NL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: METS v CARDINALS

October 15, 2000

Bobby Valentine

BOBBY VALENTINE: That's not what he said, you shouldn't say that. He said it was a different feeling, and it was a different feeling. We were behind 2-0 at the beginning; the other games we were ahead at the first inning. There was a little crescendo there in the fourth inning where things kind of switched back and forth in a quick way. We didn't seize the moment. After that, we had a few lousy at-bats, so we didn't look good.

BOBBY VALENTINE: Well, I'll try to do the same thing I did last time, and give him the ball, wish him luck before the game. My experience, I'd have to look and chart it. Sometimes guys get really on a roll and they pitch one after another after another, and then sometimes I think you'll chart them and you'll see a real high to a real low. Probably there's even a few in the middle.

BOBBY VALENTINE: It proves that they're human. Probably never heard anything or saw anything like that before, and then I thought even when it was 8-2, we had a lot left there at the end, it seemed. Got a couple guys on and Veres came in, but those last three strikeouts were all called strikes and I think that really made it look lousy.

BOBBY VALENTINE: Well, I don't judge him that way, and I think it's just the way of the world. Last time he put up seven zeros, I think people judged him as the king of the world, so... He's a good pitcher.

BOBBY VALENTINE: Yeah, other people, I guess like you say, it's the way of the world. In all sports, guys play a great regular season, and then, hey, Dan Wilson right now I think is only 2 for 54 in the post-season. So he shouldn't be judged by that. He's been a good player all his career. I just saw that on TV, that's why I mentioned it.

BOBBY VALENTINE: Again, that's a hard one to tell. If that's what it is that makes him pitch his best game, or if it's the weather, the wife's cooking. I think when a guy's very good or even when a guy's not that good to overanalyze the reasons that he has success in any one particular game, I think is the world we live in, but it's not an accurate apprisal of what's going on.

BOBBY VALENTINE: I'm not smart enough to figure that one out.

I think routines have changed, and I think that what guys do in between their starts becomes much -- it is much more routine, and I think they do much more. So there's probably not only a breaking-down process when they're pitching, but also a bit of breaking down and building up process in between. When you cut that short, that cycle short, the guy sometimes comes up short. If that makes any sense at all. (Laughter.) If you're here when you're pitching, peaking when you pitch, so after you pitch you break down, you're fatigued, you're down here. Then you start to build back up. A lot of guys when they're building back up will lift weights, do stuff like that, in the days in between. Well, that breaks down but also builds up. So it kind of gives you this. Then you rest, until you're peaking again. When that cycle is shorter, all that doesn't have time to happen.

BOBBY VALENTINE: No, they used to throw and then run in the outfield. And then pitch again. Most of them didn't last longer. Majority of the pitchers got hurt after a few years of their career, and a few of the pitchers we remember lasting for a long time. Mainly because I think most of those guys started their careers later, okay, and it was after their formative years when they abused their arm and their arm was already mature enough to get by.

BOBBY VALENTINE: Yes.

BOBBY VALENTINE: I hope it has a very positive impact on him. Again, I think when you pitch that first playoff game, if you're fortunate enough to win it, you don't have a trail. But if you're not as fortunate and you lose it and then the next one, same thing happens, things start mounting. So I could see how it would be good to get the first one under your belt so that you're starting fresh. It's like you get in a batting slump during the season, you need that bloop over second, then you go 3 for 4.

BOBBY VALENTINE: Well, we all like to, and Tony (LaRussa) has and Dusty (Baker) had a situation where no matter who's starting the inning, unless it's the pitcher and then in some cases that's okay, too, but no matter who's starting an inning you had a chance of having a rally. I think no matter where that rally leads to, you have a guy who has a chance of driving a run in. That's how you get a decent line-up. So with Payton and Agbayani and Bordick down in the line-up, we have a chance to get a double, score a guy from first, also get a home run to have an immediate rally.

BOBBY VALENTINE: It takes up a lot of my spare time. I have lots of friends in town, fly in and some drive in, so there's more breakfast than I usually have and there's lunches that are planned rather than on the fly. It's consuming. Not just the game and the atmosphere, but a lot of people are sharing. You like to share in this atmosphere, and I think that's part of the beauty of it. So I try to give my time to a lot of different people.