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WORLD BASEBALL CLASSIC: ROUND ONEMarch 9, 2006Riccardo De SantisTony FioreClaudio LiverzianiPOOL D: ORLANDO, FLORIDA Q. After the fourth inning you had, for the second inning you were going to have Pujols, Ortiz straight up were you surprised that he left you in to face those guys, and what was your plan to try to get through that inning? RICCARDO DE SANTIS: I was. It was showing me that John Franco really believed in me. They put me in all three games. So they didn't just bring me into the team to be one of the guys. Today they believed in what I could have done, could have got the job done. So of course when I face guys like that, you have to be careful with every pitch. That's what I was trying to do; just try to hit the spot, try to keep the ball down and the defense in between those guys and anyone else, and that when you make a mistake, they kill you. I just make a bad mistake, that pitch off to Beltre, and he had me. Q. What was the pitch? RICCARDO DE SANTIS: It was a sinker outside. I left it over the plate. And I pitched probably four pitches against him, all at like the knee, outside corner and just one missed pitch and he hit a home run. Q. Did you know it as soon as he hit it? RICCARDO DE SANTIS: Yeah. It was a bomb. Q. How frustrating was it to see Pujols again just hit that dribbler and get a hit? RICCARDO DE SANTIS: Oh, yeah, that was difficult. What can I say? It was better if he would have caught it. But it is okay, I just try to do my best and keep the ball down. It was good for me to see that even guys like Pujols and Ortiz were having difficulty with my pitches. So that's good for me. That gives me -- I have to keep doing what I've been doing so far, because they let me pitch in that game like I did. Q. From the scouting report, you knew David Ortiz, Beltre, what did you know about these guys going in? How did you plan to pitch them? RICCARDO DE SANTIS: I know we had the scouting reports and they said just to try to hit the spots. So I just tried to move my ball like, don't throw in regular fastball, but throw in two-seamer, try to keep the ball down, late movement, and that's what I tried to do. Hit the corners, because you know, every time you pitch off the plate with those guys, you're in trouble. Just try to keep the ball down and away from those hands. Q. (Inaudible)? RICCARDO DE SANTIS: In Italy? Back in Italy? Yeah, we just watch games on TV, of course. We like very much baseball here in the States. So even if I have to stay up until late, sometimes I watch game. But we don't know very much about baseball here in the States. We just watch some games and I work with guys that played here before on my team. So all I know about American baseball is from those guys. I try to learn from them as much as I can. Q. How much do you think this tournament helped Italian baseball? RICCARDO DE SANTIS: I think it will help a lot because now in Italy everybody knows that if you work hard, if you try to do your best, you can play with guys like the ones we faced in this tournament. And the ones that we have on the team. Like all the big leaguers we had on the team and minor leaguers from the Italian team and the other teams. So I think that it's going to be helpful for our baseball if we keep doing things like this. And we can create -- we can make baseball more interesting for guys that didn't even know it before this tournament. Q. What was Mike Piazza like to work with as a teammate? RICCARDO DE SANTIS: He was a great person. He was nice with everybody. First time I saw him was in Lakeland. He spent a couple hours talking with me and couple guys from Italy. Just one of the nicest persons I ever met. He tries to help you anytime. He tries to give you suggestions, you know, what you can do to increase your pitches, what can you do to get this guy out. He's just a great person, like everybody else on the team. Q. Any one thing you're going to remember, any one lesson that you learned this week? RICCARDO DE SANTIS: Yeah. Everything Mike told me I will remember for sure. And the manager, too. And I learned from this tournament about keeping the focus on the game for the whole game. Because in Italy sometimes you can make mistakes and that mistake don't hurt in Italy. If you make mistake at this level, it will hurt for sure. So just try to keep, stay focused the whole game. Q What were your opinions of the team? CLAUDIO LIVERZIANI: Astounding. It was just unbelievable how these guys welcomed us in their world here. From the first word they said, it was just like, okay, they were just regular guys. They were saying, "I'm like you. I'm on the same page, on the same team," and they did put together a group. It was because of him, Frank (Catalanotto), they were just -- it was really touching. I wasn't expecting it. Q. Under the professional point of view and technical point of view, what are you going to bring back to Italy? CLAUDIO LIVERZIANI: I'm going to try to do what Mike did with us, you know. So maybe talk to the younger Italian players and try to tell them what we did and what is possible to do back home. But we need a program like a serious program. And it's not going to be easy, but it's a start. And if these guys are willing to be testimonials of our baseball, maybe it gives us hope. Mike Piazza is probably the name that everybody knows back home, too. Q. Are you going to be more interested in going back to the Italian Professional League or are you going to feel like you need to be here? CLAUDIO LIVERZIANI: No, actually I'm going to go back to work and it's going to be back to real life. But playing-wise, you know, it's going to be nice to go back and play and share the experience that I had with my teammates and just let them know that if I did it, everybody can do it back home. Maybe in the next World Baseball Classic somebody else will be in it. It could be another push for our baseball back home. Q. You faced a lot of these guys before, I'm sure. How difficult is that kind of lineup to face? How difficult is that to look down and see the names on that roster? TONY FIORE: Well, the only thing you know is you can pitch around people. You have to kind of go at them, because the next guy in the lineup as good or better or, you know, there's no soft spot. So you just got to try and make your pitches. I got some ground balls at the right time and really, you know, I didn't think I got hit hard as much as I just made a wrong mistake at the wrong time to give up that two-run home run. I busted the ball up and he got me. Q. You got that double play with Moises, that was a big play for you. Talk about that. TONY FIORE: Yeah, that was a sinker and it kind of ran in on him. Q. Do you ever step back and think about the collection of talent in that dugout when you're out there, from that small country, how they could produce so many great players? TONY FIORE: Yeah, I don't have to say I was thinking about that now, I mean, I've been around the game long enough that you could know it. I mean, they're still missing guys, you know. I mean, yeah, it's amazing. But they live baseball down there, you know. It's their sport. We got kids in high school that are, you know, they try, you know, try this, try that. I saw a show on ESPN a little while ago that they were talking about, like the short kids and stuff they're all trying to play basketball and that and sports that they could never possibly be good at. It's so diverse here. But there it's baseball. And you find out who is good and who's not down there. They have so many role models too down there. They always have, I guess. Q. What was the pitch to Pujols? TONY FIORE: A cutter. A fastball. It stayed flat. It didn't move. Q. You were in control the first inning, so you know after that what was your impression with those guys? TONY FIORE: The impression is that I know who those guys are. I know them. I know the talent that they have. It's just, you know, you're a pitcher you feel like you're in control and no matter who is up there, that you make the pitches, you'll be okay. For a while it was kind of going like that. And then I made the mistake to Pujols and it was like, you know, so from the first at-bat, you know, the first pitch I threw, I thought one of my real good changeups on the corner and boom, base hit. And I was like, okay, here we go. But, yeah, I was just trying to keep the ball low. That was my objective, keep the ball low, get ground balls. That's the kind of pitcher I am for the whole season. I never consider myself a strike-out pitcher, I try to get ground balls and you see what happens when you leave it up. Q. Who were those guys that you faced before? TONY FIORE: David Ortiz, you know, I don't know. I'm going blank right now. But I faced them before, a few of them at least. I'm disappointed I walked David twice. I would have liked to have, you know, you don't want to walk people. Q. You were ready for the challenge? TONY FIORE: Oh. Yeah. We know each other and I wanted to see, you know, what happens. I'm not kicking myself in the butt too much about Pujols either, because it was a first pitch. And I was struggling today. I'm getting ahead of hitters, so if I'm going to throw a first pitch strike and he's going to do that, it's not a quality pitch I wanted, but I can't kick myself too much for trying to get ahead. That's what you got to do with these guys, get ahead. Q. You knew Pujols was a special hitter? TONY FIORE: Oh, I know who he is. I know who all those guys are. Q. Would you give him the same pitch again? TONY FIORE: Well, no, because he hit it for a home run.
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