MLB WORLD SERIES: YANKEES v DIAMONDBACKS

October 31, 2001

Bob Brenly

BOB BRENLY: Well, I don't think you ever shut down Jeter. He's hit some balls very hard in this series right at people. He we know what a dangerous hitter he is, we consider ourselves very fortunate up to this point to limit his damage and keep him off base. As far as El Duque, our advance reports say he pitches very much like Livan Hernandez. He's a nibbler. He will work around the edges of the strike zone, trying to get batters to chase pitches early in the count and get themselves out. Our game plan, try to be patient and make him prove that he can hit his shots. If he does hit his spots hopefully we can work some counts in our favor and force him to throw balls over the heart of the plate.

BOB BRENLY: No.

BOB BRENLY: Yeah, if at all possible. In a perfect world, we get a lead and we can get him out there early again. Obviously this is not a perfect world, so we will play it by ear but we would like to keep his pitch count down as much as possible, but the bottom line is we want to win this ballgame tonight. So we will adjust as we have to.

BOB BRENLY: I think probably the biggest influence would be Roger Craig. When he came to the Giants in 1986, I thought I knew quite a bit about the game of baseball and he showed me how stupid I really was. Over the course of the next three-and-a-half seasons, I learned as much about baseball as I had in my life before that point or since that point. Another man who was a big influence on me was my first manager, Frank Robinson, for different reasons; he taught me how to be a professional. Everybody that I've played for or against or worked for, had somewhat of an influence. But those two guys probably more so than anybody else.

BOB BRENLY: The one specific incident happened in spring training in Scottsdale, Arizona. I was a rookie catcher in the Major Leagues and had not been a full-time catcher in the Minor Leagues. I was still learning the position and it was a daily process. He was constantly on my ass about something that I had done wrong every day. I finally got to the point where I kind of called him out and said, "Instead of yelling at me every day, tell me what you want me to do, I'm very coachable, if you tell me what to do, I will do it." From that point forward, he really helped shape me as a professional baseball player, not just going out there blindly and hacking away, not trying to do things individually. He taught me the importance of thinking about the team and approaching this as a job, not just going out and playing a game; this is your job. So approach it as such and try to learn as much and be as good as you can.

BOB BRENLY: I have never been around anybody like Miguel Batista. He is a refreshing breath of fresh air. Not that this is a criticism, but if you are not talking about fantasy football or baseball or girls, most ballplayers don't have much to say. (Laughter.) And Miguel has got opinions on everything. He's extremely well read, extremely well spoken and a very thoughtful, caring human being. He's a great pitcher on top of it. It's just, he's fun to have on the ballclub. He's fun to be around.

BOB BRENLY: I'm concerned about it because I hate to put anybody in that position, but Miguel has shown throughout the course of the regular season that he is not your regular run-of-the-mill pitcher. He is able to handle things because of his resilient arm, resilient mind, he is able to pitch one day, come back and pitch two days, in relief two, and pitch two days after that. It's an amazing quality I have seen not recently in any pitcher in the Major Leagues but he seems to handle it well with no drop off in performance.

BOB BRENLY: Through Bob Welch, my time with the players has been very curtailed throughout this post-season, so I rely heavily on my coaches to relay messages and keep players abreast as to what is going on. He has known -- sometimes not always as soon as he would like, but he has known what's going on.

BOB BRENLY: That's one of those decisions that I'm going to leave to people who are much better suited to make those decisions than I am. Certainly, it's unfortunate what has happened with some of the franchises in the Major Leagues, and something has to be done, but as I said, I'll defer to those who should handle those questions.

BOB BRENLY: Does it matter? If I say I'm not ready, will you back off? (Laughter.) I mean, that's all part of being a manager, I guess, especially being a manager at this time of year. Like I said, I'm very fortunate to be here with this ballclub and to make these decisions. There's 28 other managers that would love to be making that decision at this time of year. As we have done all year, we will make the decision based on what we feel in our clubhouse, the people who have been close to this ballclub and know what we are capable of doing, and we made the decision and we'll live with it.

BOB BRENLY: Well, I'm not sure if they want to be a manager. I'm not sure if they tried managing they would ever want to be a manager. But I just know from my own personal case, it was really an easy decision for me to make because of the kind of ballclub I inherited, a team that was expected to win. We are not in a rebuilding situation here obviously. This is a ballclub that was very easy to take over. I thought I had a good relationship with a lot of the players before I even came in here, and we have an owner that is committed to winning and winning right now. I just thought all of those circumstances called for me to take a shot at this.

BOB BRENLY: I'm very pleased with the way our ballclub has hit in the situations when we've had opportunities to score runs. As a lot of you know, we relied heavily on the home run ball for most of the season this year and the home runs are tough to come by in the post-season. Pitching is so good, mistakes are not there that you need them to make in order to hit the ball in the seats. That said, with the opportunities we have had to score runs, our hitters have gone to the plate with a good approach, cut down on their swings a little bit and just tried to take the base hit, take the walk if that's what the pitchers are going to do and try to set the table for the guys behind them. We wish we were hitting more, and I'm sure the Yankees wish they were hitting a little bit more but I think that's all a by-product of the tremendous pitching you see at this time of year.

BOB BRENLY: I don't know if there's anybody that stands out on the mound and throws the same pitch time after time after time and is so effective as he is. Everybody knows what he's going to throw. I mean, he does have great command of that pitch. He's able to throw it on both sides of the plate. He's able to move it up and down in the strike zone. It actually reacts more -- as more than one pitch, but still, the fact is, you are going to get a cut fastball, and Major League hitters usually do pretty well when they know what's coming and the fact that he's able to do as well as he has speaks to how devastating that pitch is for him. I guess probably the only guy that even comes close to be Bruce Sutter in his prime throwing that split finger, you knew he was going to throw it, but you still could not hit it and you could not lay off of it.

BOB BRENLY: I don't think any of us are quite sure what to expect from Curt Schilling. I do know this, if he goes out there early and he feels that he does not have his quote unquote overpowering stuff, he is able to make adjustments on the fly. We all assume he's a fastball, split-finger pitcher, which he is the majority of the time but he has a much better than average overhand curveball, a great slider that he throws. He's got Plan B and Plan C to go to in the event he does not have his good fastball, so that's the way I see that.