CAMELBACK RANCH, AZ — NOTE: Manager Dave Roberts addressed the Dodgers in the clubhouse at Camelback Ranch on Tuesday, the first official day of full team workouts. Rather than give a ton of editorial comments, let’s just let Doc have the floor and speak for himself:
We play for something bigger than ourselves. And that’s something that you guys all got to wrap your heads around because in this world, in this day, it’s always about self-promotion yourselves. But if you can play for your teammates and play for something bigger, what do I tell you, Miggy? The game honors you. Where’s Miguel at? >> The game honors you.
You guys got to believe that you’re the best option in every moment, in the biggest of moments. When you’re a Dodger, people want to take us down. They want to beat us. And I said it earlier, it’s a Game 7. So, I think that we’ve got to look ahead and say that this is going to be harder than it’s ever been and we got to work even harder. And so, my ask as a team, as an organization, is to push ourselves even more.
We already got the talent. I don’t think there’s any more talent. There isn’t any more talent in a major league clubhouse than in this room. Guys, we got to be prepared to play through October.
And it’s not easy. It’s not easy. It takes a lot of discipline, a lot of hard work, and it takes trust. The challenge is for each and every one of you guys to put yourselves in a state to be prepared when the opportunity presents itself.
I told the pitchers this the other day. I said there’s something about an athlete that you have to believe that you’re better than you are. Love it. You have to. But the great ones can also look really honestly with themselves and go, you know what? I’m afraid I need to get better at this. I need to get better at that. How can I be that guy when the biggest spot, when you’re down a run and one out and you’re there to take a good at-bat and the world changes when you hit a homer, or the ball’s hit to you in left field in Game 6 and you cheat in because you’re looking for a flare. You get the ball, you double a guy up, you throw a ball and we pick it to make a double play to win Game 6, or to be summoned out of the bullpen to get a big out and get the out. Those are things that we’ve lived them.
I was talking to Justin Sua. Justin Sua works alongside Brent and he gave me this good analogy. Greyhounds. Greyhounds race, right? And so when you’re the Dodgers, you’re like a greyhound. And so the greyhounds see a rabbit. And so the greyhounds, once the rabbit goes, the greyhounds are chasing the rabbit. They’re not worried about who’s to the side. So it’s kind of like us. We’re the greyhound and all we’re doing is going forward. We’re hunting.
We used that analogy last year. People are coming after us, but we’re going to be the hunter. We’re going to keep hunting. Keep hunting. And our eyes, when eyes are to the side, you’re looking to hide. When you’re looking this way, when our eyes are in front, we’re looking to hunt. So, we’ve got to keep looking forward. Keep looking forward.
And it’s not easy, guys. I’m challenging you guys right now because it’s not easy to take 600 at-bats, to work a day after night game. And so I think for me is like let’s just keep raising the standard and keep our eyes forward. Let’s get better every single day. We got a long road, but I expect the same effort every single day.
And smart players, smart players, guys, know the importance of locking in, staying focused. If you can’t focus for 20 minutes right now, there’s no way in hell you’re going to focus for nine innings, 162 plus winning 11 games in October. No way. You got to be able to focus. Lock in. Some people it’s hard. Some people it’s easy. How you going to focus on a 28-pitch bullpen? A guy gets a big hit to then focus again and make a pitch to throw strike one, get a ground ball. You got to be able to focus, challenge yourselves. It’s not easy. It’s not easy. But this is a separator from the Dodgers.
Put youring heads down and let’s go through October every single day. Stay hungry. Stay obsessed. Let’s get after it. Put those blinders on.
Thank you very much for listening. I’m very, very grateful for every single one of you guys. No one better in the organization, in baseball, in sport. So, we’re very lucky to wear this uniform, guys. And so, I wish everyone the best and let’s have a great year. And this is our journey, our trek to a three, Kik. All right, let’s do it. All right, guys. Have a great day. Thank you very much.
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