For the first time since being named Major League Baseball’s Executive of the Year on Tuesday morning, Dodgers President of Baseball Operations Andrew Friedman spoke out about winning the 2020 World Series.

During a Zoom interview on SportsNet LA, show host John Hartung asked the Dodgers executive what the feeling has been like for him since winning baseball’s biggest prize.

“Yeah, I loved hearing the Kersh [‘We Are the Champions’] thing,” Friedman said, with a big smile on his face. “For me, it’s been more about wearing the (World Series Champion) hat; I’ve been wearing the hat a lot – wearing it backwards with the trophy kind of front and center on my forehead – and whenever I pass by a mirror, I’m like ‘Oh yeah, we won. We’re the champions!’ It’s a helpful reminder.”

Hartung next asked Friedman if his reaction to the Dodgers winning the World Series for the first time in 32-years and his first in three tries since becoming the team’s President of Baseball Operations in 2014 was more about relief or a cheer of joy for him.

“It’s a great question and something that I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about, and I was really curious on what that breakdown would be between joy and relief and many hours, and months, and years kind of thinking about it, and taking it,” Friedman began. “I can now answer the question – It was ninety-nine percent relief, one percent joy, which then, I think, in motivating me to do it again, because I’m hoping the second time is the inverse of that and ninety-nine percent joy.”

Asked what his favorite memory was from spending a month in Texas in ‘the bubble,’ Friedman’s elaborate answer may come as a surprise to many.

…then again, maybe not:

“It was such a surreal experience. Obviously, you go back to the Padres series and the intensity of a National League Division Series, and you look around, and there’s nobody in the stands. It’s hard to reconcile you feeling the way you’re feeling with zero energy in the building, so it took a little bit to get adjusted to that.

“You know, I think [as] challenging as being in a bubble was, there was something that was really awesome in terms of like the bonding of our entire organization; the kids kind of running around, the life-experiences that were created for all the various kids that were in the bubble. The players and everyone just kind of being outside of the rooms and talking during the day. Those are things that I’m going to remember fondly for a long time.

“Obviously, there’s the intensity of the game and October baseball, and being down three-to-one, the amazing web gems from Cody [Bellinger] and Mookie [Betts] – it was almost like they were competing and who can one-up the other. Just the small baserunning things.

“We all felt really strong going into Spring Training; we had a really talented team. And then, obviously, we got into May and June and had concerns if we’d ever watch this team go out and compete.

“And then we all got back together for Summer Camp – or Spring Training 2.0 – the focus, the intent, just the mindset of everybody that we had there – was so geared towards doing everything we could do to play in the last game of the year and win it.

“That’s obviously what we did, but you could see it on a daily basis, kind of everything building towards that.”

Wow!

If you got (about) five minutes to spare, I encourage you to give Friedman’s SportsNet LA interview a look. You can view it on Twitter by clicking on this image:

Play Ball!

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