MLB WORLD SERIES: YANKEES VS DODGERS

October 24, 2024

Jack Flaherty

Dodger Stadium

Los Angeles Dodgers

Workout Day Press Conference

Q. It seems the stage keeps getting bigger and bigger each Game 1. Do you do anything different because it's the World Series? Is there a mindset change? There has to be something that alters because the stage grows.

JACK FLAHERTY: No. You control what you can control, go out and prepare, get ready on the days in between. When you're ready to go, just different opponent out there, and you just treat it like you would any other series or any other game.

Everything else stays the same. Everything in between stays the same. It's just everything on the outside kind of changes.

Q. Three years ago I remember you at Minute Maid with Lucas watching Max. Did you think at all that game in a couple years it could be me and them watching?

JACK FLAHERTY: I'd be lying if -- yeah. It's a funny feeling watching that because you're excited for one of your best friends and you're incredibly happy for him. Also at that same moment you're a competitor and you want to be in that situation, you want to be on the field.

It was awesome. It was congrats, happy as can be for him, always will be, but as a competitor you want to be in that spot, you want to be in that situation.

Yeah, if you asked me three years ago watching that like if I wanted to be out there, of course.

Q. Any idea whether they're coming tomorrow?

JACK FLAHERTY: I don't know. I have gotten a couple of good lucks from them. If they're here, great. If not, they're busy guys. No worries about it.

Q. How much can you looked back at both rosters and all the talent that's coming out of this area like yourself?

JACK FLAHERTY: Yeah, I mean, crazy. You just look at California in general, of the guys that have come out of here. Even some guys that aren't playing, you look at Glas and what a role he played for this team for a majority of the year and how much he'd love to be out there, the talent overall.

And you kind of look at it, not even just nationwide, worldwide, when you add in all the players and just how deep this series is with talent and the guys and the names that are out there, it's as star studded as it gets.

Q. What are the challenges of going up against a lineup that you know is going to take its walks and not chase out of the zone too much?

JACK FLAHERTY: It's just you've got to go out there and execute your pitches, and you've got to get them out in the zone. You've just got to keep making pitch after pitch after pitch and not really give in. And just continue to execute, continue to go one pitch after another and not -- you don't really group them all together each pitch. You've got to take it one pitch at a time. Once that one's done, you move on to the next one and move on to the next one.

The more you can slow things down and the more you can truly focus on the process of each and every pitch and what's going on, I think the better spot you end up being in.

Q. I understand when you were about 12, plus or minus, you visited Yankee Stadium for the first time. Wonder if you remember any details about that trip and if you could ever imagine that you'd be pitching there in a World Series?

JACK FLAHERTY: I think we imagined it, me and all my brothers. Cooperstown trip, and we made it a little bit longer, went to Yankee Stadium and watched a game. I remember the atmosphere being amazing and just the way that the fans were and how into the game they were.

I think it was -- it must have been August or something, but they were into it. It's just one of those scenes that you kind of take in, and you enjoy the history of it. Even at 12, you just take it in and enjoy it. But also at that time, I'm 12; I think my brother is probably 8 at that point. We're there enjoying baseball, and we're just there to watch the game, eat some food, and hang out.

It will be a different setting going there this time.

Q. You talked a lot about your friends and family, the support group you had after Game 5 in New York and keeping you not too high, not too low. I'm wondering if any of those guys hit you up for tickets, and just how many friends and family who all will be here for you tomorrow night?

JACK FLAHERTY: People know not to ask me for tickets. They know. They know not to ask me for tickets, but they also know that family is going to get taken care of.

That's the way it's always been from Game 1 that I've had here in 2018, rookie year coming here with St. Louis, and that's how it's always been when we've come here is that the love and support from everybody is great. Yeah, tickets are hard to come by.