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Welcome back to All the Smoke Baseball.

This is a very special and exciting interview for me.

I'm glad we finally got a chance to do it.

Someone that is from the same high school.

I went to the same high school as this legend did and, you know,

used to hear a bunch of stories about him when I was in high school. And then obviously, you know,

had a terrific 19 year playing career, one of the greatest managers of all the time. People call him

the Forrest Gump of baseball. You just got a very interesting year-round for a lot of amazing situations and people. Welcome to the show, Dusty Baker. What's up, home, brother? Thank you, thank you. Thank you for spending some time. You were just in town for the Michael premiere, huh? Yeah, how'd you like that? It's great. Great. I mean, it's one of the best I've ever seen. Really? Plus, you know, Graham King, you know, he surpassed my car when I was with the Dodgers. Oh yeah. Yeah. And so now he's a, you know, fan's producer. But I mean, I tell people all the time, but I brag on you because, like, you know, you broke my records in high school and I came through and got all

dusty's basketball and football and football yeah not the baseball yeah not the baseball side but

the basketball and football stuff yeah do you remember and I don't know if you do I so

you came to our school one day for an assembly and I was suspended I remember that was for the fight with

the KK the kid that was called wretchually harassing my sister and and I beat him up, and I got suspended, and then Dusty comes and speaks at our school, and they said, like, where's the kid that's breaking all my records? And everyone started laughing because I was at home suspended. Yeah, because, like, you know, we're in a giant caravan. Okay. And so I was like, man, who's this little dude around here breaking all my records? And somebody yells out, he's suspended! And see, I'm lucky I didn't get suspended because, see, you know, when I went to St. High School you went to, my family was the only black family around. There was probably about seven of us when I was there. Well, there was two, me and my brother. Wow.

And so, like, you know. How did you navigate that? I was fighting a lot. Me too. Yeah, I know. And, you know, my dad used to always tell me, hey, man, you know, what would Jackie Robinson do? I got tired of hearing that, but it taught me how to deal, you know, with society. Right. And it taught me how to deal, you know, with white people on a daily basis.

And, you know, I learned some valuable lessons.

It was tough.

Yeah.

It was actually tougher on my, on my sisters socially, I think, that it was on me and my brothers.

And, but the fact is, see,

I came there my junior year.

Okay. You know, from Riverside. Okay. For us you down south, yeah. Yeah. And see, my dad was Bobby Barnes' little league coach. And, you know, like I followed Bobby around and the reason why I played every sport because I was trying to be Bobby Barnes. I was the baddest dude, you know, that I, you know, can think of.

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