NL DIVISION SERIES: MARLINS v GIANTS

October 3, 2003

Jack McKeon

JACK McKEON: Going with Lowell today. I knew that would be the first question (laughter).

JACK McKEON: Well, it was tough. It was a tough decision. I mean, both of them are ready. Both give us good defense. I thought about it all night, talked to my coaches about it, and we came up with the conclusion that we'd give Lowell a shot today.

JACK McKEON: No, Cabrera is not in the lineup.

JACK McKEON: Yeah, I talked to them all. Nothing determining. You know, we could go either way. We thought we had a very good player whichever way we decided to go. It was a consensus that, hey, Mike was ready. He was a big factor in our push to get here. Gives us another dimension, if you have Cabrera on the bench, it makes our bench much stronger. And, you know, Miguel had a little tough time the first two games. This might be a good time to give him a breather and get Lowell back in the lineup. But we've done this before with Miguel. He's responded. I told him that we hadn't given up on him, it was just a case we were going to put Mike in there today.

JACK McKEON: I have no idea. I just think that it was a tough decision, like I said, but one that we're going to have to live with. And he's an outstanding player.

JACK McKEON: Lowell bats sixth in front of Conine. Encarnacion moves up to fifth. The rest the lineup stays the same. He's been hitting the ball real good. We've been watching him real closely. Everybody thinks he's ready.

JACK McKEON: He didn't have much to say. On the phone, using his cell phone somewhere outside the dug out, outside the clubhouse. I had a chance to talk to him. He understood. "Everything's fine. I want to win."

JACK McKEON: No, we've done this before with him. We've done it during the season. When he had a tough time for a few days, we'd give him a day off, come back. I think you got to realize, this is not the regular season. This is a special time of the year. You have to realize there's 25 guys in that clubhouse that don't care which way you go. They're all concerned with winning. They're pretty much in agreement with everything you do. They may not like it, but they want to win, and they're not going to make waves.

JACK McKEON: I'm as relaxed as I was when I took over this club. I mean, you know, a lot of pressure, but on the other hand you just stay relaxed, stay calm, do your thing. You know, I sleep well. Whatever decision I made, I have to live with. But I also feel it's in the best interest of the club. And that's what I'm concerned with. Some work, some don't work. But, still, you know, the toughest thing, I got one decision to make, I got one choice. You guys got two or three.

JACK McKEON: Well, we always play well before big crowds. And we love to see our home fans come out and root for us. And I think it energizes the players, it shows the players that these fans appreciate what they've done so far. And I think when we get huge crowds in here, our guys are lifted up, want to show the fans here by saying thank you for coming out.

JACK McKEON: Whatever I said in the past goes again.

JACK McKEON: I'd like to tell you, but I'm not going to tip it off because they're probably watching this here. But we're going to go out there and be aggressive. I hope they can handle him the same way they did the last time.

JACK McKEON: Pavano is in our plans every day out of the bullpen. Penny, if necessary, probably will be available tomorrow.

JACK McKEON: Not really. Cabrera is right-handed, too. Doesn't really make any difference. Didn't enter into the factor. We thought he was ready. We thought it was time to get him back in there, see if he could get us, you know, a little extra juice in there. What was the second part of your question?

JACK McKEON: We just decided to stay the same way we went the other day. We have different ideas of what we want to do, but I'm not going to divulge them.

JACK McKEON: Well, first of all, that's not my area. But I'll give my personal opinion. I think revenue sharing certainly is going to help smaller market clubs if they use the revenue sharing to put it back into player development or procurement, what have you.

JACK McKEON: I don't know really about that. That's out of my realm. But really, when you get down to it, whether you're big market or little market, if you got good players, you can win.

JACK McKEON: Well, it's a tremendous honor, you know, to be selected Manager of the Year. The only reason you get Manager of the Year is if you have good players. And I've got a tremendous amount of good players in this ballclub. If I should be so lucky to get that award or honor, I think I'd like to share it with 25 or 30 guys. The manager and the coaches, the players, it's all one team here. Really to me it's an organizational award. One guy has to get it. I got it once before. I was thrilled. But also got fired a year later. So I don't know whether I want it or not (laughter).

JACK McKEON: Well, Mike's, you know, he's a real pro. There's no question about it. He had a tremendous impact on our ballclub until he got hurt. And, you know, we were really at a loss when he got hurt. But fortunately our organization, our general manager, did an outstanding job in going out and picking up some players that could help us compete without Mike Lowell. But Mike was a tremendous asset to our ballclub. He's not only a real professional, but he's a gamer. He's a tremendous influence on these other players. He's got a great attitude. And he's a winner. You know, we all dreaded the day he got hurt. But now that it's time he's ready, I think he can once again carry us over the hump.