NL DIVISION SERIES: CUBS v BRAVES

October 2, 2003

Mark Prior

MARK PRIOR: I would say it's pretty special. You know, when you think about the playoffs, one of the constant things is to win the World Series, you've got to go through the Yankees and the Braves. Over the last ten, 12 years he's had such a winning tradition. To go up against a guy like Greg, he's a pretty remarkable pitcher, and what he's done over his career, I'm honored. I wouldn't want it any other way. This is my opportunity. Hopefully it goes in our favor.

MARK PRIOR: '92, I was 12, so I don't remember that, and unfortunately I don't recall. I don't remember that. Obviously I know what he's done with the Braves and I hear about what he's done with the Cubs. He's had a great career. I don't remember a whole lot at 12.

MARK PRIOR: I see a guy who's smart. He's kind of a student/professor now. He knows every hitter, every ballpark. He knows every umpire. He knows what he can do and a given situation, what he can get away with. That's the fun part of watching him. I grew up watching Schilling, Johnson and a lot of power pitchers, I resemble a lot, but watching him work is pretty awesome. He doesn't have an overpowering fast ball. He knows how to change speed, make guys expand their zone and do the things he wants them to do. If he wants a ground ball, he'll through a pitch and keep throwing it to get that result. To be able to do that in this game against these hitters is unbelievable.

MARK PRIOR: It doesn't necessarily worry me. Nothing is definite in baseball. Everybody knows that. I have a confident feeling that helps everybody in the locker room, and that's great. You still got to go out and make pitches and execute and you've got to do the little things to win the ballgame. I guess it's nice people feel that way, but whatever warm sensation they can pass in tomorrow night's game, so be it. We're going to come out and play our game and execute and do the things fundamentally sound that we know we can do and we're going to come out here confident amongst our fans. It's our home field advantage. It's going to be our weather, our ballpark, our fans. We've got to play it that way.

MARK PRIOR: The little league I guess at 12 years old. The highlight of the little league I think was we won our district championship. I think we were the only team to do that at that certain little league out in San Diego. I remember Shawn Burrows the little league World Series again, second year in a row. What was that 7th, 8th great? Being sick of school at that time, wanting to move on.

MARK PRIOR: You know, rain, we have been dealing with that in the last three or four starts here at home. It's not something very easy. When it's here, it's better to be in our clubhouse than theirs. Cold doesn't really worry with me. I'm kind of glad it's cooling off a little bit. After spending all summer in St. Louis and here, the humidity, it helps you revitalize your body a little bit. I felt great playing catch today and loosening up. Obviously when it's cold here, more times, the wind is blowing in. We -- going against Maddux it's going to be a low-scoring game. I'm looking forward it to it. The cold will not really bother me. I enjoy it.

MARK PRIOR: Yeah, I'm pretty much -- I have anxiety before every game. I think if you didn't you wouldn't be human. These last say since about the middle of August when we were playing Houston, every start we have had it's been a big game for us. Usually you go out and do whatever you've got to do before the game. In the bullpen when you start warming up the anxiety for me starts kind of transforming itself to more of adrenaline and getting more focused and more focused as my warmup is going. You know, as soon as I walk out of those steps, I know what my job is. I'm not trying to go out and carry the team and throw a no-hitter and hit three homeruns. My job is to go out and make pitches, execute the game plan we established before the game and make adjustments accordingly, and I think knowing what I've got to do and one pitch at a time, concentrating on that, that helps me stay focus. Obviously things are different. It's the playoffs. Things are magnified. Like I said earlier, for us the last month, almost every game for us has been a playoff kind of atmosphere. We are fortunate we are able to kind of pitch under these conditions. I think Zambrano pitched well last night. Hopefully we can keep working and do the things we want to do against this team.

MARK PRIOR: We have idle conversations about it. We would like to stay together. I think we all have really good relationships. We're all pretty good friends and go out and stuff, but a lot of it is out of our hands. I know I'm wound up until 20008. Whatever happens to me is not my choice. Same with Zambrano. A lot of that aspect of the game we don't have any control over it, so we don't have to worry about it. That's the business of the game these days. It's out of our -- I guess we could have our input if they ask for it. It's not something we worry about because we really have no same. Me personally, I would love to stay with these guys. I want to pitch with Kerry for as long as I can. They've helped me kind of grow in the last year and a half. I hope people recognize that. I hope they try to keep us together, because I think we have something that's building here that's positive.

MARK PRIOR: I don't know. I mean, it's nice. It's different here in Chicago than it is in southern California. In southern California obviously, people don't -- you're in one day and you're out the next kind of thing. I guess the way I look at it, I mean, this game is a very humbling game, it's very negative, negative in that if you start worrying about how well you're doing or concentrating on those things, it will bite you in the butt and hurt in a heartbeat. I take day by day and do the things that I know that make me successful or feel the way I've got to feel to make me ready to pitch. The only people I really worry about is the 25 guys in that lockerroom. As long as I'm respected by them and they know I'm going out every day busting my butt for them is the only thing I'm really carrying about. If you ask everybody I think they will say the same thing.

MARK PRIOR: I think it was both. It gave me three weeks off to try to get away. Through the course of the season, it can get stressful. Having three weeks off knowing I'm not allowed to pitch or able to pitch, you kind of just get a chance to regenerate and get your mind clear and refocus on what you want to do. Those three weeks were a long three weeks. Obviously, I don't want to sit out, but I think what made -- what made it easier for me is the team was winning, so I didn't feel like I was letting them down by not being able to pitch, but Cruz came in and had two great starts, and so when I came back in, I was hoping I could kind of basically keep up with everybody. They were pitching well. So, you know, I think in the longrun, it will probably be beneficial for me over my career. Maybe I didn't end up with as many innings as I could have. Who really knows. Only time will tell. I'm happy to be where I am right now.

MARK PRIOR: Not that much more. There is going to be three things, we're either going to be -- there is going to be pressure one way or the other. I'm going to go out and do my job. I'm not putting any more pressure on myself than I normally do. Obviously I set my standards pretty high for myself. There is not going to be any more pressure than there already was or was going to be.

MARK PRIOR: They're awesome. They're pretty remarkable. Nobody can say they're fair weather. This is probably the one town, the one city, where you can never say they're jumping on the band wagon. They have been here forever. Especially since -- as long as I can remember. I mean, it's been packed every summer, last summer. That's pretty remarkable, especially for a stadium that only holds 39, 40,000. To have them travel as well as they do, I think that helps us and gives us a little bit of an edge on the road. We're not playing just against Cardinal fans. With them traveling as well as they do, it Evans outline. We kind of feel like we've got a little of a home crowd. It's nice when you're name is introduced in St. Louis or Houston or wherever, you get cheers. I like being booed, it's nice. It's a sign of respect. These fans are great and hopefully we can give them something to carry them through next year.

MARK PRIOR: I don't know. I never really had any expectations as far as when we would get to the playoffs. Obviously, we went to the playoffs a lot when I was in college and in high school. For me last year was frustrating not from the standpoint of anything personal, but just from the standpoint that it sucked. It sucked to lose 95 ballgames. Nobody wants to lose that many ballgames, but for me I knew from day one, I think in Spring Training, we had a good ball club. We had -- you know we might not be the best offensive team we might not be the best defensive team, best pitching on a given day, but over the course of the season when we put -- we can run a lot of different things out there. Some days we can club you to death. I think we had a ball club I didn't necessarily know if we made the playoffs, but I think we did extremely well. Obviously when Dusty coming in and changing the entire philosophy of this organization, it's not all right to lose or settle for second place, I think with the guys they brought in a lot of Veteran guys who can kind of coach and mentor a lot of the younger guys on this team, in the way -- I mean, the one thing -- if I don't learn anything this year, the one thing is this is season ball. It doesn't matter how far you are out it doesn't mean you don't have a chance to get somewhere. Over two months, so much can happen in the course of the season, and I think we just made the additions we made at the right time. Dusty did a super job bringing this team together at the right time. It's a long season. You can't build team unity in six weeks of Spring Training. It doesn't matter how long you get here as long as you get here.