MLB WORLD SERIES: ASTROS v WHITE SOX

October 26, 2005

Jermaine Dye

JERMAINE DYE: Well, you know when you've got a lot of guys that can get the MVP, that's just a great accomplishment. A couple of guys could have got it. We all worked hard to do whatever we could to help this team win and guys came up with big hits in a lot of situations. And it's just special for me to be thought of as MVP and become an MVP in that group.

JERMAINE DYE: Well, it's been a long time since they've been in the World Series and won. And it means a lot, not only to us in the clubhouse but to the organization, to the fans, to the city and it's just a great feeling. And we're just happy to be able to bring a championship to the city of Chicago, and it's really special.

JERMAINE DYE: Well, I had a game plan going up there. I know he throws a lot of sliders. He throws hard but usually his fastball is just to keep you honest. And I stuck with the game plan of going up there, looking for a slider and just not trying to do too much with it and the first pitch he threw me was a slider, swung kind of too hard and then threw me another one for a ball, and I stayed with my game plan, didn't really try to do too much, just tried to hit it hard somewhere and found a hole up the middle.

JERMAINE DYE: No, I think this off season. You know, I sat down with Kenny Williams this off season and he just showed me on paper what the makeup of this team would be like. And I always know from being around this game long enough and being in the Big Leagues that pitching and defense wins. I just knew our starting pitchers and our bullpen had the capability of going out there and shutting a lot of teams down, getting a lot of wins and with our offense I knew we were good, and not an overpowering offense, but an offense that is going to score at least four or five runs and let our pitchers go out there and keep us in the ballgame. And from the start of Spring Training everybody was hungry. Everybody wanted to go out there and win together. Everybody was pulling on the same rope.

JERMAINE DYE: I think his personality rubbed off on everybody. I think from the start of Spring Training we had a couple of new guys in there and didn't know really what to expect out of Ozzie. He's a laid back guy. He'll say whatever is on his mind and he keeps everybody loose. He wants you to go out and have fun, stay positive, no matter if you're down. And he just -- he knows how to win. He's been around a lot of winning teams and he's in the dugout rooting us on, getting us up, trying to keep us going. We don't have any egos on this team. I think that was what was really special about this club. Everybody got along with each other and everybody just wanted to win and go out there and do whatever we could to win and guys stepped up towards the end of the season and even though we were going bad we had a taste of not making it to the playoffs and I think guys got refocused again and played like we did the whole first half that last week and carried it on into the playoffs.

JERMAINE DYE: Well, I think my rookie season I was blessed to get called up to the Big Leagues with the Atlanta Braves. And what kind of talent we had on that team was unbelievable, from pitching on down through the hitters and a lot of veteran guys on that club who showed me the way to become a Major League Baseball player on the field and off the field. Getting to the World Series my rookie year I didn't really know what it was like. I was just excited to be there, just having fun. You just never know if you're going to get that chance again. Nine years later, ten years later or whatever, I think I kind of knew what it took to get back to the playoffs and win. And just playing with Oakland, we got to the playoffs three years I was there and just couldn't get over the hump. But this year it was unbelievable. I told guys all my experiences about what it takes to get there and what it's like. You just have to treat it like a regular season game. There's a lot of hype with media and stuff like that, but if you just stick with your game plan and stay with what got you there and not change, then good things will happen.