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WORLD BASEBALL CLASSIC: ROUND ONE

March 9, 2006

Ernie Whitt

POOL B: PHOENIX, ARIZONA

Q. Ernie, all these complex tiebreaker factors, do they have any bearing at all had on the way you manage the game?
ERNIE WHITT: I don't think so. We go out and we win. That's the bottom line. That's the attitude that the players have. That's the way that we're going to approach this game. We don't have to worry about any complications if we win the game.
Q. As much as you and everybody I talk to outside have been talking about all, we're thinking about is winning this game. How do you keep it completely out of your mind that, Hey, if we lose we might still win?
ERNIE WHITT: You know, you can't look at it that way. You know, again, you're programmed in your professional career to win a game, and it's not to worry about, well if we keep the score at 2 to 1 or we lose one to nothing we're still in.
You can't look at it that way, otherwise you're defeating your whole character I would say. And that's something that, you know -- look, if we swing the bats like we're capable of swinging the bats, and we've been planning for this game since last January when we saw the pool and what it was going to be, and it really didn't change anything because, we beat the USA yesterday.
It was a great victory for Canada, but still we know that we -- for us to guarantee ourselves to go on we have to win, and that's the way that we're looking at it?
Q. Ernie, how disappointing would if be to lose out on a tie breaker of such a great game yesterday, and if things -- just a bounce of the ball here, a bad pitch there, how disappointing would it be to have to go home?
ERNIE WHITT: It would be very disappointing. Again, we set out that we want to keep going forward. If we lose, that means I have to go back to spring training, and I really don't want to do that right now.
Again, it would be disappointing. The one thing that I really don't want to hear is -- and I know that we will hear -- at least you guys beat the USA, and that's not the purpose of this tournament. The purpose OF this tournament is to go on and win a championship. And, again, I think with the team we have and the ways our guys are playing we have a good chance.
Q. Is your pitching lined up tonight the same as it was against South Africa, or are you going to freestyle a little bit depending on the game?
ERNIE WHITT: It's pretty much lined up the way it was against South Africa. You know, if we get to a situation where I might need a match-up, I might bring Cyr back in. I might use some other players.
But because we have tomorrow off, we have the next two days off, basically I can use those guys. I think the only pitchers that I have that I can't use are Bedard and Loewen.
I think other than that every other pitcher is available to me.
Q. Ernie, if it turns out that you have a large hand in knocking the US out and the ratings go south and the tournament goes belly up, are you going to feel bad about that?
ERNIE WHITT: No. I mean, I just want to win. You know, you go on the playing field and you play nine innings, and hopefully you win it in nine innings.
And, you know, yesterday was a bonus for us. I mean, if you were to play that team in a long series, you know, let's be honest. They have quite an offensive team, quite a great team over there, the US, but we beat them. That's why you play the game.
And so, no, I wouldn't feel bad. I mean, that's just the way it is. Maybe they would come up with a different format. I don't know. But, you know, they had their chance to beat us, and it didn't happen.
Q. Ernie, I apologize if this question has already been asked. But when you made your change in the rotation prior to the South African game, you were looking ahead at the prospect of playing Japan in the first round of the second round.
If you finish first, now you're playing a different opponent. Does Bedard still go in that first game, Loewen second? Does the pitching rotation stay the same?
ERNIE WHITT: If I tell you that, then I make a change, then you guys are going to come at me again. But as it stands right now, Bedard will start the first game we play, subject to change.
Q. Ernie, it seemed that Buck Martinez had scripted the first three games in terms of innings played and his lineups.
Were you under the same restrictions? Had you talked to your players and told them exactly what their roles were going to be for the first round?
ERNIE WHITT: Yeah. I think, you know, naturally the way it played out against South Africa, it doesn't play out the way we had scripted it.
Again, tournaments like this, you have to win every game or at least put yourself in a position where you can advance.
There's no question I had a plan B for South Africa. I thought that if we had a chance to get a comfortable lead, then I wanted some of the other players to get in to keep our players fresh.
I know that yesterday's game was a game that we really didn't have to win because we knew that today was going to be the most important game.
So a lot of people asked why I took Jason Bay out. Well, to me, you know, his legs were getting a little tight, and I wanted him fresh for tonight.
And so all you can do as a manager is put your best players out in a position where they're going to be successful. And you got to realize it's tough to take some of these guys out. They want to fight you.
So, you know, again, I just try to put the best lineup out there possible that I think will be effective for us that night.
Q. What would it mean for the future of baseball and Canada for your team to advance here in this tournament?
ERNIE WHITT: Well, again, I think, you know, we've already showed that we can compete with the powerhouses of the world just by the game yesterday.
You know, again, the thing that we have in that clubhouse is a lot of confidence going, a lot of pride, and a lot of passion for playing the game the proper way.
I mean, you know, I think we are trying to get the world to understand that there's more than hockey up north of the border.
So if you look in Major League Baseball, some of the players that are out there, we have a lot of All Star players that are playing. And, you know, we can be reckoned with.
And again, I've said this many times is that, you know, we may not get the media coverage south of the border, but the teams that we play, they respect us. They know that they have a battle on their hands. They know that we're going to play hard. We're going to play very aggressively, and we're going to play, you know, until the end of the game. There's no giving up with this team and with these players that we have.
Q. Do you have any concerns about Q or Reitsma given the way they pitched on Tuesday night?
ERNIE WHITT: No. We had scheduled it for them to pitch again, and it was just an adjustment that the mound was awfully high at Scottsdale Stadium. You don't have a lot of time to make that adjustment. Unfortunately, they did struggle. There's no question, but they both have guaranteed me that they will be better tonight.
Q. Did you feel at all strange about beating a nation from which you have a birth certificate and citizenship?
ERNIE WHITT: No. They haven't kicked me out yet, so I guess I'm okay. (Laughter.)
Q. (Inaudible.)
ERNIE WHITT: That's the way the game goes. That's the way it goes. I just know that we will have gone out and played the best. That's all I can say and, you know, it's the way it is. I'm very proud to be the manager of Canada. I'm proud that they've asked me to manage this team, and I've been associated with them since 1999, with the program, and every time we have an opportunity or they give me the opportunity to manage, I will.
Q. Ernie, do you get a sense that the top-end guys are kind of pulling some of the other guys in the roster up and getting them to play at a higher level or is it the emotions of the tournament that's maybe doing that?
ERNIE WHITT: I think it's just the emotion of playing for your country. I think it naturally does that.
Again, when you're playing a major league season, it's 162 games. These here, it's more of a playoff atmosphere where it's win or you go home. So I think that's the biggest thing.
There's no question that it's nice to have some experienced guys on the team like a Matty Stairs and a Larry Walker in the dugout and a Rob Ducey in a dugout with me. But again, these guys play for pride. And, you know, it's just hopefully no holding them back, and we can continue to go forward.
Q. Ernie, if the situation arises again today and Corey Koskie attempts to steal a base, would you prefer he go in feet first?
ERNIE WHITT: You know, again, we talk about ways of sliding. And, you know, we always talk about the players sliding feet first into homeplate, but sometimes you get out in situations and they lose track of that.
So, I mean, you just let it go. Naturally, I'd love to see them go in feet first to second base, all of our players go feet first into homeplate, too. Because I know being a catcher and running, diving head first, he's going to get a knee guard right into his ear. So, you're taught the proper way, but, again, your instincts sometimes takes you another way.
Q. Ernie, knowing what you need to do in terms of scoring in a loss, just saying you're down two nothing in the 6th and they have runners at second and third, one out, would you play the infield in? Would you do things differently depending on the score?
ERNIE WHITT: That's a good question. Yeah, I mean, definitely you would have to do that. Again, because if they scored another run, then you're definitely out of the tournament.
So, you know, you try to do that to eliminate it. And whether that's crazy baseball or what, but you would have to definitely consider that.

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