That's

right.

So that's kind of been a common denominator of our relationship.

He's been somebody that could always depend on.

and it's not just something where I saw him at spring training.

I just have looked up to him so much, and I'm biased if you want to say it, but whenever people come about and say, who's some of the greatest players you play with? Well, he's one of the first guys I mentioned because it truly is a fact.

I mean, I think he should be in the Hall of Fame.

I think that's what we're all striving for.

Oof.

Yeah.

I do.

They're good.

Manny Machado's a really good player, man, m- whether people like him or not.

Um, and, you know, I wanna dislike him, but, but, but Manny Machado, to me, I, I think, uh...

I know the stepping on feet and whatever, I mean, that's kind of a subjective call whether that was happening or not.

That seems to be pretty unique to me.

And now you just hope next year he can put it all together in a full season.

Well, you know what? I saw a couple of transformations this year that really started a while ago but really culminated into having a brilliant year.

One guy was Gelof.

uh, golf was absolutely unbelievable from what he did a few years ago, where he came up and was impressionable.

Um, he made a statement.

Then the next year he led the league in strikeouts and he was hurt the next year.

And then of course this year, he, uh, Zach just really did some unbelievable things.

Well, I think Henry Bolte has put not only the center field question to rest, but also the question of who's going to hit leadoff to rest.

Who were a couple of players that really caught your eye this year?

I got to tell you to the River cats, not in the playoffs, but they had the best record.

They had the third best record overall in the whole PCL.

So, you know, they had two seasons.

It was kind of, uh, it will tantamount to what you saw with, uh, with the Cincinnati resident 81, when that two season year or the strike where they had the best overall record and didn't get in the playoffs.

That's kind of what we saw this year with the river cats.

really good season with him under manager Dave Brennan, who I think is a treasure of a manager.

What do you see out of these guys? What do you see that makes them that quality pitcher? Well,

Steve, it's kind of a welcome sight, isn't it?

It sure is, Michael, and, and, uh, it's almost the cycle of, uh, you know, for, for Jeff McNeil hitting the ball down the right field line.

You get the carom off the side there.

I thought for sure this is a triple, you know, he's gonna get the, get the cycle.

Didn't happen, but I think another very poignant, uh, aspect of this game was the bullpen came in and really did a great job and, and picked up, and picked up Gage Jump.

Uh, you know, we, we had him on A's Cast after and listening to him and he, he really said he just didn't have his best stuff tonight.

His fastball wasn't where he wanted or, uh, it wasn't acting like he had hoped it would, and he was just trying to find...

Gage Jump, you're starting to see I think that moment at Fenway Park when he got out of that jam in the sixth inning maybe is a turning point for him to maybe he's now built up that confidence and to be that pitcher that I'm gonna be the one that, that dictates tempo here.

It's a different perspective for me, too, you know, watching this thing from, from a different venue.

Yeah, Bob, and, and from your perspective of, you know, you had an excellent career and ob- uh, obviously an amazing, uh, managerial career as well.

How do you assess a guy, I know it's easy, a guy like Nick Kurtz, he's hurt now.

But I think the underrated part of his game is how good he is defensively.

He, he's as good, Bob, as I've seen over there in my career.

He's fantastic at first base.

Got a great throwing arm, which I think is an undervalued part of first base as well.

So being in that role and knowing what he's experiencing, I think he probably receives it a little better, better from me.

It's a different perspective for me too, you know, watching this thing from, from a different venue.

Yeah.

Bob, and, and from your perspective of, you know, you had an excellent career and o- ob- obviously an amazing, uh, managerial career as well.

How do you assess a guy...

I know it's easy, a guy like Nick Kurtz, he's hurt now.

But I think the underrated part of his game is how good he is defensively.

He, he's as good, Bob, as I seen over there in my career.

So being in that role and knowing what he's experiencing, I think he probably receives it a little better, better from me.

... just playing hard has been my main focus and, and what brings, brings me joy on the field.

Yeah.

You know, I wanted to ask you, Henry, and just to elaborate on what Townie had said is, you know, you love it.

That, that's the same way I did.

I never thought about stretching a double into a triple because of money.

And money is always the last thing that comes, you know? It comes and it's gonna come big, and it's gonna come huge for you.

It's gonna be there for you.

Yeah

What makes this Dodgers team and this era of Dodger baseball, um, different from those teams?

Um, well, I, I think the one common denominator you'll see with the, the Dodgers, now you can extrapolate this back w- well, way even before I played with the organization, is they have an expectation set for you when you get into the a- i- into the, uh, organization.

They have phenomenal training, great scouting, all those, all those little things that are behind the scenes are just making massive difference.

Um, and so when you come up through that organization, you get to the big leagues, you are expected to be a lot like the A's do, a lot...

You know, when you come in, you are expected to be able to play and have an impact and, and that's the same thing we see with the o- with the Athletics.

And the Dodgers, same thing.

When you get there, you're not there to learn, you're there to make a contribution and be impactful for this organization, and, uh, that's what they do all the way through.

So I mean, you kind of already alluded to this with the scouting, with the development team, you know, how i- in your estimation have they been able to sustain the success while also having the financial resources, but like you said, behind the scenes doing what they've been able to do?

I just wanted to get your take first off generally with this series and what you saw from both teams throughout these three games from your perspective.

Well, hello to the commander as well.

You guys, good to be on with you guys.

You know, these teams came into this series pretty much, you know, with the same record.

Same kind of things, I think, overall, when you look at these teams.

The news I got from at least the broadcasters on the Pirates were, you know, team can swing it pretty good.

They come out with a lead and then the bullpen blows it.

When you look at the team right now, How would you evaluate the 2026As as we speak?

Yeah.

You know what I like? The fact that when he got hung up at third base, he could have stopped at third base and probably get in a, got in a pickle and, and been out.

But he was smart enough to go right through that and, and get hung up big time, which drew attention to the fact that, yes, he was in fact interfered with.

And so either way, because of the great slide or the fact that he was interfered with, he was gonna be safe.

So it was a great heads-up move by Jacob.

Uh, he's hitting streak now at 20.

I mean, this is a transformational player from what I saw from last year.

Uh, even going back further than that, he made a big impact in '23.

When you don't have your good stuff and you battle through six innings and allow just one run.

Yeah, and Johnny, first of all, good to be with you tonight.

Looking forward to this game.

This is going to be a very important one.

They seem to mount that.

importance every time the A's step on the field because of the complexity or the I guess you'd say the way the construct of this division is wide open and we know that so they got opportunity after opportunity every day to do something big but Yeah, about JT last night.

I mean, you know, rarely does a pitcher go out there, or for that matter, an everyday player as well, where you have your best stuff, you're 100% all the way.

His second home run, which was the three-run shot, letting the ball travel and taking that, I mean, a moonshot over the left center field wall, the strength this guy has, and that's when he's going well, when he gets that power the other way.

Offense, defense, pitching, you know, what, what overall grade would you give the A's?

Overall, I would give them...

Well, I would give them a B-minus, um, because I know that they're better than they are, and, and yet this, this is part of the comings and goings of the season.

That's, it, it never goes in a straight line in baseball.

The best team, at, at, at, at base in ba- in baseball is, like, a really, really good stock.

It's like a NVIDIA, okay? NVIDIA's going at a 45-degree angle, yet they have a lot of pullbacks, too.

And this team's gonna have pullbacks, but I, I look at what they've done so far.

So, so for the A's, when you say we're, we're a game over 500 and first place, to me, that puts me around B-minus, B.

I don't know if our guys have that.

Well, I mean, I mean, Townie, the, the thing about it, there's so much information today that these guys are almost fire-hosed with.

Uh, they see it every time.

They, they...

The, the information that's available to them is unprecedented, more now than any time.

Uh, from that to going to the video cues and getting here at noon and watching all the videos of the guys that he's gonna fa- face you this with two outs.

A left-hander's gonna get this on a Wednesday.

So if you're part of a championship team with the Yankees, you know, it, it lasts forever.

Did you calm yourself down? How were you able to kind of stay controlled in that

debut? It's a great question, and he will calm himself down.

He's a smart man.

He knows that he can't come out here and be something you're not.

I came up, I was replacing the legend in Davey Lopes... and I'm not going to come up there and try to be Davey Loeb, so I've got to come up there and just be myself, and hopefully it'll work out.

And I think that's what Gage Jump has to think.

Just be yourself and stay within yourself, and there's going to be times where you're going to say, man, I just let that get away from me, and I've got to calm down a little bit.

You can connect with what he's going

Can I have a question for

you? You know, we talk a lot about.

How much the game has changed.

A lot of it was brought up about the spin.

And why don't they just go back to country hardball and throw? Why don't they get guys out instead of worried about this spin? Tricking guys.

Yeah.

Tricking people.

So you've got to find a way in these games.

What are these players feeling right now going into this game?

Well, there's obviously a great amount of, you know, some butterflies for the guys who've been there the first time.

There's some tension.

There's a tremendous amount of heightened awareness, if you can say, of what the moment is going to bring.

But once the game starts and the first pitch is thrown and, you know, you go through the first and second, all that will go away and it'll be another game on.

You just know that, you know, there's no tomorrow.

This is it.

How tough of a play was that at second base?

He goes and throws out the first pitch, and then he shakes Shohei Itani's hand.

So do you see this level of, I basically

I'm not saying I would ever be able to make that play for sure.

Dude, Gary, you need to leave that chair and march your ass back east or wherever you came from.

That was a Betts play.

There was nothing Jeter about it.

What? Dude, what's...

See, I held back.

Why didn't Dave Roberts allow Blake Snell to do it the night

before? Well, that's the gut instinct of the manager.

There could be some underlying reasons.

You know, we all know that Blake Snell, just a few short years ago, pitching against the Dodgers, had a no-hitter going in the sixth inning.

They pull him out.

When he's with Tampa and all of a sudden the team breaks down because it's a sense of renewment for the opposition to say, well, that guy's gone.

I got a new perspective now.

Is there any sort of trepidation that they may fall into some bad pitching habits with the bullpen at this point? Or are we looking good where you're feeling?