NL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: ASTROS v CARDINALS

October 17, 2004

Phil Garner

PHIL GARNER: Well, it doesn't change the way I manage. We've not managed for the home run, in other words we've played aggressive ball, we've taken chances, we've run when we've been on the bases when you can. You wouldn't do that if you were playing an American League-style ball that a lot of people are accustomed to, or if you're waiting for home runs. I wouldn't say that we have -- we've had home run power and we've hit a lot of home runs down the stretch here, but we've also been a team that can drive in some runs with just base hits, too. It's been sort of unusual because we really haven't come up with several big hits in a couple of key situations that I thought we would have, and perhaps as the series plays out we'll start doing that. But I can't argue with the home runs, either, particularly when they add on late in the ballgame.

PHIL GARNER: He'll be available. For how much, I don't know yet. We won't know until he goes out on the field and throws a little bit, see how he feels. But he'll be available today.

PHIL GARNER: Well, you could tell what the fans here think about him by the reception he got yesterday when they announced his name. He has pitched well here. I think it's a good call for him. He obviously has already pitched in some big ballgames for us, and he's pitched well. So I'm just disappointed he didn't get a couple of hits in that last ballgame. I think that's what he's disappointed in, too. But he'll do a good job. He'll give you a great effort. You never have to be concerned about that, and he's been exciting. Obviously, the fans are behind him and with good reason. He went to high school in Galveston, probably already knew that. A lot of people in Houston have adopted him as a native son.

PHIL GARNER: Well, first thought comes to mind is I'm disappointed for Andy because Andy truly is a winning player. He's the kind of guy that you get -- the kind of guys that get you to playoffs and get you to the World Series. So it's very disappointing for him. When he had the arm injury, he had a partial tear in the tendon; we all knew that, so it wasn't a mystery. At one point he was really battling to get through each start when he goes out there. We were struggling out of the bullpen. He comes to me and says that he'll be able to come out of the bullpen in between starts if I need him. He's just barely getting through starts. So he's genuinely a winner, he's genuinely a champion. He's one of the special people that we have. So I'm disappointed for him, because this would be his arena that he would deserve, and particularly in his hometown. Disappointed for that. The other side of it is it would be awful nice to have him to be able to pitch in this series. He's been here, he's done that and he's pitched well in these situations.

PHIL GARNER: Well, we try to teach him how to conserve energy. Roger (Clemens) has already talked to him about some of the things that he does and some of his work that he does. And he does, he has so much energy. I think experience is such a good teacher in this respect that when you have that energy, you feel like you're going to be able to go forever, sometimes you can. But also you can wear yourself out, and you hit the wall quickly. I'm not sure that he hit the wall quickly, but I do know that he was fatigued. Probably somewhere in the fourth inning, he began to fatigue a little bit. It's something that each time he goes out there, he learns a little bit more about his self, how to contain all of that exuberance that he has, and each time he is a little bit better, each time is a little bit more of a learning experience. I think he'll improve. Will he be where we want him to be tomorrow? Probably not. But by the same token we know how far he can go, whatever how long, he'll go, he'll push it as far as he can.

PHIL GARNER: Well, I think that's good and I think that's important. That's one of the reasons Carlos Beltran is having a good series, because you have Berkman behind him that's also dangerous. Kent's had a few balls that he's hit out of the ballpark, too. So he's shown that he's dangerous in these playoff situations. I think what you'd like to see is everybody be somewhat hot together, that way you can't slip around any one guy, you can't work around any one guy, somebody's going to get you somewhere in there. So very quietly Lance Berkman has been doing a good job in that respect, too. Comes up with a big two-out, two-strike hit to drive in a run yesterday, that puts us in position for Kent to be able to hit the two-run home run to put us ahead. All those things work interchangeably and it's important when one guy is swinging the bat well and when they try to pitch around him, that somebody else is picking up the slack.

PHIL GARNER: Well, it's in that same vein that we've been talking about. The Houston Astros did not need to be legitimized. But when you have guys of his caliber that want to come to Houston, then I think that elevates your organization a little bit in the eyes of some of the players around the league. This has long been a great organization, much better than people thought. I've been in a lot of organizations and I've talked to players and said over the years, "Look," players that came through this organization and didn't know any different, I said, "It's a lot better in Houston than you think it is. It's a great organization from the clubhouse people right up to the top." What I have found with some of the players, when they go to other organizations, they'll come back and say, "You know, you were right about that. We were treated very well in Houston." But a player of Andy's caliber, who's been a champion, been in the World Series, pitched all the way up at the top, has such a tremendous resume, wants to come here, I think that helps our organization tremendously.

PHIL GARNER: Well, let's first address Ken Caminiti. I knew Ken well, and I knew some things about Ken that weren't good things. We were all saddened by his early passing, there's no question. He's part of the fraternity and the family of baseball, and we hate to see that happen. But we also knew that Ken had some demons that were difficult to deal with. What I hope is that in this discussion, that we don't talk about all the bad things, that we talk about what you're just asking, what's going to happen, what prevents these kind of things from happening? I think baseball goes through some of these at times. I think we went through the scandals that happened in Pittsburgh back in the '70s with cocaine. It was a black mark on the game. Players were doing cocaine, how many? I don't know. But if one's doing it, that's too many. There have been players that are doing steroids, no denying that. Is it 50 percent, 10 percent? I don't know. But if it's one, it's too many. I would hope in the discussion about Caminiti, that we finally decide once and for all that number one, illegal substances, we don't need to be using. Number two, substances that are bad for your body we don't need to be using. Number three, if this message gets out to young people in the country that baseball is going to clean it up, I do think the testing program will work and I think it will work to clean up the sport. I think it's already working. Our club has been tested I think four times since I've been here. These are random tests, and nobody knows when it's going to happen in this case. So I think that is in the right direction. To me, from what I can gather, from what I hear, scuttlebutt around the clubhouse and everything else, I think this has had an effect, and I think that if you couple this with what's going on with Caminiti, it will start to hit home. It is very serious. One of the things that young people fail to look at is the finality of some of the things you do in your youth. We tend to say, "Well, you know, I'm 25, I can do whatever because I feel bulletproof and I don't feel so bad the next day and it may even make me feel good." The long-term use, the effects of steroids over the long term, it's not good. In some areas we don't even know how bad they are. I had a neighbor in Pittsburgh that was head of internal medicine at Mercy in Pittsburgh. He told me they gave steroids to people who had two years left to live, for sure, and it was just to keep them alive with a decent life. So what happens in 10 or 15 years, we've just begun to find out, I think. Hopefully all of this with Caminiti is going to bring some of this to a head and everybody's going to continue on this path of cleaning up our sport and I think it's going to work. As far as Bonds goes and the reported recording, I don't know if Bonds used steroids or not, I have no clue. I don't know if I trust anything else just yet. I'd like to have all the information in before I would make a judgment or anybody else would make a judgment. I think certainly tapes can be incriminating. You also don't know what the motive is from the alleged person on the tape or even if the tape is authentic. So I think it's not fair to Barry and not fair to baseball to draw a conclusion yet on that.

PHIL GARNER: No, I know what's going on. When those Yankees get hot, look out. But, you know, Boston can do the same thing. They might turn around, have the same sort of game tonight. They're powerhouse teams. Certainly the Yankees have just been fantastic in this series; it's been hard to get them out. Their lineup has been unbelievable at swinging the bat. Guys are doing everything that you'd want your lineup to do. They're putting the ball in play, they're hitting with power, they're hitting with men on base, they're hitting with nobody on base. They're just doing everything you'd want them to do. I'm not surprised, even in a playoff situation, that something like that can happen, because I've seen good teams and good lineups. They can explode on you. But it wouldn't surprise me to see Boston put that kind of game on the board, either.

PHIL GARNER: Well, the good news is it is one game. That's all it is. I don't think you'll have a problem with -- I don't think Terry Francona is going to have a problem with his players and having them focused. Plenty of good veteran players over there, plenty of good players that have been down in this stretch run before. That won't be a problem. You say that, the real trick is to try to get guys not to do too much in any one at-bat or any one inning. I think that's where your real difficulty comes in. You want guys just to get on base, you want to move the runners along, you want to score runs. In the efforts of scoring one run, before you know it, sometimes you've scored six or seven and then innings can get big on you. If you watch what happened with the Yankees last night, you get a walk here and there, a simple base hit, Bernie Williams gets a hit off the end of the bat into the center of the diamond, gets a base hit, next thing you know, two guys are on, boom, three-run home run. The real trick for Boston is to play for one run and not a bunch of runs at once. I think if you feel that, if you sense that, then big things can happen for you.