NL DIVISION SERIES: MARLINS v GIANTS

October 4, 2003

Jack McKeon

JACK McKEON: I wasn't thinking anything. I kept hollering in the dugout, "Come on, Jeff, come on, Jeff, come on, Jeff." When I saw him get it on the first hop, knowing what kind of outfielder he is, I just figured we had a chance at the plate. I didn't realize it was going to be that easy, as good a throw as he made. And you have to give Pudge credit because he made a tremendous block to keep the ball in his hands. We held the ball; they didn't. We got our two runs. It's a matter of winning or losing the game.

JACK McKEON: Yeah. I wish he would have stopped at second base. But, you know, what are you going to do with a youngster that's got so much emotion. He's a very determined young man. He only had like 71 pitches going into that inning. And we felt like we could get six strong innings out of him. We didn't even have time to get someone warmed up. It went bang, bang, bang. But fortunately we were able to come back and get the win, so that takes care of everything. But he had good stuff. He pitched pretty well.

JACK McKEON: When it was 5-1, runners on second and third, nobody out, I was saying, "We get two more, it's 7-1." We didn't score there. The next inning we had the same opportunity, we didn't score. Later on we had the bases loaded with nobody out, we didn't score. I said to one of the coaches, "I don't like this because this may come back and haunt us, you know, having all these opportunities and not jumping on them." Because we knew deep down that the Giants were not giving up, they were not going to give up, and they were going to score a few runs. We were just determined to, you know, hold them if we could, and we didn't. And they were able to tie it. But it looked awful bad there when you saw all those golden opportunities go down the drain, especially in the early innings when you could have put them away right quick.

JACK McKEON: No big deal. We've used Fox two days in a row. The Giants used all their guys two days in a row. If you're in the big leagues, in this kind of series, you can't pitch two days in a row. You only have a 25-man roster. If these guys can't go two days in a row, they're in trouble. We can't expand the rosters, pitch these guys by innings.

JACK McKEON: Well, I think you saw some of that today. I think you saw some of that yesterday. The catch he made up against the wall, the throw today. He's made two or three of those already. He's made four or five outstanding catches. But I think the intensity. He's a real pro. He knows how to play the game. And I think he brings that fire and determination to the club, which we already had a great deal of it, but he added a little more to it. And being a veteran player, these young players go out and watch him play, the way he plays the game, he's, you know, leading by example.

JACK McKEON: I'm surely relieved, really. You're sitting and managing, you're managing against one guy, just trying to figure out, hope he don't get up, because you know every time he comes to the bat, he can beat you. You know, I said I wasn't going to let him beat me. I'd be damned if I was going to let him beat me. Alfonzo might have beaten me, but Bonds is not going to beat me. But he's one of the toughest in the league. But whoever we play next has got a couple pretty good guys, too, that we're going to have to be pretty careful with, in Sheffield, Chipper Jones or Sosa.

JACK McKEON: I said to the press weeks ago, he's a big-game player. There's no doubt about it, he showed that today. This guy is something special. I felt that he was pressing a little bit yesterday and the day before. I felt like he was feeling that he had to carry the club. And I could see that in his eyes. And I needed to get Mike Lowell some at-bats anyhow to get in the lineup. I determined that Mike, you know, was a real plus to this club during the first half of this season. You know, we missed him in there. But this kid was playing pretty good baseball. But I also wanted him to get a breather. I knew that we did this before with him, gave him a day off periodically when it looked to me like he was in a little bit of a rut or a little funk, and he came back with a lot of vengeance. So when I came out this morning, I had made up my mind I was going to go with Cabrera again.

JACK McKEON: No, I haven't. And I think it's a tribute to my players. They're just exciting guys to be around. They got that fire in their eyes. They're never going to quit, they're never going to give up. You're going to have to beat us, we're not going to quit on you. And I think to see 60, 61, 65 thousand fans out here energizes our guys a lot, too. But it's a great bunch of guys. I said many times, I managed a number of years, and this is the finest bunch of guys collectively I've ever been associated with. I just hope that, you know, all these good things that have happened to us is a reward for the way they played this year and the effort they put forth.

JACK McKEON: Oh, this is probably on the top of the list, there's no question about it. You know, I was a general manager of San Diego, we won the pennant, our first pennant in '84. You know, I wasn't directly involved. I put the club together, but when you're down in the field as the manager or a player or a coach, it's much more competitive. You know, this is what you like to do. This is what I love to do, is just be in the competition all the time. And it's a special feeling. I've never felt this good, never felt this excited in my life. Really, I'm more excited and proud for my wife and my children and their grandchildren because they've suffered through a lot of years without seeing a husband, father, grandfather around. And we never had a chance to celebrate like this. So I'm more happy for them than I am myself.