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MLB WORLD SERIES: MARLINS v YANKEESOctober 19, 2003Josh BeckettNEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: Game Two THE MODERATOR: Josh Beckett is here. We will take questions for Josh. Q. Growing up in Texas, I was wondering how much you followed Roger Clemens, he was your idol, how much contact or how many times you talked to him since you've made it to the Major Leagues? JOSH BECKETT: I haven't talked to him much. Yeah, I idolized him. I don't know that my mechanics are that much like him. I know when I was younger, I used to try to pitch like him and stuff. Definitely in the street when we were playing home run derby. I have an autographed ball by him, stuff like that. Q. When you got the autographed ball, did you actually meet Roger? JOSH BECKETT: No, my dad actually worked with his brother and he got it for me. Q. Was there an event that turned your season around? You came back from the surgery and stuff... JOSH BECKETT: Surgery? I had surgery? Q. No, the rest, the arm problem. Is there one thing when you came back that really got you into a groove and got you to the point where you are now? JOSH BECKETT: I think I did some little things in my mechanics to help me stay healthy. I think it maybe made me a little more deceptive, helped me hide the ball a little bit better. I contribute it to that. Q. Those of us who have known you since high school have known that you planned on being the No. 1 starter in the Big Leagues, someone whose name is recognized in big games like this. Will you walk out to the mound now on Tuesday night, feeling a little different, having ascended to someone who's very well-known at this point? JOSH BECKETT: No, I won't feel any different. I won't feel any different. I'll just -- got to execute pitches, that's the bottom line. It doesn't matter if you're the No. 1 starter or the No. 5 starter, you have to execute pitches to compete at this level. It doesn't matter if it's the World Series, the game before the World Series, opening day, game after the All-Star Game, doesn't matter. You have to execute pitches. Q. Can you talk for a couple minutes about the importance of scouting for this series, and what the scouts have told you, what the spots are that you should be hitting against the Yankees? JOSH BECKETT: Couple minutes? That's a little long. I think I'll shorten it down. No, just like I say, you have to execute pitches. I usually pitch to my strengths. I don't really worry about the scouting reports. I just am gonna pitch to my strengths. It's nice to know if you're behind the count or something, that if a guy cheats and those are the kind of counts that he likes to, you know, I don't know, cheat inside or something like that, but it's just nice to know those things. You don't really pitch to them. Q. The other night in Chicago you downplayed the four innings that you threw in relief. You said it was your throw day anyway. Isn't the effort that you put out on the mound totally different than what you do in the bullpen, and how did you feel the next day after you had come back and thrown those four innings? JOSH BECKETT: Yeah, I mean, the effort's a little bit more. I threw a few more pitches than I probably would have in my bullpen. Like I said, it was my throw day. It wasn't like I went out there the day after I pitched or something like that. Actually didn't throw that many pitches for four innings. I think I threw under 50 pitches. So like I said, it's different but it's not -- you're still locating the ball and stuff like that. Q. Do you feel okay now? Did you have any...? JOSH BECKETT: No, I feel fine. Yeah, no, I threw bullpen today, in fact. Q. I just want to ask about your team's attitude going in against the Yankees. People said you guys were not intimidated; you didn't show it. Is this a special group? You would think a young team would be more intimidated against Yankees, in Yankee Stadium particularly? JOSH BECKETT: Why is that? Q. The history, they have all these big names on the team, $185 million payroll. JOSH BECKETT: We're not worried about that. We're baseball players. We're gonna play baseball. Doesn't matter who we're playing against. Q. Do you think going home and pitching there, where you had so much success, especially against the Cubs in the NLCS, is gonna be a boost to both you and the team going back there for Game 3? JOSH BECKETT: I think it's just gonna be nice. We played two games in Chicago, now we're playing two games here. This is actually our longest road trip for a while, since the end of the season. So it's just gonna be nice to get back there. We haven't been home in a while. Q. Do you feel any added pressure because of the game you just had, your last start, the two-hitter, to do something similar on Tuesday night? JOSH BECKETT: I think you always strive for that. It's not always gonna work out like that, but, yeah, I feel like I should go out there and do that again. I don't feel any added pressure, though. I guess that was the answer you were looking for. Q. I know you keep a lot of information in a notebook. Have you noticed at all any difference between how batters who haven't faced you before do, versus guys who maybe have seen you several times and perhaps learn a little bit more about you? Any difference between facing guys for the first time or not? JOSH BECKETT: I think that, actually, the upper hand in that situation is the pitcher. It doesn't always work out that way, obviously. But I think the upper hand in that generally goes to the pitcher because we're still doing the same thing. You just got to go out and keep the ball down. They've never seen, like, where I throw from, stuff like that. They're all watching tape, but all the tapes from behind. Q. I just wanted to know, is there any such thing as momentum in the postseason, stuff that carries over from one series to the next? JOSH BECKETT: I don't know. This is my first postseason. Like I said, we're playing good baseball. We've been playing good baseball since September 1st, or actually, before that. But really good, competitive baseball since September 1st. We had some series there in September that were like playoff series for us because we had to catch the Phillies, then pass them. So we just have been playing good baseball for a while now. I think it just carried over. Q. You mentioned, as a kid growing up, pretending you were Roger Clemens. How certain were you when you realized that you had this talent that you would eventually be in the position that you're in right now? JOSH BECKETT: I don't know. I never really -- I didn't think I'd be in the World Series when I was 23. So I don't think that I ever, still, to this day, "I'll be in the World Series starting Game 3," or whatever. It's pretty exciting for us right now, so... End of FastScripts... |
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