized that I'm either
(23:02):
I'm going to perform the best,whether I'm being me like playing lose free
happy and or honestly I play reallywell when I'm angry, but playing mad
and playing angry for one hundred andsixty two games is not It's it's very
exhausting, and I just choose to, you know, to play free,
be happy, and you know,if I'm not in there, I'm trying
(23:22):
to cheer on my teammates and bepositive and help help pick them up.
And that's just me, man.I've always been the same, And I
like to have fun. I liketo make people laugh. I like to
make people smile. And we're playingat the end of the day, We're
playing a kids game for a living, So why not enjoy it to the
fullest while we're at it, becausesoon enough, I might be sitting where
you are, you know, interviewinganother athlete or something like that. So
(23:47):
as long as I'm playing this game, I want to enjoy it to the
fullest because you never know when it'sgoing to end or how fast it is
going to go. So I'm justtrying to make the most of it.
Our guest is kyk Hernandez. Yeah, from Hollywood Park and Inglewood. We
are here all afternoon. Keyk iswith us. Now come on down be
a part of the show. Morewith Gee K bred Rogan and Rodney Pete
(24:10):
on A and five to seventy LASports. Oh yeah, ha ha.
We are back Hollywood Park Casino,Inglewood, key K Hernandez in the building.
(24:41):
We are here till three o'clock.Very soon we'll start giving away sweet
tickets for the Dodger game on Maysixth. And also today we are giving
away a pair of tickets to theTom Brady Roast. It'll be held at
the Key of Form and that willbe on May fifth. Key K Hernandez
of course is here. Yeah,kick a Din shut down the casino.
Look, I'm looking over there.Nobody's playing right now. Everybody's here,
(25:02):
everybody's here, everybody's here checking out. KEK, key K. My friend
Bob Watt just sent me a textand he said, have KEYK tell the
story of what his minor league managerbelieved he didn't speak English because key K
spoke Spanish every time he saw him. Yeah, that happened. Where did
it happen? To us? Aboutit? Twenty fourteen, Oklahoma City.
(25:23):
Before they were the Dodgers, theywere the Triple A team for the for
the Astros as well, and Iwas playing there. I started the year
in Double A, and the TripleA manager was h he was sick.
He had cancer. He was gettingtreated for cancer. And I got called
up to Triple A and we hadan interim manager. So I had never
(25:45):
met Tony Di Francisco, the actualmanager for the team. I had never
met him before. And I thinkafter like a month of being there,
he came back. He came backto the team, and he joined the
team after an eleven am game.There's a lot of games when you're in
the minor leagues, kids games,summer camps and things like that, and
probably two o'clock and we just gotdone with the game. We win the
(26:07):
game, and we get back inthe locker room. He's waiting for us,
and every time every every person that'swalking in, he's greeting that person
blah blah blah. And when whenI get in, he's like, kik
Hernandez, Hey you Puerto Rican.You're pretty good at baseball, he goes,
he goes, how's your English?And uh, they asked that question,
Yeah me be me. I youknow, I thought about it right
(26:30):
away, and I was like,oh, man, sorry for what I'm
about to do, but you knowyou're after your f right now. And
I was like English, English class, very very go English class boot.
And then he joined the team thenext day and he believed me. He
believed me, and I every timefor the next month that we talked to
(26:52):
each other, he had a translatorcome in and every time he would call
me to the office, the GregoriaPetit. Uh. He was. He
he was a veteran guy. Hewas probably thirty one thirty two at the
time. I'm twenty two years old, and uh, every time we go
in the office, of course Ihave better English than him, and he's,
you know, he's translating for me, but in reality he's telling me,
(27:14):
like, bro, you gotta stop. Like he's like, I'm not
as good as you are at this. You're creep. You're keeping a straight
face. I don't know how todo this, like and I was like,
just tell him you speak English.I was like, no, I'm
not going to do it. Andlike I would be we would be playing
games. I'd be in the dugouttalking to my speaking English to my teammates.
I would go out to the mountaintalk to the picture of American picture
on the mound, like just meand him having a conversation, and he
(27:37):
never. I don't know how henever saw it. He never like realized
what was going on. One day, this on, This went on for
four weeks and one day we're playingpretty bad and he, uh, we
got done on a day game andafter the game, he calls every position
player in his office and we're allcramped up in that little office and he's
just cussing us out. He iscussing us out, wearing us out for
like ten fifteen minutes, just yellingat us, telling us how bad we're
(27:59):
all or baseball, how bad weplaying, blah blah blah, and I
feel like we've had enough. Itwas like this meeting is dragging, you
know, he's just saying the samething or over and over. He's just
making up cuss words at this point, and I raised my hand and he's
like, what, what theF doyou want? And I was like,
I just want to let you knowthat I speak perfect English. And he
(28:22):
was so embarrassed that he had didn'tknow what else to do, and he's
just he's like, you guys canleave, you guys can leave. But
yeah, that was it. Yeah, I love that. That's a great
story. So so that being said, show he speaks perfect English, then
is what you're saying. We're workingon it. We're working on it.
He understands a lot. He understandsa lot. You know. Obviously speaking
(28:45):
is h he's different. He's gettinga lot, he's getting better every day,
but understanding and speaking and talking tolanguage is a lot different. And
I'm glad that he's on the teamand he not only a special talent,
but you know, the situation thathappened while we're in Korea and all these
things, and it's easy for thatto become a full distraction, maybe not
(29:08):
for the team but for an individual. And the way that he's carried himself.
I don't know if it's because wedon't understand the language or what,
but like he's been a complete proabout it, and ever since that day,
I don't know if it's it's itwas us showing us, showing him
our support and letting him know thatyou know, we're we're with you,
we're standing behind you, and andwe got your back. Regardless it opened
(29:33):
his mind or whatever it is,but he's he's shown so much personality since
that moment, and he's he's he'sa joy to be around and sneaky,
sneaky clowns, sneaky funny. Yeah, yeah, yeah, big time.
You know, since you have beenwith the Dodgers and for so long and
been in this organization, you know, people are always talking and looking to
(29:56):
the Dodgers. You can't get awayfrom it. They're the top road draw
in baseball. Now you have himon the team. Had you noticed,
it's even more so now, moreeyes, more focused, more expectation,
like nothing I could ever imagine.Really, yeah, I don't When people
ask me who I play for,I don't say the Dodgers anymore. I
say I play for the Beatles.It's like that. It feels like it
(30:19):
feels like we're we're in a rockband, you know. Showy. It's
like the true definition of rock star. It's it's it's crazy, man.
It doesn't matter what city, doesn'tmatter what country. Like it's it's uh,
it's it's it's something. And uh, you know, the like I
said, the way that he handleseverything, the way that he carries himself,
it's a he's a pro. He'sa pro. And uh. The
(30:42):
showy experience has been has been anexperience. How cool is it being on
a on a team like this,and you know, I know, outside
people talk about it and in themakeup of the team, but when you
as a player, and you know, as a player, you know who
can play and who can't play.You know who's gifted and got that.
(31:03):
But being on a team like this, how cool is it? Knowing up
and down that lineup you've got somany players that can play on this team.
Is it a cool thing? Oris it a thing where there's so
much pressure because everybody expects you towin and how are you guys able to
kind of put that aside and likewe just got to go out and play
(31:25):
every day, not worry about whathappens in October right now, but just
go play even though there is tremendousamount of pressure to win the whole thing.
I would say it's more it's coolmore than anything. It reminds me
in a way of our twenty twentytwenty twenty team in the sense of,
like you know, on paper,where if not the best, we're top
(31:47):
three in the league and we're supposedto win. But I mean, it's
just it's just cool because for meas a as a as an athlete,
you know, you you just youappreciate your peers and when they do things
at an elite level the way thatsome of my teammates do it, and
for me, I think for me, it's just it's it's there's no other
(32:09):
way to explain to them cool manlike to to get to like I played
with Mookie in a sixty game season, and after sixty games, I was
like, this dude is the bestplayer in baseball position player wise, Like
there's nobody that can affect the playerthe game in all the areas the way
that he can. And last yearI was only with him for two months,
(32:30):
and then this year I see himand he's he's in a shortstop out
of nowhere. It's a shortstop andhe's doing it at an incredible, like
incredibly high level. And for meto see that athlete go about his business
for one hundred and sixty two days, to see and show hey man like
I the most I played against showHey in the season was five games,
(32:51):
and to see show Hey. Ofcourse I wish he was pitching this year
to see the full, like thefull experience, but just to see the
way that you know, he goesabout his business. The there's levels to
this and there's just guys that arein a different level and it's just it's
just amazing to see what those guysdo and to think that those guys are
(33:13):
on your team and not on theother team. It's you get to appreciate
them in different ways. And Imean last year, Freddie Freeman, last
year I got I got to theteam in the midst of him hitting five
hundred for like thirty games. That'sunreal, you know. And I was
like, man, this guy isunbelievable. And then you got guys that
do it more quietly. Will Smithquietly hitting like three seventy this year,
(33:36):
like probably the best offensive catcher inall baseball. You added to Oscar Hernandez
to this lineup, who I sawclosely in the als, Like just it's
it's unbelievable. You know Tyler lastnow he was with the Rays. I
was with the Red Sox. I'mvery glad that I don't have to face
that guy anymore, you know.Seeing Yoshinobu, of course he had the
(33:58):
starting career, and you know,people, we'll started panicking and then you
see every single start after Korea,and he's got like a like a one
after Korea, like yeah, youknow the type of talent that we have,
and in that room, it's forme, it's it's you're with Dodgers.
You you know that, you knowit's World Series or bus and maybe
you think about it for a minute, but then you forget about it and
(34:20):
it's just play baseball and you know, just let everything else take care of
itself. But I've gotten used tothe mentality of World Series or bus,
So for me, it's nothing new. So I don't think there's any any
out of pressure because of our ofour superstar level in our roster. So
if life is a series of moments, and it's those moments that create memories
that we carry with us. Okay, you don't want to go backwards,
(34:43):
you don't want to brag about yourself. Good, we got that. We'll
wait for you. What will bragfor you? But when you look back
at some of the moments you've hadwith the Dodgers, those moments, what
are the ones that pop into yourmind immediately that you'll never forget. Come
on, man, Julio striking outof Damas to end the World Series.
(35:05):
Okay, I mean, come on, man, the Cubs, the Cubs
when you three times the Cubs.The Cubs three homer game was of course,
it was the greatest game I'll everhave in my life, and not
just because of the numbers, butthe game and the moment I did it.
(35:28):
You know, did you tell meabout that game real quick? Did
you how were you feeling going intothat game? And then after you hit
the first one, did you go, I'm kind of seeing the ball pretty
good today. Then you hit thesecond one, You're like, man,
this is I'm really seeing it.And then the third one? What were
you feeling going into that game?It was? It was I had a
lot going on. Uh, youknow, that was the year that the
(35:51):
hurricane heading Puerto Rico, the bighurricane area, and there's there's a lot
of you know, uncertainty and andthings in my mind because my family's still
back there and there's no power,there's you know, there's no way to
like they had to drive like thirtyminutes to get into a certain area of
the highway where they could have cellservice to you know, pull up and
(36:15):
be able to like exchange the textmessage. Just little things like that and
having all that off the field mademe visualize the night before the game for
the first time. Ever. I'dnever done visualization before, and that was
the first night that I did likesome visualization because I needed to like get
(36:37):
away from that and like find away to go to sleep so that I
could lock it in for the forthe game. And every every way I
I I envisioned myself in that gametomorrow night, it was just me going
out and balling out. There's Ienvisioned it in so many different ways,
and every single thing that came upto my mind, it was it was
(36:58):
me having success. And I waslike, all right, this is awesome.
I should do this more often.Well, haven't done this before,
but uh, I just went tosleep and I woke up the next day
and it was kind of this.I woke up and with that like confident,
upbeat mood. And I remember talkingto my mom that morning. She
she she drove to to get serviceand I told my mom and I told
(37:20):
my mom. I was like,Mom, I'm gonna go deep tonight and
I hadn't hit a homer in theplayoffs before, and She's like, no,
don't don't do that to yourself.Don't put your don't put that much
pressure on yourself. I was like, no, if that I'm going deep
tonight, like just watch h.At the time they were putting H they
were using a power generator to geta just to power the TV, and
then they were they had this bootlegANTANNA that they created with like hangers and
(37:44):
stuff just so that they can getone of the local channels that was going
to broadcast the game. And Iwas like, make sure you get to
my grandparents' house early so you canwatch my first at back as I'm going
deep, and I had a MyBP was stupid that day. I probably
took thirty swings and twenty five ofthem were homer, So I was really
I was like, if the gamegoes any anything like the VP, it's
gonna be a good one. Andsure enough, first pitch I saw that
(38:05):
night, it was a homer.Second pitch I saw that night was a
granny. And then it wasn't untilthe lasted bad that I hitted my third
homer. But I don't I didn'trealize what I did, what I had
was doing, or what I haddone till the day after that. I
got home and every channel that youwould scroll through the TV had a going
on, and it was that backthat was when I was like, damn,
(38:28):
I just agree. I just hitthree homers tip of the Dodgers in
the World Series for the first timein thirty plus years. That's met a.
You know, all those names onthe team me I did that,
and that was pretty cool. Butthere was a other than the World Series,
I think for me, like,there was two other moments that stand
out besides aside from the three homergame, and and that was a twenty
(38:49):
twenty coming in in the in Gameseven of the NLCS and hitting a pinch
hit homer to tie Game seven.That was that's always gonna rank at the
top of my bats in my career. And then in twenty seventeen, Game
two of the World Series, itwas the bottom of the ninth or bottom
(39:09):
of the tenth and we're down oneand I had I was in the game.
I entered the game and double switchlate in the game to play defense
because we were up. And thenyou know, they came back, but
I came up to the plate downby one run around first Will pitched Logan
Forsyth gets to the second base.There's a riding on the mounta and back
(39:30):
in those years in twenty seventeen,you know, I had that label that
I couldn't hit right handed pitching andthis and that, and you know,
two outs in the bottom of theof the ninth or tenth inning, down
by one big as a bat inmy career at that point, and at
Dodger Stadium, to you know,and I got a game time single in
the bottom of the tenth and youknow, as close and a bat as
(39:52):
I've had, and you know herein that stadium to stay my name,
they changed pitchers right after that atbat, so I was standing on sec
base time for five minutes while thenew picture comes in and warms up,
and I kid, you know,for like five minutes the stadium was chanting
my name, and I just Inever had goosebumps for that long in my
life. That's that's been a badthat's always gonna stand stand out for me.
(40:15):
Our guest is kyk Hernandez. We'rea Hollywood Park at Inglewood. We're
here those three red Rogan Rodney Peteon any five seventy l a sports Oh
(40:45):
that's right, Hollywood Park Casino.We are back angle Wood. Today's afternoon
delight is Throwback Thursday. Yes comesby Naughty by Natsua with their head feel
Me Flow, as Freddie Lexis sayevery day, feel him Flow. You
know that? Yeah you do?Oh my God, nineteen ninety five from
(41:07):
the album Poverty's Paradise Again. Today'safternoon delight is feel Me Flow by Naughty
by Natsa. While the crowd isstill here. And now, to be
very honest with you, given thesize of the crowd and the people that
want to talk to Key K,if you look directly in front of us,
we now have security. We havesecurity. We now have security here.
(41:29):
This might be a first. Yeah, I don't think we've had security
at one of the shows. Asa matter of fact, not only do
we have one security member, wehave two. We do we do and
another's acting as security. And I'lltell you one thing. You see the
guy right in front of us,Yes, I wouldn't be messing with that
guy. He's a big fellow's bigfella and yes he's what, he's got
(41:49):
what he needs. I think heplay for the Rams two years ago.
Yeah, I would not mess withthat guy. You know the great thing
about doing the Hollywood Park shows whenwe have Dodger players down here, and
if you kind of go through thecard catalog in your mind Rodney. We've
had Chris Taylor, We've had EvanPhillips, We've had Max Muncy, we've
had Bruce Starr, Grederol, andtoday we have KEYK. And I think
(42:14):
the thing that makes these shows whenwe have the Dodger players wh it's so
special is because to me, it'smore of an intimate setting. Oh yeah,
and they share things and they tellstories and it's not that quick pop
after the game where you run upand go, hey, how to go
tonight? And great job. Theythey're more open. I thought, well,
(42:35):
I thought Bruce dar Grattarol was terrific, what was it last week?
And KEYK was just spectacular today.Absolutely, and it feels, you know,
like like you said, it's anintimate atmosphere. Hollywood Park Casino.
First of all, they do agreat job of setting this up for us.
We love coming here because it isan intimate setting and you don't feel
(42:58):
like you're at a big arena.You don't feel like you're at this this
press conference or anything like that,so you can have the time to tell
stories, to really get in depthwith your stories, as KEYK shared with
us today. So it's just beenfantastic in the crowd. We we thank
you all for coming out. It'sbeen uh, it's been unbelievable. Still
(43:19):
a line out the door to uhto take pictures with Kei Ki. He
may not get out of here foranother hour, I'm telling you, yeah.
And you know, we also haveto point out if you weren't where
it's at the top of the programthat not only did the Dodgers play in
Arizona last night and one yes right, a very successful it's to nothing yeah
road trip for them. Uh,they get in late last night, he
(43:40):
jumps up, drives down here today. Gotta go home and get dressed.
Yep, because you got the BigDodger Gallu tonight, The Big Dodger Galla
tonight, the Foundation and we allknow what the Dodgers mean to us,
but what they mean for the communityof Los Angeles and what they do is
really incredible with a number of ofthe organizations that they help, charities building
(44:02):
fields around around Los Angeles for kidsto play in a safe area of baseball.
It's truly amazing. So the BigDodger Galla is tonight. All the
players show up and have a goodtime. I think Ed Sharon is headlining
tonight. So again for Kik toshow up after coming back from Arizona,
didn't having to go there tonight,Uh, big, big thank you to
(44:24):
him. And of course tomorrow theDodgers play Atlanta the Brave. That's the
one we've been looking for it.It's the preview for it, Okay.
And you know what, Rodney,what I thought about this this morning.
Yes, and I know the conventionalwisdom is now we're gonna have a chance
to see, you know, howthese two teams stack up. Maybe maybe
(44:45):
I'm underestimating this or undervaluing it,but honestly, I don't think it really
matters how the series goes. Youwant the Dodgers to win. It's still
so incredibly early. The Dodgers don'teven have their entire pitch staff correct.
And I think it'll be a funseries, and I think there'll be a
(45:05):
lot of interest, But I don'tthink I'm gonna take too much out of
it. No matter what happens.You may not take anything out of it,
Fred, but trust me, froma player standpoint, even from some
of the fans standpoint, you wantto you want to see how you stack
up against a team that you Alot of people believe you're gonna see in
October. All right, right,and so yeah, it's it's early.
(45:27):
It's it's early May, and westill got a several months to that.
That comes in October where it reallymeans a lot more. But when you
play a team like Atlanta who's peryou know, parenhally being in the playoffs
and being your chief rival, whenit comes to get into the World Series,
you want to see how you stackup. It doesn't matter how early
it happens, whether it's May,whether it's April, whether it's June.
(45:51):
You want to see how you stackup. And you remember that you take
things away from that game as aplayer. As a player, you take
things away from that Okay, hepitched me this way, he went at
me this way, or this guyloves to do this. So you make
mental notes because you know at somepoint you're probably gonna see them later on.
All right, Well, that seriesbegins tomorrow night at the stadium.
(46:12):
Now our business at hand here iswe continue on and we'll be here till
three o'clock. We are giving awaysweep tickets. We are a five seven
tickets the game on Monday, Maysixth, So you'll have an opportunity.
We're giving those away throughout the afternoon. We also have a pair of tickets
to give away to the Tom BradyRoast at the Kia Forum on May fifth.
(46:34):
That'll be broadcast on Netflix. Sowe've got a ton of stuff to
do and we're going to continue todo it. If you're driving around,
if you're in the area, comeon down to Hollywood Park Day. Come
down when we come back. Someonethat you know, and someone that you
listen to, and someone that isfar smarter than the two of us.
(46:54):
Fred Rogan and Rodney Pete on AMfive to seventy LA Sports
Roggin And Rodney News
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