Is Shohei the GOAT? Shohei's a GOAT. Shohei's a GOAT. I'll tell you this. Barry Bonds is the best hitter I've ever seen. But as far as best player, he is by far the GOAT. There's just no one close. I'm in time. What's up, guys? Mystic Zach here. Welcome back to episode 11 of Double Coverage. Today, I am honored and privileged to be joined by Doc, a.k.a. Dave Roberts, the manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers, four-time World Series champion, and a future Hall of Famer. Zach, what's going on, man? Yeah, this is good. I'm a big fan of you, and you remind me of some of my players, the smart ones that have vision, that know how to handle themselves, and then that have success. And so for me, it's good to kind of connect with you, have a good conversation. And I'm excited for this thing to go any different, a lot of different ways. We're ready. We're ready to zig and zag and kind of get to the core of it all. But I think you got to drop a few names. Who are your favorite players on this team? Yeah, you know, I've got an embarrassment of riches. You do. First and foremost, it's hard not to start with Shohei Otani. and this guy is not only a generational player i i just think he's a uh one of one and people use the term goat one of one a lot but a guy that can do what he does and then kind of take on the world the burden of being the face of baseball um it's pretty special so throwing 100 miles an hour hitting 50 homers stealing 50 bases yeah um face of baseball shohei otani mookie bets this dude has bowled a dozen 300 games. He is a three index in golf. He can shoot threes, not like Steph, but it looks like Steph. He's won MVPs in baseball, been an all-star for nine years, won four rings. So Mookie Betts, it's hard not to love him and think so highly of him. Freddie Freeman, there's no better clutch player than Freddie Freeman. You know, Will Smith, I call him Vanilla because he's our catcher, and he's just a stud, and he wants no – there's no self-promotion. Clayton Kershaw is the GOAT, just retired this year. So every baseball fan, Dodger fan knows Clayton. 18 years with the same team. How could you not, Zach? How could you not? I don't know if you know, but he played baseball with Matthew Stafford. And he played baseball with Matthew Stafford. Every single NFL game Matthew Stafford throws that fact out there. No, that's right. But the thing is, though, is that towards the end when Clayton was going to retire, this was his last year, Matthew was at a lot of his games that he started, and those two guys were on the same high school baseball team. That's crazy, and they still got love for each other. So I've been blessed with a lot of great players. No, it's certainly an embarrassment of riches. And, you know, we start with Shohei. It's so hard to encapsulate what he does because there's nobody that's analogous to what the guy is doing. There's nobody. I mean, we go back to Babe Ruth, but I'm like, it's like Patrick Mahomes, if he was a lockdown cornerback. Like, I don't know. How do you kind of describe Shohei Itani to a casual observer? I think the thing is, is that it's like two people in one. And I say that because, you know, we win the World Series this year. He starts game seven. He goes almost three innings, doesn't have his best stuff, gives up a three-run home run to Bichette and Bo Bichette. He then has to recalibrate, compartmentalize that he's not pitching anymore. Now focus on the hitting. He gets two hits in that game, gets on base a third time, still is still a good teammate because if you think about this, you start a game, you don't pitch well, you're out mentally. But he has to have the capacity to still post as a hitter. And so essentially you're two people. So then as he gets ready for a major league game, you're getting ready from the savage killer part of it as a pitcher because you control the game because you're pitching. But on the other side, you're getting ready as a hitter to be ready to take on five at bats. And then not only that is every single player in the ballpark that paid money that night is there to watch him. And you're not talking about just the U.S. You're talking about all of Japan. And so to have to take that on, no one's done that. You know what I'm saying? And you've got Patrick Mahomes, who is unbelievable, but then now he's not playing middle linebacker or he's Deion Sanders on an island, right? It's like if he was Patrick Sertain, too. That's right. That's right. Yeah. Because now you're talking about a quarterback that's on the offensive, and then now you've got to go and think about the defense and be locked down. So he's one of one. And he's stealing bases. I mean, unbelievable. And then you recently told a story about him paying for his teammates' mother's cancer treatment. That's right. That's right. And this was under the radar that I kind of blew the whistle on this a few years ago because, you know, a guy we had in camp. And, you know, I try to do things, Zach, early on in spring training and try to get our team together because in spring training, there's a lot of players, right? So pitchers, hitters, veterans, young players, relievers, starters. so my job is to try to make this whole thing work so what i try to do is introduce a player and i get to introduce a player tell about the player make jokes about the player make them do some funny things light hazing so i don't want to get canceled it's just light it's all in fun and so one of our players said his mom's going through a bout of cancer and then so shohei on the down low donate a ton of money for the care because they weren't getting the care and so i saw the mom in the World Series because he's now one of his brothers now with the Blue Jays, and she sought me out and really thanked me for that and Shohei as well. Yeah, that's incredible. Love it. Incredible story. And we started the interview, you said embarrassment of riches. Now that can come with its challenges as well, right? I mean, you're managing a nucleus of personalities of superstars. We haven't, to my knowledge, seen a roster with this type of capabilities. So talk to me about managing this team the past two seasons, winning World Series, and kind of what you've had to overcome. I think the thing is that, and I appreciate you asking the question, because I think that fans, media, everyone loves talent. Because I think that what makes special players and the attention is because people can't do it, right? And so the trick is every player has got to feel that they're valued. They've got to get theirs, understand their value, which I completely understand. But to win championships, you've got to figure out how to make those individual great pieces work together for the best interest of the group, the team. I manage the Los Angeles Dodgers. So how can we say, okay, the ultimate goal is to win a championship, but along the way, this marathon of a journey, this climbing of a mountain, along the way, you're going to get your flowers at certain points, but we still got to be mindful of the goal. So, yeah, and I mentioned Freddie, Mookie, Shohei. I think for me, I'm just fortunate because those guys, our superstars, are the best workers. They're the most humble players I have. And so I think that from that, it just sort of top-down feeds it. But, yeah, I still got to make sure that, you know, Freddie is valued and Shohei gets his value. But it certainly, Zach, makes my job a lot easier. but it's not easy because everyone's got egos and you know when I have a job that if we don't win the championship the world series one of 30 teams we failed and there's nothing in any sport no team has the the expectation that the Los Angeles Dodgers have no certainly you're not helping and yeah yeah we're not helping we've won two in a row and and you know it's funny Z is we went to, we went to, we had the second parade. And so we're in Los Angeles and all I could see along in the city of Los Angeles is three P three P three P. Yeah. No, we're expecting the three P I'm like, Hey man, we're, this is a parade for, for number two back to back. So, but that's, that's what we set ourselves up for. It's all good. No, absolutely. And other teams are spending as well. It's not like the Dodgers are the only ones spending. I mean, we saw the New York Mets and what they did last summer and some early success, but obviously don't end up winning at all. but we've seen across all major sports this dream team moniker, teams spend the salary cap and not get it done. I mean, I recall the Philadelphia Eagles being dubbed the dream team, and it goes up in flames. They don't make the playoffs. The cast of characters, the personalities becomes too much. In basketball, we saw the Phoenix Suns get Kevin Durant and Devin Booker. We saw the Nets have James Harden, Kyrie Irving, Kevin Durant. I mean, these teams, it's hard to fathom how they don't work out, But you need the right type of leader to kind of blend the personalities and make sure that things go smooth. You do. You do. And I think the thing of it, which I've been managing for 10 years and we've won three championships, I'm very grateful for and very proud of. But I do think that it's about the fans, the interest. And I do think that with guys like yourself and social media and just fans in general, when you can put together, when ownership groups of different sports can put together dream teams or whatever they want to call it, I do think that it piques the interest of the fan and you give yourself a better chance to win. But also on the business side, you're selling tickets and people are watching. There's better viewership. So, you know, when you're getting great teams in the NFL, you're getting great teams put together in the NBA. Only one team can win. And when you're doing the same thing in baseball, again, there's only one winner. But I do think that the ride this season makes it much more fun for everyone watching. Yeah. And a lot of critics have called out you guys for your tons of spending, right? Billion-dollar payroll. But I thought you had a really good rebuttal that I like you to expand on talking about that teams should have a minimum spend My hometown Marlins don spend anything So talk to me about that and kind of how a salary cap could be implemented in baseball Yeah, you know, it's going to be interesting because, you know, when I was talking to Kevin Hart about this, it was like, you know what, and Kenan Thompson, it was like, I do think that I have an opinion. I have a right to an opinion. There's two sides because obviously you're looking at the ownership side and the owners you know want to manage spending and this is just a rudimentary kind of way of thinking about it they want to kind of suppress control spending control it and then on the player side they want free will free spending and you know they don't want a ceiling and they want a free market and so I was a former player I'm now a manager my number one thing is I'm a baseball fan so I think for me it's to each his own but I do think that you know I want competition and I think we all want competition so you want parity so every market whether you're the Marlins as you mentioned you're the Yankees and Mets you're the Cubs and you got the White Sox in Chicago as well or you're the Pirates any team the Oakland A's Sacramento A's going to be in Las Vegas now you want parity so So I think for me, I love spending. I think the fans deserve it. What I can speak to is the Dodgers. We drew 4 million fans last year, which is more than any sports franchise in the world. Wow. Bar none. And so what we do is we put a lot of our money back into the players, you know, from TV contracts to ticket sales. We put that back. And I think that's what all players respect. and so I don't know how the inner workings for every ball club is but I do feel Z that baseball is in the best place that it's ever been in and for me again number one as a baseball fan I don't want a stoppage in play I want to keep that momentum going because I think that the players deserve it I think the fans deserve it absolutely and you spoke about your playing career you had a decade-long career most notably helped capture the World Series for the Red Sox 2004 While you're playing, are you thinking about a coaching career post-ball? Not at all. I was, at that point in time, I was a guy that signed for $1,000 out of UCLA. I bet on myself to be a recruited walk-on to UCLA. I went through the minor leagues for five years, and then I had an opportunity, got traded from the Dodgers to the Red Sox, and played with a bunch of superstars. superstars Pedro Martinez David Ortiz Johnny Damon Kurt Schilling you name it and we had a we had a great team when the World Series Manny Ramirez and 2004 I was a bench player at that time was a starter with the Dodgers and relegated to the bench but I just said you know what I'm going to be the best teammate I possibly can at an opportunity to steal a big base against the Yankees and wasn't afraid to fail and I was called safe we ended up winning eight straight games in a row come back down 3-0 to the Yankees and the ALCS win four in a row that was game four and then sweep the Cardinals in four and I think the Red Sox nation just felt that Dave Roberts stolen base was the turning point of that postseason so that's why I think it's kind of like footnoted there and I'm always looked at and good in a good light from that fan base. You don't have to buy drinks there. I don't have to buy drinks there. So I think for me, it was like, yeah, I bet on myself and I had an opportunity. I wasn't afraid to fail. And that's a message I think that, you know, I really believe in. Yeah, absolutely. So when do you, when do you get the idea to get into coaching? When does that happen? So I go play, and then not a lot of people know this is after I retired in 2008, I was going to retire. I was done. So I was 36 years old at that time. And then I did a year of broadcasting. So I got behind the mic for a minute, and I did some Red Sox baseball games. I did some radio. And then I felt like I wanted to be a part of it. That just wasn't me. I spent my whole life being in the clubhouse, on the field. And then so the next year I did some front office stuff. So I wanted to get kind of a different perspective. So I worked in the front office for the San Diego Padres. My home is San Diego. So that was convenient. So I did that, and I got to a bigger 10,000, 20,000 view of how baseball works, which was helpful for me. And then the next year in 2010, I got diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma. So that was a big time in my life where I had cancer. I have two young kids. And when anyone hears cancer, they're like, I'm going to. And so that was scary for me. And then I ended up having chemotherapy, radiation, and beat cancer. So I'm a cancer survivor. Congratulations. Thank you, Z. I appreciate that. So I survived cancer. and then the next year I got offered a major league coaching job with the San Diego Padres and then from that point I coached in the big leagues for five years and that's where it started my coaching career which I never foresaw I was sort of just live my life day-to-day job-to-job and try to keep my focus narrow got it but coming out of high school you also had a football offer I did man I was uh my bad knees and we're here hanging out right now and my knees just don't work like they used to but I was an option quarterback so I could run a little bit so I was uh I was gonna go play football at the Air Force Academy and um I love football I still love football um it's my first love my passion I don't think I would have been the baseball player I would of the grit the toughness if i didn't have a football background but at the end of the day my father was it was in the marines or at served in the marines and he was like son don't do this for me don't go to the service the air force for me you gotta love the service to go through all that entails and he goes if you want to go to college and go the regular route go for it and then that's all I needed to hear so Zach I met my uh senior class given my senior class speech and I'm prepared to go to uh the Air Force Academy and then a couple weeks later I had to call Air Force and say hey I'm not going to go there I'm going to you know try something else and so at that point I'm basically knocking on doors at colleges saying I want to play baseball for you and will you take me? Wow. And you end up at UCLA. I end up at UCLA because Coach Adams said, we don't have any money for you, but we'll take you. I got into school myself on my own merit, and so I didn't get any scholarship money and had to earn my way. Do you think going through that still positively affects you as a player in the major leagues, you as a manager, just battling that adversity, not always having everything given to you? having to be a walk-on having to fight for your spot i do i do and you know and i'm not some old guy some curmudgeon guy i'm not at all i love the youth i love guys you know people making it happen as younger people but i will say that you know i was never a person that tried to chase short money um and i think that for me the foundational hard work you know put your head down and just grind and it's not going to be linear. There's going to be tough things that happen in your life and you've got to continue to persevere. I do think that helped me in my career. I think it also helps me as a manager of people and also of a baseball team because 162 is a lot of games. There's a lot of highs and lows. And then also when you've got the postseason, you've got expectation of the Dodgers. So to get the highest of highs in April, than to kind of go down, that doesn't play. You've got to be able to be consistent. I do think that kind of my path helped me. Absolutely. Talk to me about the balance of you as a manager between analytics, which we all know about Sabermetrics. We saw Moneyball. We've seen the introduction of that into the sport. And just trusting your gut, being around baseball so long. I think that it's a balance. analytics data information facts all five of those words it's the same thing they're all the same thing they all mean the same thing it's just how you want to say it they all have their place in all sports in all industries not just sports finance real estate whatever you want to talk about I think it's a good baseline to have but I think at the end of the day and I think the Analytics is a longer-term situation because you need a longer, a bigger sample size to make the numbers play out. But I think that in one particular moment when you make a decision, whether it's going forward on fourth down, whether it's pinch hitting for somebody, whether it's me taking out a pitcher, whether it's going to a guy when you've got five seconds left on the clock, you're going with your gut because you're betting on people. and I think that for me it's taken time to really appreciate that I don't really know a situation of how to say is it 50-50 is it 60-40 it's case by case but I do think that the analytics is a good kind of barometer on how I kind of manage my club but then at the end of the day you're betting on people to make plays what was a moment for you this postseason where you bet on someone to make a play? A moment. I bet on Miguel Rojas. I bet on Miguel Rojas, who's a veteran player from Venezuela. He's got 10 years of service. You know he was a utility guy for us I just love Miggy Rowe And he wasn playing in the postseason starting but I felt we were down 3 to the Blue Jays going to Toronto and I said you know what? I'm going to bet on Miguel Rojas. I need to bet on Miguel Rojas. And nothing in analytics would say that I would bet when Max Scherzer, future Hall of Fame, was starting that game that he should play, and then they had a bullpen game in Game 7. If there was going to be a Game 7, Miguel Rojas should play. But I said, I'm going to bet on this guy. He made a couple big defensive plays, and he hit the big tying home run against their closer in game seven in the ninth inning to tie the game. That was all gut. Wow. Is that something you've picked up in your now 10 years experience as a manager, or were you always kind of going with your gut? I've learned. I think earlier on my career, I would go more on the analytic side. because I think in anything, when you're trying to establish yourself and you've got critics or bosses and media, you have to kind of not do things the right way, but there's more of a careful part of it because a lot of things have to sort of make sense, and right or wrong. But when you go rogue or you're going with your gut, it's not quantifiable. and when you're trying to establish yourself, that's hard to justify. And I'm not apologizing for it. That's real life. But then when you've kind of supplanted yourself, cemented yourself in a certain role, you've got more grace. You've got more latitude. And again, that's just not my job. That's any job. Yeah, no, you have a longer leash when you win three World Series championships. You have more leash. And so I think that that's kind of played into it. But it's also helped me, and I've continued to gain the respect of, people that I work for, people that I work with, my players. And I'm proud of that, that I've been able to evolve. I love that. And it shows in all sports. Coach Belichick, I mean, as he had evolved success, ends up becoming the general manager, making all the roster decisions. So that leash becomes longer and you gain the trust. Coach Belichick is the greatest coach of all time. And nothing against Vince Lombardi or anybody else. But with what he's done, but whether he was from the Jets or early on the Patriots, he was a different guy. And that comes with kind of understanding who you are as a man, as a leader of men, as a coach, and then also getting that leash. And that's part of it. It wasn't always his way or the highway. It wasn't. And so as he started to get better and get great, he had that respect. Look what he does with Lawrence Taylor and the Giants and then the Patriots. And people don't – he was general manager. He was finding that talent. I mean, you look at the 2017, they're going defeated. but Vince Wilfork and all these guys, they don't grow on trees. You had to go out and drop them. So Rodney Harrison, there's so many great defenders on those rosters that he went out and got as a defensive guy to surround Brady. That's right. And then even like you're talking about Saban, I went to Alabama to watch an Alabama game a month ago. Coach DeBoer is a good friend of mine. So Alabama's got a big game this week in the Rose Bowl, and I had the pleasure of being Coach Saban. Coach Saban, early on his career, he would not have taken out Jalen Hurts and then put in Tua at halftime. You know what I'm saying? That's a bold move. It is. In a national championship game. But then he was Nick Saban at the time where it didn't matter what he did, and if it didn't work, he's still Nick Saban the GOAT. Yeah, he is. We've got to test your knowledge. We've got a big-time week coming up in the NFL. We've got some really big matchups here. I mean, most notably Saturday, the San Francisco 49ers taking on the Seattle Seahawks. It's going to be in Santa Clara. 49ers coming off a nail-biting victory over the Chicago Bears. What's your analysis on this matchup, Dave? You know, I don't know the line. It's close. It's close. We're going to do a money line today. Okay, money line. Seattle's tough up there at home. It's going to be San Francisco. Oh, San Francisco. So I got San Francisco all day. I think Brock Purdy is playing some really good football. Not having Fred Warner, the anchor on the defense, has certainly taken a hit, but I like the Niners at home. Yeah, I think it's going to be tough for them coming off this Chicago Bears game. I think it took a lot out of them. It did, it did, and that's a physical game. Yeah, and you've got to remember, this game's also going to be on Saturday. Yep, yep, that's absolutely fair. I'll still take the Niners at home. All right, yeah, the Niners, obviously, pretty, you know, a lot of success. I've been a big Seahawks guy all year, so early on, I touted them. I looked at the plus 1,300 winning the NFC. I said, this is a great value. go out, take it. They're being overlooked. They don't necessarily have the big name stars that these other NFC teams do, but they've been pretty dang good since then. Done their thing. Darnold, I think, proven a lot of people wrong these past few seasons. And I love this defense. I love that you get DeMarcus Lawrence from the Dallas Cowboys. I love that you pair him with Leonard Williams. You take that swing. You trade for him when a lot of people said they gave up too much. And then Witherspoon at cornerback, been dominant, locked down. I have a feeling the 49ers don't see the same success they did against Chicago, I think the Seahawks win a close one. I like that. I can see it. I can see it. I mean, the winner's atop the NFC. It's a huge game. No, absolutely. And I absolutely can see that. Smith and Jigba, he's a baller. That's the part that worries me. It's JSN or the highway. It is. It is. That's right. That's right. It really is. In the history of the NFL, seldom do you find a team whose air yards are hogged by as much as JSN hogs their air yards. Yeah, you're right. There's very little else. Very little else. And that's like a little bit of like what Justin Jefferson was, you know, for, you know, with Minnesota. But, yeah, if we could take him, we, I say if the Niners can take him out. We. I'm a Southern California guy. I'm not going to say we. We. But, yeah, we'll see. It'll be a good one, though. You know, it'll be a great one. And then the other big one to me that jumps off the map, Raven Steelers. I mean, DK Metcalf out. He has that incident with a fan. did you ever have fans taunting you? Were you ever tempted to pull a DK Metcalf? All the time, man. Man, I wanted that so many times. And I guess I had opportunity because there weren't camera phones early on in my career and social media. So I should have taken my shots. But especially in baseball, man, and you're in an 0 for 4, 0 for 8. You punch out. And you got these fans right by the dugout just wearing you out. You just want to go up there and take them out. So you don't ever want to condone what DK did, but I've been wanting to do that at certain times, though. But it's going to be a good one. I think, I don't know how the Steelers lost that game. I'm a Steeler fan. I know those guys. Oh, you are? Yeah, because I'm more a fan of the coaches. They were more focused on stopping Myles Garrett than they were scoring points. Yeah, yeah. But, yeah, that's fair. But stopping Myles Garrett, you know, you could argue that that facilitates or gives you a better opportunity. You would imagine. You would think. They just didn't play well, but obviously not having DK certainly helped. They didn't have anyone to go to, and it's going to be a good one, and it always seems in that division it comes down to the Ravens and the Steelers. Yeah, so do you think Mike Tomlin can pull it? It's at Pittsburgh. I got Coach Tomlin, man. And you know what's funny is that this guy has done nothing but win, and it's crazy that people think that he just forgot how to coach. Yeah, no, people want him fired. They want him fired. And it's just like he is unbelievable and players still got to make plays. And, you know, he's always going to back his players, but Mike Tomlin hasn't forgotten how to coach. And so, you know, this one game at home for the division, I'll take Coach Tomlin. Yeah, I mean, 18 straight winning seasons and the fans are calling for his job. Yep. That's sports though. That's sports. That's sports. And you can even look at it, Kansas City. Not that they're calling for Coach Reed's job, but what Kansas City has done is unprecedented in the NFL. I've seen people say he's passed it now because of this season. Yeah, and I'll argue that that's the thing about coaching is, you know, on the playing side, there's a father time component where you get into your mid 30s and you're really going downhill. But on the coaching side, the experience part of it, the older you get. And I think that you're operating at the optimum capacity when you are in your early 60s because that's when you're fully functional. And they talk about guys, we mature a lot slower than girls. and we don't really develop until 25, and that's when we start to begin, right? Yeah. And so right in the early 60s, I think that's when you're peaking. So Coach Tomlin, Coach Reed, they're still great coaches. That's scary for the MLB. You've still got some years left. Oh, yeah. I don't know how long I'm going to do it for, but I got four years of a contract, and then we'll go from there. All right, all right. I've got the Baltimore Ravens. I'm sorry. Okay. I think they're going to send you guys packing. Man, we're on both sides. Yeah, we are. You got Tech in college You got Seattle Road Dog And then now you got the Ravens I do have the Ravens I think I feel the strongest about them Derrick Henry in the cold Hopefully at some point Hopefully we can agree on something If I try your wine I'd probably agree it's pretty great Talk to me about Red Stitch and your love of wine And your vineyard So I think that As a player in the big leagues I played for 10 years and you've been hustling since you were in high school and doing your thing. And so to be great at something, you've got to be laser focused, right? So when I took a trip up to the Napa Valley in 2002 with Sean Green, my teammate, and his wife, Lindsay, and my wife, I was up in Napa and I went and met the vineyard, the winemakers, the vineyard owners, and tasting through wine. And I didn't like wine. I was a beer drinker. you know in college you're drinking beer and tequila whatever you're drinking bad tequila but I was up there and you're you're drinking wine and the weather was great up there and my wife looks at me goes something's different about you and I'm like what are you talking about she's like you're present and I was like oh damn I am present and like I wasn't caring about a phone I was like into the conversations I was asking dumb questions about wine and grapes because I didn know anything and I look back and I was like I love how I feel Yeah And so she calls me Napa Dave to this very day where it like I in the season She like man I wish Napa Dave was here, you know, because I'll call, check in, check a box and not really hear an answer. But so once I was done playing, I was like, I got to get into wine in some capacity. so I hit up my good friend John Mysick and his wife Noelle and Rich Aurelia and his then wife so Richie and I were teammates and then so we started this venture called Red Stitch Wine and so my brother-in-law Chad named the wine Red Stitch because it's the stitches on a baseball and then so we start out with Napa Cabernet we got a Pinot Noir and we got Chardonnay so it's red stitch the stitch on the baseball it's fantastic wine and when i'm drinking wine where i'm having hanging out i'm present and i like that feeling has lebron tried it yet so lebron uh i sent a case of our cab to lebron about three years ago and i'm still waiting on a thank you oh so uh lebron if you're listening i'm still waiting on the thank you and uh i'm gonna be seeing you guys play the Pistons tomorrow night. And then I got more Red Stitch for you. How about that? Yeah, you deserve a thank you. I think you should do like an Instagram review maybe. Yeah, right. He's a big-time wine guy. Because he's a big wine guy. So he's into wine. He's the GOAT. I'm into golf. He's getting into golf. So we got a lot of things that we are similar. You're calling LeBron the GOAT. Well, I mean, so Michael's my guy. Okay. Michael's my guy. So I think that, but again, I think Steph Curry's a goat. They're all goats. You know what? And now I'm being political. They are all great. So, but if you had to go one, it's Michael. Okay, good. We're on the same page. I got to go, Mike. Thank you. So the Outdoor Golf League, talk to me about that as well. Your rep, so is the hat, is that? No, this is. That's Dodgers upside down. This is Dodgers. This is the brand that. You got drip. This is a, yeah, this is like, I got a little drip This is a present from my son And so my son knows this brand It's an LA brand Keep up with the hype, right? Something like that, yeah Keep the hype You know, you're a young buck Yeah, I like it So I got a little drip right here So, yeah, so I'm into golf And so we got this Grass clippings In Phoenix and so we turned this Rolling Hills golf course into a part three night golf. So we can play golf in the day, but we got lights, we got music, it's a vibe. And so I invested in that. And then, so that's crushing it. So when you're flying into Phoenix, you see the lights on, you're playing. And during spring training, I get the athletes, the baseball players, and get them there. They're playing all throughout the spring and basketball players are playing during their season. And are you attending? I'm attending. and then that turned from the grass clippings, the golf course itself, into a grass league. So I'm a member of the LA Roses, and we just won the last tournament. And so Mark Wahlberg is an owner. We got 12 to 14 teams. Marky Mark's a member. So it's a great league, and it's kind of like following the Tiger, the F1, just different leagues that are kind of coming out on their own. So it's blown up. No, double coverage. We're going to head out there. We're going to cover this thing. Double coverage comes out. I'll take you guys out. You guys can do it from there. It's part three, so you don't get too beat up. If you can't swing a golf club, cocktails, music, Arizona, and the winner is perfect. I'm in. I'm down. Yeah. Last thing. We talked about goats and basketball. Is Shohei the goat? Shohei's a goat. Shohei's a goat. I'll tell you this. Barry Bonds is the best hitter I've ever seen. I can't speak to Babe Ruth, can't speak to Mickey Mantle, Ted Williams, you know, all these guys. Orlando Cepeda, Roberto Clemente. But Barry Bonds is the best hitter I've ever seen. But as far as best player, most talented player, he is by far the GOAT. There's just no one close. Thank you. Oh, yeah, adversity. Yeah, so, you know, and I've talked about my successes, but how do you, I just think that, you know, you and I touched on a little bit where it's like there's successes, but there's also a lot of failures. Yeah. And it's funny is that whether I, you know, started you, Darvish, in 17 and he doesn't pitch well, could I be blamed for that? But we find out later they're stealing signs. There's times that I brought in relief pitchers and big spots and they don't perform. And it's looked at as a failure, but I've done a lot of things and had the same process that worked out and their successes. So a lot of things I think for me is, you can go back and look at the internet, You can go back print media and say all the different times that I failed or things didn't go our way. And I take the brunt of the blame. But honestly, I think for me is the process has to be sound. And I don't just try to go rogue. And there's a process. And whether it's a belief in a player that might not necessarily add up to analytics, but it's something it's still a process that I go through with coaches and I make a decision. And I'm just trying to think of certain things that didn't go well. I just honestly said, F it. And I think whether it's me having cancer and going, F it, I'm going to beat this. Whether it's I'm on first base in game four, we're down a run, Mariano Rivera's pitching, and if I get thrown out, we lose. We're eliminated in the postseason, but I said, F it. whether I bring in a pitcher. I'll tell you this, Zach. There was a pitcher this year in the postseason. I took him out, Emmitt Sheehan, a young prospect pitcher, in the middle of an at-bat against the Cincinnati Reds in the wild card series, in the middle of an at-bat, because I felt I had a guy in the bullpen warming up, and I felt Emmitt wasn't going to be able to get this left-hand hitter at that moment in time. And I just said, F it. It was unorthodox, but I said, F it. I'm going to do it because I feel it. But if that guy would have come in and given up a home run, I would have been a clown. Yeah. But I just said, F it. I'm going to do it. And it worked out. He struck the guy. Alex Vessia struck the guy out. And so there's things that I guess to a point that, you know what, you have your journey and you're crushing it, but at the same point it's like you can't worry about what other people think. and I think I don't know when that really point of happened in my life but I just sort of live my life that I just can't chase validation from people yeah I it's so hearing you say that I felt the exact same way in my career you know where like even you know the handful of massive decisions that I've made the one time I didn't go with what I truly felt that wasn't my gut it's the one that panned out the worst so after that like when i like you know confide with my family and friends i say zach you know when we went away from what you wanted we saw what happened so what do you think right you're always right and uh i feel very similar yeah well said before we head out what's one thing about dave roberts that nobody knows gosh one thing that that uh people don't know um i'm a foodie but people might know that because you you're gonna pair wine with food um i'm half japanese so i definitely love to sleep um i can say that about japanese people because i'm japanese i loved i love my naps um you know uh i love naps as well do you think i could be half japanese you know what man you know what yeah you might be half japanese i'm a big nap guy yeah you you might uh yeah what i'm kind of an open book um i did i might have gotten a little bit of trouble when i was at ucla um when i was at ucla i was a freshman and i was living in a dorm me and my buddy were uh playing catch with a football in the dorm on i think the third floor so he hits the sprinkler because i'm in this we're in the studio right now and there's these sprinklers right there and so uh my buddy hits his sprinkler zach i'm telling you it gushed out and it started flooding the floor oh my god and so we both bolted the other way opposite ways down the stairwell flood the whole dorm and we're trying to contemplate do we tell our you know tell ourselves and admit that it was us or do we just act like we don't know what the heck happened why this dorm was flooded. So we ended up confessing, and I ended up having 40 hours of community service. We flooded the entire dorm, and the people said, if I wouldn't have told, we would have got kicked out of UCLA. That was my first quarter at UCLA. So that's something I try to keep under wraps, that my GPA, I don't want to talk about my GPA my first quarter, but I got better after my first quarter, and I flooded Sproul Hall at UCLA. So I had a rocky start to UCLA. There you go. Dave, appreciate you Thank you for your time We'd love to run it back And we're going to hit that golf league Oh, 100% And we're going to pop open this red stitch No, we're going to pop open this red stitch We're going to start with some Pinot We've got BJ waiting in the wings Yeah, BJ's waiting in the wings Yeah, and we've got Neville back there from Orange County He's half Japanese So we've got people on the set And we learned that I am And then we're going to get you drinking some wine too Okay, alright, let's do it Napa Zach Napa Zach
