AL DIVISION SERIES: TWINS v ATHLETICS

October 2, 2002

Barry Zito

BARRY ZITO: I call them ghosts over there -- until you get over it, and then once you do, that mind-set is forever gone, so it was nice, it was nice to go throw some shut-out balls over there, and that was the only place that I had a little hesitancy, you know, so I am pretty fired up for the game.

BARRY ZITO: No, because I knew the importance of making starts on five days -- a regular five-day rotation, and if I was to start game one, I would have had to take some extra days, which, you know, we have had experience on our staff, when you have had extra days, you feel too strong, or you are just a little out of whack, so the fact we could get all three guys going on their normal rest was the most important.

BARRY ZITO: No. I mean, it's probably pretty loud, but Yankee Stadium was pretty loud, too, and, I mean, blocking out the crowd is blocking out the crowd. If it's 10, 15 decibels more than Seattle or Yankee Stadium, I mean, I don't think it makes a difference. You are either susceptible to it or you are not.

BARRY ZITO: I think I was just a little bit better prepared. I was kind of struggling when I was pitching at the Twins in 2001, I was up and down the first half of the year, and my confidence wasn't there completely, and it was kind of coincidental that it was versus the Twins. It could have been any team that was getting me at a time when I wasn't confident, and any pitcher knows when he is not confident, it doesn't matter who is up there, could be first place, last place team, you are going to struggle.

BARRY ZITO: It seemed the same, the MO of the A's is that we are always pretty loose, and I think it would be the same today if we won or lost. If we are having fun and we are looking forward to playing some good ball today and we are confident, I don't think that we are flustered or rattled or anything that we lost game 1, I think it's just -- that's how it goes, yesterday. We've got to put it behind us and get after it today.

BARRY ZITO: It's pretty good, you know. I mean, a lot of times you look at a guy that might be having a good year and you go, "Oh, wow, this guy must be locked in, but it's actually inside the pitcher's head. It's fleeting. It's volatile, and you are not going out there every day like I am the man. You really have to work on it on a daily basis to keep that mind-set the way it is. So I am still doing my preparation the same if I had a good year or bad year, but, I mean, like I was saying, the off-season, it would be nice to come back and look at what happened this year, that was great, but right now I have to just go about it like I am making my 36th start of the year and I am not really approaching it any different.

BARRY ZITO: They didn't really ask, I more volunteered because Huddy was the guy last year and he had just had a kid so he wanted to be the alternate, and I stepped up to be the guy. Huddy is pretty young, too, to have been a rep and an alternate, but I felt like I could handle all the situations, and honestly, I wouldn't have predicted this year would have been as crazy as it was for my first year being a rep. But, you know, I felt like we all handled it pretty well, and I feel like I want to be that guy.

BARRY ZITO: He composed for Nat Cole about 15 years, did a lot of musical work, entertained -- entertainment manager, and worked with a lot of great stuff there.