|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
MLB WORLD SERIES: METS v YANKEESOctober 23, 2000Bobby ValentineNEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: Workout Day THE MODERATOR: We'll take questions for Bobby. Q. Did you get a chance to see it on video and maybe read Joe Torre's passionate defense of Clemens? And what were your thoughts on that? BOBBY VALENTINE: Sorry. I didn't see it, hear it, read it. Q. Would you have defended a player if the roles were reverse and your player did something? Would you have defended it if you didn't agree with the action? BOBBY VALENTINE: I've agreed with -- or defended most all actions of any player that I've been in uniform with. Q. Even if you didn't feel it was the right thing? BOBBY VALENTINE: There's probably an exception to every rule. Q. We've all seen you manage several years here and seen you be very animated or vehement with umpires. It appeared as if you were less so after this incident. Is there a reason you handled it that way, as opposed to possibly a different way? BOBBY VALENTINE: Yeah, probably, because I -- there was a very emphatic meeting that was held before the World Series about World Series' procedure, and that was probably in the back of my mind. Frank Robinson was in there and Bud Selig and Sandy Alderson and all the umpires. It was basically about behavior of the players and the manager and what we're trying to perfect to the world, and that all incidences should be handled by the umpires. Q. What kind of image did Roger Clemens present to the world? BOBBY VALENTINE: I don't think Roger was in that meeting. (Laughter.) Q. Last night, you said that you really hadn't seen the play. I trust you've seen it now. What did you see when you watched the tapes? BOBBY VALENTINE: I saw all the plays from last night already. That play, I saw that the bat bounced twice, that he made a pretty good fielding play, and he came up throwing. (Laughter.) Q. The key statement was just made here just now about this press conference. Your catcher said he believed Frank Robinson should look into it. Everybody's going to walk out of here with that statement. Do you support your player in that statement? BOBBY VALENTINE: That he believes Frank Robinson --. Q. He said he believes that Frank Robinson should look into it. So that's the key word going out of here. Do you support your catcher in making that statement? BOBBY VALENTINE: Yeah, I support my catcher totally, yeah. Q. Back to what you saw on that play, when you said he came up throwing, there seemed to be some question whether he was just heaving it out of frustration to get it out of the way or if he knew your player was running in that direction. Could you see any of that when you looked at the tapes? BOBBY VALENTINE: Hmm... Well, he was in a mechanically sound throwing position, as I stopped video. He stepped towards where Mike was going to be. Like he stepped -- he stepped toward where Mike was going. Q. You noted how Frank Robinson was present, Bud was present, the umpires -- and the umpires should have dealt with this. Did the thought cross your mind to interrupt play until they did deal with it, almost force the issue? One of your players was saying it might have been good if you pulled everybody off the field at that point. BOBBY VALENTINE: Wow. Yeah, I might not have acted properly. Maybe there was some -- there might have been a lot of showmanship. There might have been a lot of grandstanding. There might have been a lot of kind of MLB action that I could have taken, and I didn't. If I didn't and my players expected me to or my fans did, I totally apologize, and I then acted incorrectly. Q. In your mind, would that have diminished the World Series, to do the type of thing --? BOBBY VALENTINE: In my mind, I think it would have been a farce to the game of baseball at any time, in the World Series in particular. Q. I guess this is kind of tied in with that question. Did you and your team behave properly in that instance, do you think? Was that the right thing to do? BOBBY VALENTINE: You mean leaving the bench? I thought it was okay to leave the bench. And if once we got out there, if things heated up, I think that everybody was ready to do whatever it took to do. Q. You've been holding a baseball this whole time. Is that to demonstrate to anybody who might be confused the difference between a ball and a bat? (Laughter.) BOBBY VALENTINE: (Laughing.) (Putting the baseball down.) Q. After watching the replay, do you believe that -- what do you believe he intended to do when he stepped to throw the bat? You kind of held back in terms of what your feelings about that are? BOBBY VALENTINE: I get very, very upset when people see my actions and try to tell me what my intentions are. I'm not going to take the place of those people or whomever it is that try to figure out what I'm doing. I don't know what the heck he was doing. I thought it was very, very bizarre. Q. Given the fact that what Roger said last night was that he was not able to distinguish whether it was a ball or a bat or something like that --? BOBBY VALENTINE: Is that a fact that he said that? I mean, is that -- does someone have a recording of him saying that? Or is that a lipreading thing? Q. No, it's on the paper. It's in the interview sheets they had out. BOBBY VALENTINE: He said it? Q. He said it on the field. Then after the game, he was asked. He said, "I might have. I was off the ground. My emotions were out of control." My question is: If that's true, if his emotions were so out of control that he, in fact, even thought that that bat was a ball and threw it in that manner, did he have any business being on the field there? And are you concerned about safety issues with a guy who can throw 96-miles-an-hour whose emotions were out of control? BOBBY VALENTINE: 99 miles an hour last night. I don't know. It seems that this year there's been more than ever edicts or judgments placed on people because of their inability to handle their emotions. I know that Dennis Cook was cited very harshly; and of course, Carl Everett. I don't know if he should be or not. It just seemed there was a little wave going in that direction. Q. Do the two incidences with Clemens against Piazza affect the way you view the Yankees and their organization and the way they go about their business? BOBBY VALENTINE: No, I don't think that they change my opinion of the Yankees. Q. The emotions of your team today regarding this issue are still high. Is that something you want them to carry into Game 3 or something you want them to forget? BOBBY VALENTINE: It all depends if there's going to be sanctions on emotions. I don't mind the team having emotion about a tough loss last night or about that incident. I heard as many guys talking about Lenny's ball that just missed the foul pole and Todd's ball that just missed going over the fence as I heard them talking about this. Q. Did you ask the umpire or suggest to them that Clemens should be thrown out because of what he did? If not, why not? BOBBY VALENTINE: I didn't do it. If I should have, if it's my place to tell the umpires what to do, and especially in a World Series' game, then I didn't get in my place. I didn't do enough. If that's what it would have taken for them to do what they were supposed to do, then I regret that I didn't do what I was supposed to do. Q. Do you think what Clemens did warranted ejection? BOBBY VALENTINE: I have never thrown anyone out of a game. And very often I've disagreed when people have been thrown out of games. So I don't think that I'm a very good arbiter in that manner. Q. It seems like the standard for this is intent. Did he intend to throw the bat at Mike Piazza? Should it be whether he nearly hit Mike Piazza? BOBBY VALENTINE: Again, I'm not a very good -- I don't know about those rules of judgment. Q. Do you have a feeling? Do you have an opinion about that? BOBBY VALENTINE: It goes either way. For instance, in the game of baseball, if there's a warning issued during the game and a batter gets hit, it matters not of intent; the batter got hit. The player's thrown out of the game. There was one game early in the year when I think either a guy got hit or a guy didn't even get hit, and then warnings were issued because intent was implied or interpreted. So there's a lot of standards that float around out there. And usually it is in the eye of the beholder, and the beholders are the judges and juries in this matter, and those are guys in blue. Q. So you accept their decision? BOBBY VALENTINE: I don't get it. Accepting it is -- those are the rules we play by. If they called a strike, strike three, and I don't agree with the call, what do I do? Strike three. It's final. Their decisions are final on the field. Q. You said that you heard guys talk as much about Lenny's ball that went foul and Zeile's ball that almost went over the fence. How do you avoid what it is, the whole idea of the Yankees getting the breaks, not feeling sorry for yourselves and not letting that affect your play? BOBBY VALENTINE: Maybe that's why Major League gives this off day, for me to figure that out and convey the message if needed. Q. Can you talk about Game 3? Roger Clemens is not pitching tomorrow night. Orlando Hernandez is. What's your team's prep for El Duque? BOBBY VALENTINE: We're having batting practice now. We had the film running early this morning on El Duque. We faced him before. There was even some talk about that, if you can imagine, around the batting cage today, on how his ball moves. He's one hell of a pitcher. Never been beaten in post-season. We understand all those things, and we're going to come out firing. Q. Does his having so many release points make it more difficult for you to prepare? BOBBY VALENTINE: I don't think he has that many release points. I think he has a few different pitches, but I don't think he has so many different release points. Cone has more release points than he does. Q. Any line-up changes, or the same line-up tomorrow? BOBBY VALENTINE: I think that's why Major League Baseball gives you this off day, for us to think about it. Q. Are you thinking about any? BOBBY VALENTINE: I'm thinking about some. End of FastScripts� |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|