MLB WORLD SERIES: MARLINS v YANKEES

October 22, 2003

Joe Torre

JOE TORRE: Well, I think it was the latter. We're gonna go long there and basically that's why you need a long man for instances like this. You get to the point we have one guy left on your bench, and if we had a situation to try to knock in a run, yeah, we'd pinch hit when Weaver's chance comes, but he's gonna have to hit probably, too. It was mainly for length and the fact that he's right-handed.

JOE TORRE: I needed to score a run. He was second and third...

JOE TORRE: Yeah.

JOE TORRE: That was a great opportunity for us. He certainly did a heck of a job. Contreras, too. He dug himself a hole by walking Pierre to lead off. That's not a lot of fun. But he went through the teeth of that batting order and did a heck of a job. That's what this is all about. You've got two great teams that deserve to be here, and you saw great baseball tonight. Yeah, we're disappointed we lost, but we, you know... I'm proud of my guys. They just kept coming back.

JOE TORRE: Yeah, that's the only thing you're concerned about, everything that's been going on around him, the emotion of it all. But it was a little -- mechanically, he just didn't look comfortable to me. He and Mel talked about it a little bit after he got in and obviously straightened it out. That's the mark of a great pitcher when you give up a few like that in the first and you don't let it affect what you have to do from there on out. It was such an emotional thing when he came out of that game. You look over, it's the World Series, you see the opposition standing and applauding, I think that's quite a tribute to him.

JOE TORRE: It was quite memorable for me. I mean Roger, he just took it all in and I think we'd all like to be in his body to see what it felt like walking off that mound maybe for the last time. And then to, obviously, be proud of what he did tonight. He certainly straightened it out, got it back. When I see Pudge standing at home plate, applauding, I thought that was, as I said, memorable.

JOE TORRE: I didn't have to wait to play them to see what they do. I watched the Cubs, how they played against the Cubs and the Giants. I mean, there's no quit in these guys. We certainly never took them for granted. They beat two very good teams, and they had to come from behind all the time. There's a long way to go in this thing. We certainly know what they're capable of doing, and it's a battle for us and it's a battle for them. I think it's a treat for everybody who's watching.

JOE TORRE: Well, Sierra is my pinch-hitter. I felt he had a better shot at it than Garcia at that time. There's two out, I don't really worry about what happens after that because unless we can keep the inning going, it doesn't really matter. Weaver, he's our long guy. Unfortunately, he hasn't pitched a whole lot, but he's been throwing. The home run, he got to 3-2 and you certainly don't want to walk somebody to lead off an inning. He made him hit it, he did, and the game's over. That was basically it. They're primarily right-handed over there, and that's why Weaver was in the game. I mean, if he's not in the game there, he shouldn't be on our roster.