AL DIVISION SERIES: YANKEES v ATHLETICS

October 3, 2000

Kevin Appier

KEVIN APPIER: It is huge. Obviously you hope for, you know, to get here every year, and unfortunately, its taken me a long, long time, 11 years. But it feels incredible to be here.

KEVIN APPIER: Obviously, extremely potent lineup. They can get you with their power; they can assemble a number of hits on you and combine to score a lot of runs, and they have a great staff and they are good defensively. They are extremely solid team and, you know, people have mentioned how they were scuffing a bit in the end of September, but we are not looking for them to be scuffling. We are looking for them to be coming in there at their best, but hoping they are not.

KEVIN APPIER: I was pretty surprised because I heard a number of teams, but I never heard Oakland. You know, looking at their situation, I felt like I was going to a lot better situation than I was in Kansas City and we made a good run for it last year, unfortunately came up short. But this year, here we are.

KEVIN APPIER: It is a case of opportunity. I was coming off surgery, and, you know, last year was a little difficult at times, but I thought I had a pretty good year for just coming off surgery and this year, being the following year. I think it was an opportunity, you know, to pitch, to throw a season where it is not like a partially coming back-type thing and also playing on a team like this is extremely helpful. We score a ton of runs. You know, we had a number of errors in the field, but still, our defense is good. We make some incredible plays and the combination of great plays and defense/offense really helped out.

KEVIN APPIER: Wise old guy. There's not a lot of middle age here. It is extreme young guys, like college kids. And then there's older guys like me and Dougy, Steno and Mags. And our job is, well, not only to, you know, perform, but also to help these guys and to give advice and kind of like a supplemental coaching staff, definitely.

KEVIN APPIER: You mean just regular experience, because I don't have any post-season.

KEVIN APPIER: Well, obviously, hopefully, it doesn't work against us, because we don't have much of it. But the Yankees, I mean, they obviously have a ton of post -season experience. We have a lot of confidence right now and hopefully that carries through into the post-season, and like I said, the Yankees not only have experience, but the talent. We know what we're up against, but like I said, I think we have a great deal of talent here, and good confidence. We had a tremendous September, and hopefully that continues through the post-season.

KEVIN APPIER: Well, I get nervous for a spring training game so that might answer your question. But the nerve emotions, I'm definitely able to deal with my emotions real well.