NL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: METS v CARDINALS

October 16, 2000

Bobby Valentine

BOBBY VALENTINE: Actually, I saw a shot of Johnny Franco and I was thinking about how happy I am that he's going to the World Series. I just passed Piazza and I was thinking how happy I was for him to go to the World Series, Michael, because these are two warriors who are two of the greatest players I've ever managed and they're getting the big stage right where they belong, along with the other 23 guys and trainers and members of this organization who sweat and worked so hard to do everything they had to do. So I was kind of saying a little prayer of thanks there, to tell you the truth.

BOBBY VALENTINE: Yeah, I'm really happy for my friends who stuck by me, my family, mom and dad, my brother, his family, my wife, Mary, and Bobby who have been so close to me and all my friends who have always been there and believed in me. I'm very, very, very happy for them because they are the true extension of me.

BOBBY VALENTINE: You can't get any more exciting than it was here with a full stadium, people on their feet the entire time, our dugout with the electricity that there was. I think it would be exciting for a lot of Yankee and Met fans around the country and here in New York and extra exciting for them. But the World Series is the World Series. We're going to be as excited as possible.

BOBBY VALENTINE: The battle is the battle. When a thing like that happens, it's part of the battle. We're now trying to complete this campaign, and that's a very little thing.

BOBBY VALENTINE: I mean, you guys are the people who put words together. He was fabulous, he was extremely competitive, he did everything that anyone could hope for him to do, and I guess the biggest game of his life and mine, too.

BOBBY VALENTINE: I talked to Mike Hampton, who knows (Dave) Veres really well. He's sure that it wasn't, and when I met with Tony (LaRussa) out on the field there, Tony assured me on everything that's sacred that that was nothing more than an accident.

BOBBY VALENTINE: Yeah, when you have great players playing great, it makes my job real easy. So I had outstanding guys doing what they could do and that makes me happy. It made it easy on me.

BOBBY VALENTINE: Yeah. Modest is one of his characteristics, and talented is the other. When he had that kind of confidence going in, I felt very confident that his talent would take over.

BOBBY VALENTINE: This is -- like Mike said, this is a major part of our dream; there's no doubt about it. This is what we started off in Japan trying to do with Mike out on the mound, and we closed it out with Mike out on the mound here in the National League Championship. That now we'll continue on our journey.

BOBBY VALENTINE: I guess that's what I was hired to do. That's a long time ago, it seems like a lot more than four years or whatever it is. But, yeah, I mean that's all that I ever was told, that we wanted to build a winner, we wanted to make our fans proud, we wanted to win the National League and take it away from the Atlanta Braves, and we wanted to gain a World Championship.

BOBBY VALENTINE: Absolutely. People are talking about (Pat) Hentgen not pitching for a while and being patient, I preached aggressiveness rather than patience. We wanted to come out and shoot and we did. The guys knew what they had to do, saw Todd Zeile just come in who gave that final blow that I think just secured our National League Championship.

BOBBY VALENTINE: I think just the seventh spot was to give him a breather. I think he looked around and said, "I know exactly what I have to do, I've done this all my life, it's time for me to continue what I do best, that's getting big hits and being a key player on the team." He did exactly that.

BOBBY VALENTINE: I've had a little champagne. Looking back is not what I'm trying to do. I'm trying to look forward, still. Maybe in a few weeks from now I'll be able to collect all those thoughts and give you a good answer to that.

BOBBY VALENTINE: I was just standing on stage with Nelson Doubleday, Fred Wilpon, Steve Phillips, holding a National League trophy. How can I feel anything better than that? And it might have turned around when we started having Garrett full-time in our clubhouse. That might have been it. What do you think? The good luck charm, you were the key, right?

BOBBY VALENTINE: Yeah. (Laughter.)