AL DIVISION SERIES: RED SOX v WHITE SOX

October 4, 2005

Ozzie Guillen

OZZIE GUILLEN: This kid has really impressed me. I saw this kid in spring training and I liked the way he throws. The best thing about this kid, he's not afraid. He throws a lot of strikes, and I put this kid in situations he should be put in, and going through it. He had a lot of success, and that's one of the biggest reasons I stick with him in tough games. I think it's easy when you have safe games, and you have a good lead, and when you want to win the game, I think this kid did everything we asked him to do and he did a tremendous job for us.

OZZIE GUILLEN: I talked to my players yesterday and, to me, that's me. I think we went through -- when you win 99 games, it's tougher to win 11. I know the period of time is different. Now, I think -- I was the same Ozzie. I went out and talked to everybody from the Boston Red Sox, I hugging all my friends. I saw my team real relaxed. Just go there and play the game the way we play. We cannot change anything. The rest will take care of itself. Obviously, this morning before the game started you are anxious, not because you're nervous and scared, that's part of the game. I think, on the other side, Boston has a lot of experience, but they have the same feeling we have. That's a natural feeling about human nature.

OZZIE GUILLEN: Not really. They don't have to. I think we showed up to play another games on the weekend. We showed up in Cleveland to win and we did. Not because we tried to help anybody. We want to win games.

OZZIE GUILLEN: It's exciting. Some players have never been there before. That's my first time I have been there as a manager. Every time they sing the National Anthem, I was nervous. The first game, the first couple of innings, we just have to go the way we go. Hopefully we score first.

OZZIE GUILLEN: That's a good question. I want to make it clear now on national TV. If you hear my comments after the game that day, the way I talked about Manager Eric Wedge, the manager, and I talked about the fans, I never see anybody lose a game and get a standing ovation. I feel the way they played, I feel proud the way they did. They make the Cleveland fans really excited. They make baseball really great to watch. The thing is, I was playing around with fans next to me all game long, and we back and forth, back and forth, and the mascot was joking around with me almost the whole game. That happened the 6th inning when I bring -- 6th or 7th inning when I bring El Duque to pitch, I make a comments to the fans. I wish I have their phone number. They can call you about it. That's the truth. We joked almost all the game, whatever it was. And all of a sudden the mascot does the sign, and all of a sudden I put my hands like that, and all of a sudden everybody in the nation thought I was telling the fans to choke. I respect this game and respect the Cleveland Indians. We play against them, and I apologized with the mascot, and there was a couple of people. It was one lady and six guys sitting next to me and we were just playing around all the game. And they take it the wrong way, that's fine. I know the last couple of days I sleep pretty good about it because I don't have anything in my conscience to make me feel guilty about it.

OZZIE GUILLEN: No, not a pitch count. My guys are going to go -- they hopefully go to 112, 115. They're throwing well. Right now it's a different ball game. Right now we have one thing in mind. I think Contreras throws the ball good, and if anybody throws the ball good, they'll stay there. There's not going to be pitch counts at all.

OZZIE GUILLEN: Score one more run than they do. Right now if we pitch well, we know we face a pretty good ball club, amazing hitters, but I think the match-up we have, and the way we pitch and play the game, a lot of people don't think we can win. It's going to be up to clutch hitting and good pitching. Hopefully my pitching staff does it. It's always goes back to pitching.

OZZIE GUILLEN: The same with everybody else. You put any of my players sitting in this podium right now, they will say the exact same thing Contreras said. I know my players and they play hard from me. When Contreras came to this country, he comes to New York, it's a little bit different. In New York, all the media attention every game is big. All of a sudden you come to Chicago and he feels more comfortable here. We've got a lot of people that speak Spanish here. My staff, my kids, help him a lot. I don't treat anybody any different from any of my players. I keep them the same way.

OZZIE GUILLEN: Because if I lose, they say they have a good year. If I win, what a job he did. I think it's easy to go on the field that way and go out and enjoy yourself. I was in Atlanta when we were supposed to win, and we lost, and we were really disappointed. We got swept. A couple years later, I went to the Marlins and we were supposed to win one game, and we won 11. That's a better feeling when you do that.

OZZIE GUILLEN: Because when my team scores first, we play better, because we start pitching better, and we definitely we play better defense, and over the year, you know, every time we score first, most of the time we keep the lead.

OZZIE GUILLEN: El Duque, when we signed him, that was our goal, looking for the post-season. Right now, you know, I've got four guys throwing the ball better than him. It's nothing better than having experienced people, especially with kids like Cotts and Jenks. I think having them over in the bullpen and making them relaxed, and talk to them about how it feels to be in a Playoff, it's a plus. It was not easy for me to pick between McCarthy and him in the post-season. He's got a lot of experience there and hopefully when he's there, he will do his job.