AL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: YANKEES v MARINERS

October 21, 2001

Derek Jeter

Chuck Knoblauch

DEREK JETER: All right. First of all on behalf of everyone, I wasn't available yesterday. I want to apologize. We did not intentionally do it so you guys were not able to do your job, so hopefully you didn't take it personally.

CHUCK KNOBLAUCH: It was a do-or-die play. I was certainly going all-out, all I had. As I was running in, you don't know if you are going to get a chance to dive for it or catch it on your feet, but I needed to dive and, you know, stretched out for it and it hit my glove momentarily, but the ground obviously made me lose control of it.

DEREK JETER: It's been tough for him. It's been something he's had to deal with the last two years. It has not been just this season. It's been something that he's been dealing with for a while, and it amazes me, the way he's able to come and forget about it during the game. That's pretty tough to do, when you are talking about a family member that's dealing with health issues, it's something that is very hard to separate. But he's been able to come out and have a great year and he's had another great post-season. He's doing an unbelievable job.

DEREK JETER: Well, it's over with. So we can't change what happened. But get into post-season, it's about wins and losses, regardless of what the score is. You know, whether you are beaten by ten runs or one run, it's still a loss or you win by ten runs or one run, you have to forget about it and come out the next day. So we have forgotten about last night's game and I'm sure they have as well.

CHUCK KNOBLAUCH: I would say since I have been here, this team is unlike any other, as far as going from day-to-day, being consistent with the same attitude. The guys coming in and no matter if you win or lose, one day you come back with the same exact attitude the next day, and I think that's very key for this team. I think that only helps in putting a game like yesterday behind us. Even if we would have won, we would have come with the same attitude of trying to win today, so I think that's a key with this team.

CHUCK KNOBLAUCH: To be honest I have not thought of the trade at all. There was talk for a few days and it didn't -- and I forgot about it until recently when I have been reminded of it. So with that said I have not given it any thought. Playing left field, surely I feel much more comfortable today than I did in April or at the end of spring training when I started. I felt like I played pretty well out there this year, and just like with playing baseball, there's more and more to learn every day and you continue to get better. Lee Mazzilli and I work together, it's like taking ground balls as an infielder, you take balls off the wall and you take different fly balls during batting practice, but I feel like it's been going pretty well.

CHUCK KNOBLAUCH: Well, that's certainly a good thing, when you know coming to the field every day that you are going to be in there without a question. Certainly that helps your confidence and knowing what you have to do when you are a player, even the night before, going to bed knowing you are going to play the next day, certain that I have contributed -- whether it helped, it might have, might not have. But it certainly is nice to know that you are going to play on a daily basis.

DEREK JETER: I don't think so. I think he's pitched a lot of quality post-season games, even his first year. He pitched well in '95, if I recall. In '96, he had that huge game against Atlanta where he won 1-0. He tends to focus more when it comes to post-season time and he's a battler. Even when he doesn't have his good stuff, he seems to come up with big pitches when he needs to. It didn't surprise me, the success he's had. But in terms of changes, I think he takes the same approach that he did the first year.

DEREK JETER: It was a ground ball and Soriano was a little late getting to second base. It was a situation where you play in the post-season, the intensity level is so high when they had that huge inning, scored a lot of runs. It deflated us a little bit and that was late in the game. Sometimes you get caught on your heels, but I'm sure it won't happen again.

DEREK JETER: Well, I would expect them to try to steal. They have been a team that has stolen a lot of bases, Suzuki has stolen a lot, McLemore is going to steal some bags, so when you are aggressive on the base paths, you put a lot of pressure on the defense. All you can do is keep them close, that's a part of their game that has made them so successful this year so I would anticipate them continuing to do it. It's our job as infielders to try to keep it as close as possible.

DEREK JETER: It seems like every year, every team we play we get asked that same question. But every time you come out, every team is going to be gunning for you. Every team is going to be a little bit better. Facing Oakland and Seattle, both teams had over one hundred wins. It's been very difficult and hopefully we can find a way to win two more games in this series but every year, it's more and more difficult.

DEREK JETER: I think that's directed probably more so to Tino because Rocket has to try to cover first base, especially on bunts and slow rollers. Middle infielders, we don't really focus on that too much. But you are trying to keep Rocket out of trouble, and limit the times that he's moving around, besides going out there and pitching. I think that's probably directed a little bit more towards Tino and Brosius on bunt plays.

DEREK JETER: Well, I think momentum is as strong as your next day's starting pitcher. Obviously, if you have a big inning where everyone swings the bat, it's going to give you a little bit of confidence. But if you run into a hot pitcher, good pitching is going to beat good hitting. So hopefully Rocket can put momentum, so to speak, back on our side. But you take it game-to-game and pitcher-to-pitcher.

CHUCK KNOBLAUCH: In the post-season I think the intensity level is so high game-to-game that I think really you are so focused on each particular game and I don't think, really -- or you hope momentum doesn't have anything to do with it. But I think so much is focused on each game that it's kind of like seven one-game series, if you would.