AL DIVISION SERIES: ANGELS v YANKEES

September 30, 2002

Tim Salmon

Jarrod Washburn

TIM SALMON: It does. It's been a long time coming. I'm glad I can finally get my name off that list. On the list of ones that haven't been here. It's been really sweet, especially since we've been close a few times, had some tough collapses, I guess, maybe you want to call it. It's been real nice to, you know, finally get there. With this group of guys we have, it's just -- it's been a great year.

TIM SALMON: Well, I've faced those guys quite a bit in the past. It would have been nice to face them again this year. But, you know, you just have to rely on your past experience with them and, you know, so I don't know. I don't know if it's going to make a difference.

TIM SALMON: I don't know. I don't know if it's really that big of an issue. I know if you ask these guys, it would probably bother them. I don't think it's an issue in the clubhouse, it's not something we're talking about. We know what kind of a team we are. Any team that wins 99 games and gets to postseason, you got to take them seriously.

JARROD WASHBURN: Control my emotions, first thing, to start the game. Started opening day and didn't do that real well. Gave up four runs in the first inning and put us in a hole. That's the biggest thing I got to do. Other than that, not change my game, go out and do the same things I've been doing all year and rely on my defense, throw strikes, don't give them any free passes. Can't afford that with this line-up. Let Fish do a lot of work in right.

JARROD WASHBURN: Well, I don't think it will be too hard for me. Opening day, I thought the emotions would help me out there. So I let them get pretty high. I just won't let them get as high tomorrow, and go out and have fun. I enjoy the pregame stuff, and I'll take it all in. Once I get on the mound, business as usual. Concentrating on pitching, making pitches.

TIM SALMON: Not really. You know, I've been asked that question. He's made a couple comments just -- but it's more along the lines of just informing us of maybe scheduling and things like that. You know, I think his best influence is -- has been the way he's prepared all year long to get to this point. I think the way we've gone about preparing day in and day out over the course of the season, I think that's what it's -- that's what's going to bring success during the postseason. He keeps a loose clubhouse. He's well prepared, keeps us well prepared as far as routines and everything. Has he said anything? He hasn't really had any, like, big Knute Rockne speeches or anything. I don't expect to hear that. I think the things that he's probably, you know, gotten out of us or gotten us to do over the course of the season, I think those are going to be the same things that we'll stick with here in the postseason.

JARROD WASHBURN: I think the biggest thing was we didn't really care about being 6 and 14. We didn't panic. We knew we had a good team. We had a few guys banged up at the beginning of the year, lost a few guys to suspensions from the spring training incident. Once we finally got our team back on the field, we just went about it one day at a time, like we have all year. Didn't worry about starting 6 and 14. We knew we were a good team and we knew we were better than that. Just concentrated on playing better baseball.

TIM SALMON: You know, I look back to that and I think, out of spring training, we had such an emphasis on getting out of the gate strong. I think from an offensive standpoint -- our pitching really did pretty well at the start. It was really the offense. We never really got on track, like he said, had couple guys out on suspension. We went right up against the Oakland staff and Seattle staff. They were holding us at bay at one or two runs. Even looking back, I remember that Oakland series, we lost three out of four and we could have won three out of four. We actually played some good games. But it was just one of those things, it wasn't the start we wanted. But as soon as we kind of got out of that, you know, that initial two-week little start there, we got on track.

JARROD WASHBURN: I'm nervous. I'm nervous before every start. As I've said before, when I quit being nervous, it won't be much fun anymore. But I love being nervous. It's more of an excited nervous than anything, but other than that, I'm pretty relaxed. Relaxed and nervous. It's hard to believe, but that's what I am (laughing). I joke around on the mound, things like that. I don't see myself being any different. Just another ball game. You get on the field, it's still baseball. It's playoffs and it's on a grander scale, it means a lot more, but it's still just a game and it's played the same way. I'm going to approach it the same way.

JARROD WASHBURN: No, that's why I think it will be easy to control. I think I was well aware of what I had to do, the pitches I had to make and things like that. But I just used all of the energy and all the excitement I had and tried to throw every ball as hard as I could. And I'd throw a lot of fastballs, everybody knows that. When you try to throw every one as hard as you can, they straighten out a little. So, the ball's a little straighter, I didn't quite hit my spots as well as I would have like in that first inning. So, you know, go out tomorrow and I'll be excited but I'll still know that I got to go out there and concentrate on pitching, making pitches, hitting my spots and changing speeds instead of try to throw every ball as hard as I could because I felt so good and so excited.

TIM SALMON: Surprisingly, yes. When I re-signed, I saw the ground work for a pretty good club. Despite the season we had last year, we were still kind of in it. Myself and Erstad, not really part of the offense, and so, yeah, going into last winter, said to myself, "If I can get back on track and Erstad can get back on track, we've got the make-up to be there." I really believed that going into this season. I think everybody believed it in spring training. You look at your line-up, one through nine, everybody contributes, five-man rotation, one of the best bullpens. Yeah, why not? I felt like we could be where we're at today. But the history, at least with myself being with the Angels, it had always come down to and that was the one thing I was guarded to, "Let's hope we don't have any injuries," or, "Let's hope we don't have any bad luck or whatever it is that's kept us from getting there." Fortunately, this year we didn't have that because it's been fun.

JARROD WASHBURN: It comes and goes as the day goes. Right now I'm nervous (laughing). I'll go out there for BP and I won't be nervous again. You know, I'll go out to dinner tonight with my wife and stuff, and won't be thinking about the game much. I'll wake up in the morning, be nervous. I'll go eat. It will come and go as the day goes. But it really hits the most probably when I walk down that tunnel, get out into the dugout. I sit in the dugout for three, four, five minutes, take it all in before I go out there to start warming up. That's probably when it's at its peak.

JARROD WASHBURN: He's a great pitcher. Other than that, just try to watch and learn. Fortunate to be able to watch him. You know, he's, without question, one of the best pitchers to ever pitch in the game of baseball. When you have the opportunity to watch a guy like that pitch, you try to watch as close as you can and learn as much as you can. But other than that, I'm glad I'm not hitting.

JARROD WASHBURN: Just, you know, how he goes about his business, different ways he pitches different hitters. You know, his aggressiveness. That's one thing that, you know, I really try to pattern myself off of, is, you know, I'm a fastball pitcher as well. I wish I had his split finger, but I don't. So, you know, I throw a lot of fastballs, he throws a lot of fastballs. He's very aggressive. In that way, we're somewhat similar. So, I can learn, you know, how he sets up different hitters and things like that by watching him.

TIM SALMON: Only from what I've heard. That's not really memory.

TIM SALMON: Well... (Laughing)... Just what a great series it was, how the Angels were so close, one out away. Things like that. Every time I see Dave Henderson, it's always a reminder. I heard about the plane ride back to Boston after that game and how, you know, just devastating. Guys, they didn't want to be going there. Just things like that. Like I said, I didn't follow the Angels at all back then. So I never even saw it, you know. I didn't even know what really happened until I became part of the organization, so...