Dodgers pregame: Dusty Baker honored to be 8th member inducted into Legends Of Dodger Baseball

[Music] Dusty what was um your reaction when you got the phone call the Dodgers wanted to honor you this way um I don't know you know I think uh lonic called me first and Steve Brer called me second and uh I really didn't know what to say cuz I I really wasn't expecting it and I really I don't really know if I even wanted it CU I didn't know you know if I deserved it uh as much as some of the other guys did and I mean like I told you earlier I mean it's a tremendous honor I personally I for reg Smith for myself I thought regie was the best player on the team but you know it's uh I'm hoping that they bring you know some more of my teammates on board and I think about all the greats that I'm uh joining and some of the greats that um you know aren't on it and I was really thinking about the guys that really helped me when I came from I was born on the Braves and then I was kind of matured on the on the Dodgers and U but you know guys like morning will and jiman and where campell's coming wheelchair and explain things to us you know Don new come and uh she call her spend in spring training Sandy copac so I just saw you know who I should talk hitting with I could talk hitting with him as well as I could talk hitting with with ank Aon and uh you know he told me I mean he stimulated my brain and he would tell me like you know hitting and pitching mirror images of each other and I was like that's pretty heavy and uh it took a little while to you know to sink in and that's so I asked him one day who was the toughest head for him to face and he told me Hank Garen and I had asked ha that question before and he told me sand kopx and so that's mutual respect and you know when I think about you know Manny MAA and you know the instructors that we had here you know Danny Joy mon we had some outstanding instructors which made it easier for us to win and us to us to play B you started in 76 and then Reggie Smith has acquired from the Cardinals in the middle of the season and I wonder the effect that he had on you you mentioned as far as him being the great player on the team but as far as having a teammate like Reggie Smith all those years what did he mean to you well I mean he meant everything I know I could go to rgie you know with anything and uh you know I trusted what he said cuzz regie is probably the most honest guy that I been around plus if we had a team fight I could back up to his back and then I know I can cover all this and I know Reggie can cover all that and uh you know I know Reggie had my back but uh you know when we got regie you know I was cuffing because I had hurt my knee I was center fielder and they got Reggie and then they got Monday and so I had never played left field in my wife and um and you know that was only fi left so I play Left Field I didn't play and uh I mean that was hard for me a hard adjustment and then um I got to thank Lort because uh Tommy told the world that I was his left fielder and uh and he said no matter what you do you're my left fielder well that taught me how to instill confidence in some of my players regardless of what the public thought or or even sometime at the front office thought if I believed in you then then U you I believe they would re you know the Harvest and then that next year I mean that year after Tommy Le to me cuz I played I mean I had play on one leg for about the whole time I was here and uh but you know playing on one leg is something that can't guarant us how I played with pain and not that I was great player I a good player but but the great players they know how to play in pain and uh just like Steve Garvey I remember he used to get used to have migraines and this guy would you know play with migraines and so um you know I I I learned a lot from you know my teammates especially would you say Hank garon had the greatest influence on your career yes um Hank you know he got me when I was a kid you know he told my mother that he would take care of me as if I was his own son and so he made me go to church made me you know get up and eat breakfast all the things that young 18 year olds that tell everybody tell the world I'm grown now I can do it I want even if it's wrong and so hey you know was a guy like my dad you know couldn't lie to him yet tell the truth and uh and you know I use that throughout my whole life and uh other than my dad passing the morning my wife came and told me that Han here pass that was devastating and I've had a couple of tough weeks um in the last month you know losing Willie Maz and losinga who was like my uncle with the um praise and Hank was like my dad and you know you can tell your dad most things but you can tell your uncle everything I he may not like it but he ain't going to go tell my dad and so you know these guys are very important in my development and very important in my my life D you've been around a lot of teams what makes this so so special here the Dodgers well um number one nobody likes it you know when you win a lot you know I mean nobody liked us I didn't like the Yankees I didn't like the Celtics but I was trying to be just like them and they win and uh you know that's what was bothering me with the Braves is that U you know I hated losing and then I married my daughter asked me one time she goes you know she goes dead I must you went all the time she might 6 or S 5 or six and I said I don't know I'm supposed to win she go that that's not an answer you know how the kids they that and she says well I said you know I was beating her in like Jacks and pick up tily wings and pick up sticks and stuff like that and I let it get close when I was there let her win I said they're not going to let you win in life so I'm not going to let you win now now if you beat me you beat me but I'm not going to not going to let you win and I might have created a monster cuz now she's like now she wants to wear bad everything including a couple sessions with me any days you wish you were still on the bench pardon me any days you wish you were still on the bench um yeah sometimes uh not often you know cuz I'm I'm 75 years old I didn't want to be on a bench at 70 that that was my goal not to be ET said but I had three stance of two years uh at a time when I couldn't get a job no job offer so it was really uh you know I ended at 74 and so with those six years of I lost was you know equivalent to getting off at at 70 now if I could um if I could come to the ballpark like uh 6:30 for a 7:00 game and then leave 30 minutes after the game I can do this for another 10 years did you see your bobble head yeah I saw my wife says she says look like me she says my cheeks are fatter now but I thinner face and I didn't have my Afro sticking out the front cuz my daddy used to get on me all the time about the afro you tell me I look like B little clown boy cut the hair off clown anybody here old enough BSO clown his was R hey Dusty you uh interacting with you know the highest profile people can you describe what it was like playing in LA and Tommy bringing all those people in and you guys you know kind of playing up to that but still being focused well you know like Tommy Tommy's the one who talk I mean you go in his office there could be Don rck be ca there could be anybody in tomas's office and U you know that happened to me once I became I was like damn I like Tommy and then I'd always have food there Tommy always had food you know like get feeding with players and uh you know when you're in La man I mean I remember like Rob Lo his little little boy you know and you know all the guys us come around and and and they love baseball you know they love the Dodgers and uh you know it was pretty cool I mean my daughter you know she was eight n years old she still was in love with the Mario was name Lopez oh yeah and he'd call the house and she'd be like Dad did they ask about me I said no but uh yeah it was um you know like when I was here for the All-Star game um Snoop had a had a had called me and and then you know um had agreed to manage the allar I mean to be one of my honorary coaches but you know the B ass too late but the league you know wouldn't do it and then next thing I know I see Snoop on NFL football and Monday Night Football and now I see him on on on the world in front of the world at the Olympics so um yeah I know some high profile profile people but you know buying glow stores they're just regular people and that's you know that's how yes please share vasi you know F that through 10 year something yeah and then up I think St uh it got started um by one fan and he would throw me Bubble Yum every day and uh you know he's a good man I don't think he's still alive and he used to thr bubble gum every day and then everybody started throwing me bubble gum cuz then I was using bubble gum instead of Toothpick and so um I would pick his gum out and and and chew it and I wouldn't chew the rest of him you know I didn't know somebody put an LSD in it nobody believe and so U yeah one I think his name was AR yeah the fan that bring me B every day and the little kids you know I chew theirs and uh cuz I love you know I like kids that's the final weekend of the 77 season everybody's looking forward to the playoffs but that 30 home run Club was still yet to be completed what do you remember about that weekend going into the final three games with the Astros with the other three guys having already reached that uh well I think it was the final four I thought I think we ended started on the thir and um regie Smith he had his 30 pengin had his 30 gar had his 30 but gar was going for 200 years and then um renie told um Jr Richard who was pishing on Sunday who I never get a home run off of I was going to hit a home run off of him I said reie this guy need anymore I mean this got to like strike me out three times and then come around and get me and me want to go to a club and I said I said get in he said hey man the game's over I said for you you want stuck me out three times it ain't over for me I'm still pissed off and so um it happened I think I had a b Off the Wall off right center I thought that was it and I was tired guard was tired and then the last next to the last event there was some dudes gambling on the Dugout that I was going to hit it or not hit it and I can tell I came in I line drive to left and then I follow into the catch GL the second of that guys thr the money so then when I hit the Homer the other gu took all the money and uh you know I I I use that in my managerial career where I would play guys up until without over playing them to the end of the game versus giving them days off because I was tired but gar and I were sharp going into the World Series where penguin and and Reggie weren't as sharp but they were sharp in in the World Series but G and I were sharp in the first Series game so you know I try to call from my past you know to use it in PR Dusty how are you enjoying your retirement oh yeah I mean it's cool I'm I'm busy I'm always busy you know and uh um you know I do a lot around the house I I live on 5 Acres there's always something to do and uh I um I haven't fished as much as I wanted to you know I got a couple businesses and manine business that I I was really trying to you know ramp up and I go see my son probably once a month go see him in Rochester come leaving next week to go to Montana and then spend three or 4 days there and then go see my son and Scranton and in Lehigh Valley and I must admit it's tougher watching play was for me ever to manage your play now I know how my dad felt you know you watching your watching your kid play thank you