AL DIVISION SERIES: TWINS v YANKEES

October 4, 2003

Al Newman

AL NEWMAN: (Inaudible). Terry set up office out there to be with me on a daily basis. I and my family can't thank him enough for the dedication he showed towards me. It doesn't surprise me though but he was there every single day.

AL NEWMAN: Well, I know that was the last thing that I remember. I was walking down to the dugout at 6:30 to prepare my charts for the game and, like I said, I do it on a regular basis. My neck felt a little stiff and I tried cracking my neck and just remember a tremendous amount of pain and I continued to the dugout and set up my charts on a little stand there, and I had trouble holding my head down because I had to look down on my charts. So I figured I would just go in and get a couple of Tylenol. And by the time I got to the training room I was very uncomfortable. I was sweating profusely and I couldn't hardly hold my head up. And then I remember getting in the ambulance and from there it's a bit foggy. But that was the last thing that I did. They didn't say that that was what caused it but I'm sure if I'd never cracked my neck it probably wouldn't have happened for a period of time.

AL NEWMAN: The last thing I remember is I was getting set up for CAT scans. That's the last thing I remember and then yesterday I was talking to our trainer, he said he called me after the game and spoke to me and I was doing fine; I felt good; but I didn't remember even speaking to him. So maybe I was in and out right then. He said somewhere between after the game and 6 o'clock in the morning I had this setback so that's all I recall.

AL NEWMAN: As a matter of fact, the day that we clinched, that was the day that I believe I came to. I came to and the doctors told me that we were on television and I flipped the television channels, and I watched the game, and I think the other team still had to lose or something like that. I kind of dozed off. When I woke up, the first person I saw was Gardie running around the field with my jersey. A couple of tears did go down my cheek, and I was very thankful for that. Not that I feared that they would forget me, that Gardie kept me in the minds of the fans and players. I'm very thankful. I always said that I always wanted to be the best coach that I can be for Ron Gardenhire, who gave me an opportunity, he and Terry Ryan, to be the third base coach, so it made me feel very special.

AL NEWMAN: Well, I don't know how many days. Again, whatever took us from going two games back to two and a half ahead, that's how many days I was out. I just remember, I woke up a week ago, I came home a week ago Friday, so I was probably up two or three days before that. So I probably came to on a Tuesday or Wednesday. I didn't realize that I was out that long. I remember when I first saw my wife I said, "honey, they told me you were coming." She said that she had been there since about the 10th of September. That's probably about the biggest thing. I lost about three weeks. The month of September has gone the fastest it has gone for me since I've been in baseball, but we clinched the pennant and that was good. That's the day I actually came to. So whatever day that was.

AL NEWMAN: (Laughs) That part scared me, the first part of it. I got a checkup on the eighth and then I got a procedure a month from now. As far as the playoffs are concerned, I'm pretty much done. I'll be watching afar. Believe it not, when I came to, I thought I'll be able to do the playoffs. As a typical former ballplayer, you think once you're out the hospital and everything is fine, you don't have any problems or anything to worry about. They told me right away that I wouldn't be able to coach third, which hurt. You go through the whole season wanting to get to that point and now you can't go on the field, so I'd thought I'd be right back, but this is going to be on are for a little bit. I was supposed to go over to Puerto Rico and manage the winter ball team, but I'm not going to be able to do that. I would say until late December that I'm totally healthy.

AL NEWMAN: I lived in Kansas City -- I was born there. I lived there until I was a junior in high school. I went to Bishop Hogan High School in KC, then I went to Ontario, California. So I was there for 16 years. As a matter of fact, one of our scouts brought me some Gate's barbecue sauce. That brought a big smile to my face. There was also a bottle of Arthur Bryant's and I that I just received a tossed salad in the trash. You're either a Gate's guy or an Arthur Bryant's guy, and I'm a Gate's guy.