MLB WORLD SERIES: MARLINS v YANKEES

October 25, 2003

Mike Mussina

MIKE MUSSINA: Well, obviously it got rumored that Boomer wasn't feeling good and I knew Andy wasn't in the building and Roger pitched the night before, so didn't leave too many options. I just asked him if he needed me to pitch. And he said no. That was just-- it was that short and that simple.

MIKE MUSSINA: Well, I think we're all just hoping for the opportunity to win a Championship. I don't know if we control our own destiny. Obviously we have to win baseball games to do it. But in the American League it's a 10-man team. We're out there with nine position players and a pitcher. We're trying to -- all trying to win it. I mean I am going to hopefully get the chance to go out there and pitch the ballgame that could give us the Championship. I don't know if I hold it in my own destiny or in my control, but we are going to go out there and try to win some ball games so that we can do it.

MIKE MUSSINA: Well, I think obviously they have hit the ball well this series. I think you want to keep the top two guys off the bases and try to keep the middle of the lineup from, you know, getting a good pitch to the hitter and getting a good swing on something maybe in a good hitter's count. Pudge has been hitting the ball well Conine has been hitting the ball well. If you can keep the first two guys off the bases then they all have to come through with hits in the middle of the lineup to score runs. Guys at the top, if they get on base, they are going to bunt on you; they are going to run on you; easily go from first to third, all those things that you can do with speed and that's where they have the top of the lineup. If you can control the first two guys your chances are much better.

MIKE MUSSINA: I think they -- they put the ball in play. I think they put the ball in play hard, two-strike counts, they go with the pitch. They know how to put together hits and manufacture runs. They have jumped on us for a couple of big innings and, you know, you just -- like -- they won games in the other rounds putting big innings together; came from behind in Chicago there, so you know, they can put together innings and they can put together runs and they don't ever believe that they are out of the game and that's important if you believe you always have a chance to win, then you are going to win a few more ball games here and there and that's what they have done.

MIKE MUSSINA: No, it's not uneasy. You just go through the day assuming you are going to play tomorrow. You can't have -- you can't think negatively that, well, maybe I will; maybe I won't. I am just going about the day assuming that I am going to pitch tomorrow. And that's what we all intend to need as a game tomorrow.

MIKE MUSSINA: I think deep down in every athlete they want to be the guy. I mean, from the time you are young, you want to be the guy that hits the homer, or the guy that makes the diving catch or throws the winning touchdown. You always want to be involved in the play or the event that changed that particular game. This is the World Series, so somebody is going to do something important in this ballgame to win it or lose it or keep a team in it, or whatever the case maybe, and there's always -- there's two or three moments in every game like that and we all want to be one of those people involved in one of those plays. I just get to be the one hopefully to pitch.

MIKE MUSSINA: I mean, when else was I going to come in here? You won't find me after the game, if that's what you wanted me to do.

MIKE MUSSINA: Then you wouldn't have seen me. It's either now or never.

MIKE MUSSINA: I am trying my best tonight. At the end of the season I am going to do my best. (Laughter).

MIKE MUSSINA: I mean, when you come to a game and you are down three games to two, you have to have some kind of confidence. You have to have some level of expectation and we expect to be here playing tomorrow. It's just -- that's all there is.

MIKE MUSSINA: (Laughs). Boy, I don't know. I hit two big free throws once about 15 years ago. Baseball, you know, I don't -- I don't know if there's really one big game that really sticks out. I played almost thirteen years now so I have seen a lot of important games, you know, I pitched the day Cal broke Lou Gerhig's record. I thought I was important that day because we certainly didn't want to lose that game because it would have been anticlimactic. I pitched in the Playoffs. I have pitched Game 1 of a World Series; pitched Game 1 of first two rounds of this postseason. You know, probably Game 7 of the World Series is about as big as it gets. Three innings of Games 7 in the ALCS was pretty big and I didn't even know what I was doing. It turned out that way after the fact. I am just glad I am able to go the postseason and that we have a chance to win as often as we do.

MIKE MUSSINA: Well, I don't -- I mean, who knows what the guy is thinking, or how much he is thinking, or is he thinking at all, or any of us thinking at all. Want to know if the catcher -- you and the catcher work great together, well, how do you know. It's just him and I, we got signs, how does anyone know what we are doing?

MIKE MUSSINA: You can overthink, you can worry about your mechanics, or the guy is throwing the ball pretty good, so I don't know what he's overthinking about right now because it's not baseball because he's throwing the ball great. He's been asked to go out there in some big spots for him in this postseason, in big games, and he's done it. I expect that if they call upon him for Game 7 that he's going to pitch well again.

MIKE MUSSINA: No, probably hitting. All pitchers want to be hitters and, you know, hitters want to be pitchers. You know, when I am a kid you don't think much about pitching, I mean, somebody has to pitch today; when do I get to hit? You know, that's -- when you are 10 or 12 that's just the way it is. So I was probably envisioning hitting a homer in the 9th as opposed to getting to start Game 7. At 34 years old I am pretty pleased that I get pitch.