MLB WORLD SERIES: MARLINS v YANKEES

October 19, 2003

Jack McKeon

JACK MCKEON: Same thing. Same as last night.

JACK MCKEON: No, I don't think so. We play one game at a time whether it's home or on the road. Just try to do the best we can. We have won two -- one on the road -- we lost the first one on the road, then we won two of the first games on the road, so I don't know if it's a good omen or not.

JACK MCKEON: I really think that's -- that's set upon the players themselves, the hitters themselves. I've always, from my years' experience, always felt the pitcher had the advantage the first time. After that, it was pretty much even up. In the playoffs, World Series, it seems to be something different; anything can happen. I think you can throw all that stuff out the window.

JACK MCKEON: Well, I think Pudge, we all know, is an outstanding defensive catcher. I think he's done a tremendous job all season long in bringing some of these young pitchers along. I think you're seeing the final results of what he's done during the season come into play in the postseason. But he's been able to win their confidence and kind of coax them out for six or seven good innings.

JACK MCKEON: I think we'll be able to use him tonight. We've got off tomorrow. He hasn't pitched that much in the postseason, but two-and-a-third innings, he didn't throw that many pitches last night. I think he could probably go for an inning. I wouldn't think he'd go over an inning.

JACK MCKEON: He's a very, very detailed person, really. He's one of the unique guys in this game that if you come out to the ballpark - and probably you guys are not here that early - but he's probably out here at one o'clock, two o'clock. He'll be rolling balls down the first baseline, rolling balls down the third baseline, checking the grass, see where the balls roll. You'll see him out in the outfield with a baseball, throwing against the wall to get the caroms and find all the spooky places in the outfield. When you see a guy do that, you kind of feel pride, a lot of pride in the fact that he works so hard. I'm certainly proud of him. I know in San Francisco, for example, the first time we went out there, way back in August, I was out doing some walking and jogging about one o'clock, here comes Pierre. He's got two baseballs. He's going out in the outfield. I said to somebody, "I'll guarantee you he's going out to check the walls." He's throwing it off the cement wall in right-center, checking the rebounds. When you see a guy like that, you say, "This kid really wants to be good." You wish that everybody in the game would have the kind of drive that this young man has. He's an exceptional kid.

JACK MCKEON: That he, what, crossed the line?

JACK MCKEON: We always kid about that. He's a great kid. He's young, a young kid. He likes to talk. We kind of agitate each other once in a while. But one thing about him, he may talk a lot, but he walks the walk as well. That's what I'm so happy about.

JACK MCKEON: No, I don't think so. Really, when you look at starting the season like we do early, and it depends what city you're in, if you're in a cold-weather city, it's gonna be cold. I think these guys realize the importance of the World Series, being in the World Series. I really don't think temperature is gonna be a factor. We're used to playing in nice, warm weather, but we went into Chicago and it was pretty cool, one of those nights. We expect it to be cool here. I don't think that's going to take anything away from our ballclub.

JACK MCKEON: Somebody said, "As long as they get your name out there and spell it right, who cares?" I didn't see that program, but have a little fun, I'm a fun guy. I like to have fun with everybody, too. I guess it goes hand-in-hand.

JACK MCKEON: I really thought it all started to come together in Cincinnati when we had lost six in a row then came into Cincinnati and swept the Reds when they were playing pretty good. I think it all started there. It just seemed to snowball from then on. Everybody started to have fun. This is the name of the game. This is the thing I preach when I came in here, I wanted these guys to have fun and enjoy coming to the ballpark. It makes you so -- you feel so much pride in seeing these guys come out to the park. I mean, you come out to this clubhouse, there's 18, 20 guys in there two o'clock, 2:30. You just love to come to the park. I think that helps you play winning baseball.

JACK MCKEON: I think that comes down to each individual manager, how he feels he ought to use his personnel. And also when you check with your personnel. I don't think there's a guy in that clubhouse of mine that would turn down the ball for five days in a row now that they're in the World Series. I think this is the time they all want to get out there, on stage, in front of a national audience. I don't think that you're talking -- I mean, you read a lot about, "You'll hurt this guy," and this and that, hey... Back to the old days when Bob Gibson pitched 300-some innings, Jim Kaat pitched 300, Gaylord Perry pitched 300. None of those guys ended up with sore arms, anything like that. I think you got to do what you think is right. If you think a kid's arm is not in the condition that he could go those situations, well, then, you have to be a little bit cautious. I think it's an individual situation with a locality of factors combined, the players' and the manager's thinking.

JACK MCKEON: Well, we work hard. The coaches, I got a good bunch of coaches. They worked extremely hard preparing for this series and preparing the pitchers and the hitters. I think when you put it all together, everybody's got the same goal in mind and everybody wants to go out and have some fun. We do it in a fun-loving manner that tries to keep everybody loose. We try to keep these guys loose. We don't even want them to think about -- it's like people saying, "You gonna have a meeting?" Not gonna have a meeting, tell them how important this series is. You think these guys don't know that? They know how important this is. Sometimes you can put more pressure by trying to keep promoting how important it is to win this game or that game, and I think they go out and they don't play within themselves sometimes.

JACK MCKEON: I probably talked about Pudge as much as anybody on this club in the last two weeks, but I'll say it again. Pudge has done a tremendous job for us, no question about it. He's the same All-Star player that he was a couple years ago. The only problem you had was you had a lot of the cynics thing last year, because he was injured last year and he didn't have the year that everybody expected him to have. So they figured that his skills were slipping. Now that he's healthy, I think you saw last night what he can mean to a ball game when he picked the guy off third in the playoffs. In San Francisco he picked Snow off first, that got us out of a jam. He's done a remarkable job working with our young pitchers and bringing them along. The pitchers have tremendous confidence in him. It was all reports he never did this, he never did that, but, heck, he's been a key factor in all our pitching meetings that we go over the hitters. He's been offering a lot of input about the American League players that he's seen through the years. Plus the fact that he's out there taking charge and showing the young guys the way; very aggressive in the dugout, vocal, cheerleading, pushing these guys. I can't say enough about the job that he's done. He's done a spectacular job for us all year. He's definitely back into the All-Star category that he was for so many years with the Texas Rangers.

JACK MCKEON: First of all, on the Pudge situation about next year, that's not my category. That's not my area. I don't know what the situation is. We're interested in playing the World Series now and that stuff will take care of itself after the season. But our scouts have done, especially Joe Moeller, has done an outstanding job all season long. He and along with a number of other scouts have been advancing in the Yankees and all the other clubs involved in the playoffs. The information that we receive has been very, very valuable. We picked up some very, very delicate information that we hadn't had before, and plus the fact that so many of our coaches know people in the American League as well, have been able to siphon out some information from other clubs in the American League that has been very, very helpful. Even in last night's game, we had some things that probably other clubs don't have.