Adrian Gonzalez Talks Dodgers Repeat, Shohei, & Speaking Out Against the ICE Raids

Athlon Sports

Adrian Gonzalez talks Dodgers, Ohtani, tough matchups & why he chose to speak out publicly.

Transcript

00:00so i'm here with adrian gonzalez former mlb all-star gold glove winner silver slugger now

00:13dodgers commentator adrian thank you for joining me today and how are you doing i'm doing great

00:17thank you thank you for having me on and uh yeah it's always good it's a it's a good day right now

00:22good weather and baseball's almost in the middle of the season so it's all good that's good to hear

00:26and let's start off with those dodgers the reigning world series champs they're gearing up for a repeat

00:31run something that we haven't seen in almost a quarter of a century what would you say stands

00:36between them and kind of ending this drought that we haven't seen since really the those that yankees

00:41team not so long ago i would say the only thing that that potentially could stand in between them and

00:47being able to repeat is a team that gets really really hot and makes all the plays and all the

00:52pitches uh in the playoffs that they you know a team that they end up facing i think uh you know

00:57if a team just kind of plays perfect baseball against them executes all their pitches gets all

01:03those key hits obviously any team can beat any team in baseball um but just when you line up the rosters

01:11when you line up the teams and and and the talent uh you know there is no team that matches that matches

01:17up with that you being around the team so much just on a day-to-day basis you get to see greatness in

01:23of course in the form of you know much of the roster but specifically shohei otani uh at the plate and

01:28now back at uh back on the mound i'm curious just what what's that kind of like to kind of be there for

01:34to see what he's doing that we have really never seen on uh done on uh on the diamond um you know i

01:40yeah i think he's he's an incredible talent um you know we we're we're starting to see him pitch

01:44again uh you know for the first time as a dodger and uh it's a lot of fun to see you know it's just

01:50it's great i mean the things that he can do offensively we saw him last year um you know we

01:55saw him just do incredible things you know uh both hitting home runs driving in runs betting for

02:02average stealing bases every all the things that he did that he does and then pitching wise i mean

02:06we're starting to see what he can do you know on the mound on the dodger side obviously we've seen

02:10it as an angel and you know we know he's one of the best pitchers in the game when you know when

02:15he's out there every fifth day but obviously the dodgers are taking taking him slow because they

02:19don't want any more injuries you know from that arm so uh they're taking care of him and they'll

02:23ramp him up as they get ready for the playoffs i understand you've been in your position as a

02:27commentator for some time now but i'm interested to hear what the transition was like for you from

02:32your playing days to uh you know just kind of being on the air uh if there were any early mishaps

02:38early on or if you just kind of were able to seamlessly put uh put the mic in front of you

02:43i i would say i'm very comfortable talking about baseball obviously you know it's what i've done

02:47it's what i know i always say i have a master's degree in baseball right i mean everybody goes to

02:52school to college for something my school was baseball so very comfortable talking about it and

02:58you know things that i had to learn in the transition was to talk keep talking when somebody's

03:04talking in your ear you know i think that that's a tough one because you're you're trying to

03:08you're trying to say something just specify something talk about somebody's mechanics

03:12and then somebody goes in your ear and says five seconds you know cut it off and you got to keep

03:17talking instead of going like huh what'd you say you know you just got to talk right through and listen

03:21and keep going and know know how to cut off a thought um when you're not done finishing your your thought

03:29you know because if you got to go to commercial break you got to go to commercial break you can't just

03:33sit there and keep going until you prove your point so that was a tough adjustment at first i

03:37got used to it the other thing was to to you know give more energy you know i think i'm a very low-key

03:44person when it comes to things but uh i've learned over time to kind of just kind of step up the energy

03:50when you're talking in front of a camera yeah i like what you said about the master's degree in

03:54baseball that's a that's a good way to put it and you're clearly clearly applying that having played

03:59for both the dodgers uh and the padres i'm curious if you could kind of compare and contrast the

04:03environment the fan bases you know your time uh you know in playing for these two uh rivals i mean

04:09two teams that are their cities are you know devoted to them you know dedicated great fan bases

04:16passionate these last few years that have been a great competition for the two of them um you know

04:24i it's it's there's there's always going to be teams that in the national league west that are

04:31you know in competition with each other that season or multiple seasons because of the talent

04:36the team i remember when i played for the padres it was the giants that that was the team that was

04:42you know we're battling with the diamondbacks was also another team where we were battling with

04:46that was going to the play of the rockies we played game 163 so like the national league west has

04:52this it's not like like the traditional al east where it's like the the yankees and the red sox are

04:57always in in it right you have teams that are in it then you have teams that are not then you have

05:03the dodgers obviously have taken another step and have you know been at the top of the division for

05:08the last 10 years within the ownership but prior to that it was it was a coin flip to see what what

05:15two teams are going to be battling it out so but it's been a lot of fun to see the padres uh ownership

05:21do what they've done and really invest in the players and then the the fan base really you know

05:26put put get behind them and get excited about that so when they do play each other it's a lot of fun

05:32and just kind of looking back uh on your career i'm curious if there's a picture that you would say

05:37you felt like you always maybe uh you know got the best of in a good matchup and kind of the inverse

05:43is there a picture that you know you just always kind of struggled to hit on these matchups yeah i mean

05:48i would say i always tell people the hardest pitcher to face in his prime was tim lindicum

05:54when he was he had like a three year three to four year span when i was with the padres that he was

06:01healthy he was in his prime he went back to backside youngs he was the hardest pitcher to hit for me

06:07at that time um he just you know the way he threw the way his ball moved the velocity at which he threw

06:13it um all that was uh was was pretty special i had i mean i had success against against a couple

06:18a couple pitchers um you know so it's it's one of those things where as a hitter you don't like to

06:24call out the picture you had success against you know just because you don't want to you know rub it

06:28in their face so uh so but i did have have quite a bit of success against two pitchers in particular

06:34all right no names that's that's fair those giants teams you know with lincecum and i remember brian

06:40wilson those were those were some fun teams i'm sure you had some some great matchups with them

06:45and i understand you're also working on this campaign here with wss can you tell me a little

06:50bit about what you're doing yeah back to school campaign with with wss i mean you know everybody

06:54needs to to be able to get ready for back to school and you know just really be able to do it do it in

07:01an affordable way and you know in a place where they can do you know non-stop shopping all all at

07:06once so wss gives gives everybody that opportunity to get ready to back to school get your shoes get

07:12your clothes you know get everything that that the family needs and uh and do it do it in in in in a

07:19place where you know you can you can get it all and and and be a bit do it in an affordable way

07:24yes yes that's that's very important and uh adrian i really appreciate your time um just have one

07:30last question for you switching gears just a little bit i saw your uh recent post in the

07:34wake of the protests in los angeles submit the ice raids um you said that you normally uh would not

07:40be speaking out but you know this was something that you felt the the urge and the need to speak on

07:45i i'm curious just what prompted you to wade into these waters and like you said speak out even though

07:49it's not uh traditionally uh maybe uh something that you would do yeah i mean you know as an athlete or

07:56or you know somebody that's working like i said in broadcast and and and things like that you want

08:01to you know you don't want to get into politics too much but uh when when you see the people you

08:08know you just you see videos of somebody in their car the window gets smashed and then they then they

08:14show their passport right they show that they're a u.s citizen right i mean you're like why are they

08:19breaking somebody's car window when they're a u.s citizen like wouldn't you want to make sure that

08:26a person is a u.s citizen and get like you know before you do something that drastic like things

08:32like that that i would see going into into a high school graduation you know it's like things things

08:38that you see and and and it's all profiling they're they're not it's it's if you look a certain way

08:44they're going to go and grab you do all these really things that they shouldn't be doing and

08:50then they'll then they'll check what you are and it's like no that's wrong and so when i saw that i

08:55was like no like that that's just wrong i can't i can't stay quiet with that of course i think like

08:59you said it's a important time to uh speak up and i appreciate you sharing more perspective on that

09:05there speaking on the campaign a little bit about your career dodgers kind of um hit on all of it so

09:10adrian again thank you so much for your time and uh you wish you the best of luck

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