Orel Hershiser On Shohei Ohtani Not Hitting When He Pitches! Should The Dodgers Let Ohtani Do Both?

Added: 2026-04-30

[00:00:00]Of course, he's our gracious host out at Legends Attic. We've known Oral on the program for a very long time. Oral Hersheiser joining the Demarco Tra. How are you, Oral?

[00:00:10]>> Good. Hi, guys. How you doing?

[00:00:12]>> Fantastic.

[00:00:13]>> Happy Wednesday. Uh we're hoping the Lakers uh pull one out and get this series over with.

[00:00:18]>> You're a Laker fan, right?

[00:00:19]>> Yeah. Yeah. What time does that game start?

[00:00:21]>> 7. Seven.

[00:00:23]>> Seven. Okay. I'm not going to be on a plane, but I'll be out to dinner with Haime Harin tonight, so I will have to check in on that.

[00:00:29]>> Well, hold a good thought.

[00:00:31]>> Okay. Well, you're a great person to ask. I mean, so Shi pitched last night, and I think the biggest thing that we've been talking about is he's not hitting.

[00:00:39]I think it's the coolest thing in the world when you give him the day off from hitting so he can focus on pitching.

[00:00:44]What say you?

[00:00:46]>> Uh I I They've done that twice now. Uh once on the road, once at home. uh once they won, once they lost, I think there's always going to be a little bit of pressure uh as far as what Shoi would want to do. And the fact that Shi, you know, they didn't get any runs when he was pitched so well and they've pitched well the last two games. So, I would think that he's going to probably march in the office and say, "You sure you don't need my bat in there on the day when I pitch because I sure would like to support myself." You know, I hit from the nine hole. he'd probably hit from lead off or maybe they maybe the compromise is to hit down in the order a little bit more. U but I would think that that's still an open topic and I would think that they're experimenting with it and seeing how he feels, what results they get. But for if if if he wants to be the greatest statistical baseball player ever, it really bodess well for him to do both on the nights that he pitches. if he wants to completely say, you know what, the regular season is the regular season and we're going to be a playoff team probably no matter what and we need to save energy for that time, then there might be times when, you know, Dave Roberts and he and Mark Prior and Andrew Freriedman when they decide like, okay, maybe don't miss 30 games of at bats, but maybe miss 15 games of at bats. I don't know. I'm brainstorming with you right along, but I'm just trying to do it from somebody who knows, you know, I've lived in the locker room. I've pitched. I've done I've done my thing.

[00:02:18]So, I'm I'm giving you a little bit of expertise, but I'm also like guessing.

[00:02:23]>> No, that's why I asked.

[00:02:24]>> Yeah. Or or how different did you feel physically relative to like let let's say where we are right now on the calendar? basically the beginning of May and then at, you know, say the middle of September when the season's, you know, wrapping up, but you're also gearing up for the most important part of the schedule.

[00:02:39]>> Yeah. So, you know, there is this thing called pitcher body. When you do dynamic rotation between your hips and your shoulders down a hill, land on one leg, leave one leg, land on one leg, that it is torquing your body different than it does as a hitter when you're doing it on level ground. It's doing it completely different when you're doing it for a 100 pitches competitively, plus the warm-up pitches in between, plus the warm-ups before the game. So, as far as number of reps, compared to taking BP, doing a little soft toss, doing a little of tea work, getting ready, and now you're ready to go. And then you'd only do that like, you know, once every three innings or so. For him leading off, he'd probably do it, you know, once every two and a half innings, every two innings.

[00:03:28]So, it's a different torque. It's a different pressure. And your body does feel, you know, it can feel bad. It can feel stiff. But he does an amazing job off the field as far as recovery. I think the technology and the modalities nowadays are so much better than they were in my day. So, I can't tell you exactly how he feels or how much wear and tear there is or how much, you know, pain and suffering or spasm, but there definitely is wear and tear and it's definitely at a high level. Oral, I I could be so far off on this. Feel free to call me crazy, but he he's been >> easy, Travis.

[00:04:04]>> I figured I I You notice how I left you a little pause to fill that in right there. Right. That's that's me being a professional. I left you a little room.

[00:04:12]>> Carson, Ed McMahon. Very nice.

[00:04:14]>> Thank you. Thank you. He He's He's given up basically like a run and a half the entire season. Am I crazy to think that he has not really pitched as well as he possibly can? Is that a crazy take?

[00:04:28]>> I don't think it's a crazy take. I think that uh we've seen the velocity tick up.

[00:04:33]We've seen the use of the curveball and the splitter tick up. I think it's completely because we're farther a year removed from coming back from Tommy John surgery. But when you come back from a surgery, whether it's elbow, shoulder, or some other place, the caliber your bullets change every outing for about a year. Then all of a sudden the caliber of your bullet and the way you feel and the way your arm reacts to every time you it, it feels about the same.

[00:04:59]And when it starts feeling the same in every practice session and every time you play catch and every time you take the mound competitively, you your your precision goes up, your spin rates probably go up, your accuracy as far as like what pitch you can throw in certain tough counts like a 10, a 2-1, a 3-1, a 3-2 with second and third one out. and all of a sudden you just get this confidence like I'm not worried about how the arm's going to feel or how this one's going to come out. I know what it's going to do. So yeah, I still think there's more in there and because we are in the first healthy offseason, year away from or so away from the Tommy John surgery and also out there competing and and continuing to find the range on those great pitches. Oral Hersheiser joining us here on the Demarco and Travis afternoon show. And Oral, our boss, Greg Berman, is crashing the party today and he has a question for >> We're allowing him to ask you a question. Well, well, thank you guys. I appreciate it. And what's going on contracts up or are you the boss? Is >> why? They're fine. They're fine right now. We don't have to worry about them.

[00:06:00]But something I've noticed with with I've noticed with Showi is his facial expressions are just crazy. He's constantly showing you how he feels. And typically a a a level a star to his caliber at his level doesn't stays very solid in what they in their facial expressions. Do you notice that? And do you know have ever asked him about that or anything why you see that from him?

[00:06:22]>> Uh I would say you know I see consistent facial expressions up at the plate other than if he tweaks something like his wrist or makes a swing and all of a sudden is follows it off his foot or something. But on the mound I think you you are seeing more expressions. I think you're seeing more, you know, wearing his emotions on his sleeve and their sleeves aren't rolled up anymore.

[00:06:42]They're more, you know, laid down. I think it's it's the confidence in the body, in the arm and the health. I think it's it's it's something that you can just really uh I had somebody knocking on my window here at my dealership. You know, I'm out here at Oral Hersheiser Chevrolet and Chino. I'll just plug that right now.

[00:07:01]One of the fans, one of the fans sitting at watching one of our vets is comes up to the window starts knocking on the door.

[00:07:07]>> Look, if you need to go facial expression >> like I don't want to yell at him and say, "Get away. I'm on the air with these guys."

[00:07:14]>> I was like, "Sir, I'll talk to you in a minute. I'll talk to you in a minute."

[00:07:18]So, so the facial expression stuff I think comes from the confidence in the arm, the competitiveness and the fact that he has stated publicly like Yamamoto that they want to be the first Japanese born player to win a Sai Young.

[00:07:32]And I think it'd be unbelievable. I would think in the back of Shoi's mind he wants to not only win a Sai Young, but the same year win the MVP and that would be the greatest of greatest accomplishments. And I wouldn't put it past him. The way he goes about the talent he has, the way he goes about it, what he's already accomplished, that that's a box that he's trying to check.

[00:07:54]>> That would be unbelievable. You you would be the best athlete in my opinion if you can do that MVP and Sai Young because that's impossible. Speaking of that, the the the pressure of expectation. So I wonder uh your thoughts on Roki Sasaki and his improvement.

[00:08:11]Uh, I think they continue to try and make improvements and he's developing at the big league level. Uh, we're fortunate to be an organization that can have somebody with his talent develop at the big league level. Uh, he's, you know, he's a special special talent and that's why they signed him and that's why they went after him and got him. But in the midst of that, there are special talents that have to learn to be more refined. He's starting to refine himself as far as throwing more strikes, as far as landing his split finger, as far as adjusting the grip on the slit finger.

[00:08:41]>> Yamamoto made those adjustments, too, when he came over and we did a terrible outing in Korea and then started to make adjustments and get better. I think all of them do. I I think back to Walker Beller when I was in uniform in spring training and was assigned by Rick Honeyut to be Walker's kind of mentor. I remember conversations early on and I remember conversations a year later and I remember conversations two years later and then I remember conversations right before he's making the last outs in the World Series and he's spreading his arms like are you pleased now or whatever that saying is.

[00:09:13]>> Are you entertained entertained? Yeah.

[00:09:15]>> Are you entertained? Well, we're more than entertained. Walker, you're the World Champion. So, we're all we're very entertained at the same time you're asking us. But yeah, I I think there's so much growth and and I think with Sasaki, not only is the growth going to be physical, but I think it really is going to be mental where the league says that's not good enough. And the individual who was able to overpower any league, any batter he was ever in learns that, oh my god, the league is telling me the truth. And that takes a little bit longer with guys with elite elite ability because they have never really been confronted with failure or even a glimmer of failure where you mean that's not the right pitch. You mean that one that they used to swing at all the time is a ball now and these guys can take it. So that information is going into somebody who is super confident, super talented and has a super unbelievable resume. And it takes a little longer for that message from the league to say you're going to have to be a little better.

[00:10:17]>> Oral Hersheiser joining us here on the Demarco and Travis show. And Oral, each time that you and I talk, it seems like there's a new Legends Attic. There's the one in Claremont that we've been to many times. There's the House Rules at HBC and now you've got your store at Field in Ontario. Where where's the fourth location? Are you guys scouting spots or what's up?

[00:10:35]>> Well, we're in negotiation with two or three places and uh we're excited. Um, we're excited about the dealership.

[00:10:43]We're excited about Legends Attic in the different places. We're excited, you know, to still be up there with Caposio Buick GMC and still have a great relationship with Routolo Chevrolet. So, you know, my life really changed when uh all the guys that rooted for me were started to own companies.

[00:11:03]So the, you know, I started a business life after baseball, but it seemed like everybody I was calling on that was excited to get my call was too young and they were in kind of middle management.

[00:11:14]So I said, "You know what? I'm going to shut this goal down for a while." And I shut it down for about 10 years. And now now the guys that we call on and I talk to and have are experts and high integrity and kind of like me, uh, they used to have posters in their room like my partner Annie Alazad. So, so, so it's kind of fun. I love the business life.

[00:11:35]But yeah, and you know what I love about this both things that I'm majorly involved with, which is Legends Attic and the car dealership, you know, >> we we make people smile.

[00:11:46]>> And I love I love the fact like in the car business there's a win and a loss.

[00:11:50]The win is you've made somebody smile and they got the deal they wanted and they got in the vehicle they wanted, they pulled out and they're smiling and they're happy and they got the new car smell and they're just feeling ridiculously great about themselves.

[00:12:01]That makes me smile. And then when people leave Legends Attic, I want people at Legends Attic to not only remember I'm here to buy memorabilia or a baseball card or a uniform top or a helmet or whatever I'm going to get because I love this athlete and I love the memory of this athlete and I remember the game I was at when he did this. But you know what? They're also going to remember where they bought that memorabilia because that's how we've decorated the store. That's how we've made the store a memory. And so that's been my goal in the business world is to do the right thing, charge the right price if that's what we're talking about and and make people leave with a smile.

[00:12:39]>> So one of the guys that Demarco and I had a chance to meet out at Legends Attic was Daltton Rushing. And this is a this is a conversation that DeMarco and I have frequently about >> the guy on the team that might start some stuff. The guy on the team that might be the the wild card, so to speak.

[00:12:54]Is it safe to assume that Dalton Rushing is that guy? the guy that you don't want to mess with. It's just, you know, like he's he's the the spark plug, so to speak. Is he the guy?

[00:13:04]>> Well, when you meet Dalton Rushing in public, it's a different guy than takes the field with catcher equipment on or plays first base or DH's, right? So, he has a game face and it's a big it's a it's a switch that he flips. Um I think with Freddy, you almost see the same guy off the field as on the field, right?

[00:13:21]And he for some way he takes elite ability on the field without having that game face. He's just that's Freddy. I think it's different when he gets in the box. I think yeah, we have a few guys that I can watch that face. Um I can see that face flip with Maxy. I can see that face flipped with Freeland. I can see it flipped with uh Dalton rushing.

[00:13:42]>> I can see it flipped with some pitchers, too. You know, Vessia is definitely not running around his house rubbing up baseballs and, you know, looking like he's about to have a temper tantrum, but he's definitely he's definitely got a game face. So, you know, and I played with guys like that. And I was that guy.

[00:13:59]You know, the the whole nickname bulldog was for Tommy to remind me to go out there and, you know, be a killer and to be tough and to not melt down and to be aggressive. You know, Mike is that way.

[00:14:10]Mike's the nicest guy in the world. But Mike on the field, he blocked the plate and broke people's legs, you know, >> kind of guy.

[00:14:18]>> So, so you know, there's a level of intensity that some people have to bring out to bring out the level of ability that it takes to compete on a big league field.

[00:14:27]>> Oral Hersheiser joining us here on the Demarco and Travis afternoon show. Oral, always a pleasure. Thanks for your time and go sell that Corvette.

[00:14:35]>> DeMarco, Travis, Greg. Hey, Greg. These guys are the great. All right, take care of them. I know you're the boss. You know, >> we love them. A good month to month or week to week deal would be really good for that.

[00:14:46]>> Oh, I had a two year on the table and now you want monthto month, you go there that way instead.

[00:14:50]>> Yeah, month months a month would be long term.

[00:14:52]>> Hey, look look, we just you you've been a free agent. You know, sometimes free agency can be liberating. You never know how that's going to shake out.

[00:14:59]>> Well, you know, there's only so many radio stations, so don't cut that tree.

[00:15:03]>> Yeah, good point. Good point. Thank you, my friend. We'll talk to you soon. Go.

[00:15:06]All right.