NL DIVISION SERIES: METS v GIANTS

October 5, 2000

Rick Reed

Bobby Valentine

BOBBY VALENTINE: I'm looking forward to playing the game tonight. I don't know about the dominance. I don't think we dominated people at home, and we had the same record they did, or one game less. I'm just looking forward to playing tonight's game.

BOBBY VALENTINE: I thought it was a good look with Timo out there, and see what he could do. He's played more than any of our other outfielders this year. He's had more at-bats under his belt. He's played more in the outfield than anybody else we have on the roster, and he looked good last night with his two at-bats; didn't look like he was intimidated by the playoff situation. So we'll see what he can do.

BOBBY VALENTINE: Al is a very good pitcher who has good stuff and experience. And I think all those things are important going in, and then using the experience and good stuff during the game is equally important. And I think Al can do that.

BOBBY VALENTINE: I can't really predict whether or not he'll play in this series. Right now I doubt it, because he's not able to take batting practice today. He has a strained -- a sprained ankle and a strained Achilles from what I gather coming in, so -- with the off day tomorrow, we'll have to reevaluate it when we get back home. I don't think he's going to be much use to us tonight.

BOBBY VALENTINE: As you know, I don't go to the mound. So we didn't have much of a chance for that exchange. Maybe I'll come up with something later.

BOBBY VALENTINE: I just got with the coaches, and without Derek in there, we just wanted to see if we could score some runs. And with the group that we have, we think we have some chance to score runs. We need runs to win the game. And we'll see what it looks like.

BOBBY VALENTINE: Influence or -- influence is the word you are looking for?

BOBBY VALENTINE: We looked pretty good against left-handers yesterday. But I think it's the idea of getting different guys into the playoff environment. And he has the chance of doing that.

BOBBY VALENTINE: I came about an hour and a half ago. I worked out. I was in my office, I saw about five guys. It would be very unfair for me to tell you about the team's mood.

BOBBY VALENTINE: Last year it was two, two, and one. That's what I'm comfortable with. We didn't have home-field advantage last year, and we split on the road, and then won the series at home, I think. That's the one I'm familiar with. I don't know what the advantage would be of the other one, or disadvantage of it, for that matter.

BOBBY VALENTINE: I heard that mentioned on one of the teleconferences today, about the Yankees splitting and now having the advantage. I guess if you have to win two out of three and you're playing two in your home park and you're looking for an advantage, maybe that becomes a home-field advantage.

BOBBY VALENTINE: When you play well. I don't know about all that stuff.

BOBBY VALENTINE: I have no plan for workout tomorrow, I think some guys will be available to the press. And anybody who wants to hit or throw will have the facility available to them. But no mandatory workout.

BOBBY VALENTINE: I know Pettitte pretty well in that he throws a cut fastball as a bread-and-butter pitch. And I think they develop, they think Al has more experience than Andy, and Pettitte looks a lot more like a Ralph Branca than Ralph does. But other than that, I don't know if there's many -- just that they come up big and they have really good stuff. I think that's another.

RICK REED: I do about the same thing I've always done: Spend time with my wife and my daughter. I'll sleep on the plane on the way home.

RICK REED: Well, I really haven't had any success this year. I pitched pretty well out here; but at home I was mediocre, at best. I think when you face a team like the Giants, you have to make quality pitches; and when we were at home, I didn't do that. And the numbers don't look as well as the outcome of the game or whatever. But when I pitched out here, I thought I threw a pretty good ballgame. But late in the game they got two runs off me late and ended up blowing us out after that. But it wasn't that bad of a game. And I know we got swept out here, but we could have easily won three of the four.

RICK REED: I treat it the same way. I've got a couple of days now that I can look at video and scouting reports, and maybe look at some tapes of my two games against them this year, and get a gameplan together, and see what happens.

RICK REED: No. Hopefully Al has a great game tonight and we won't have to worry about 0-2. But if that's the situation, then I approach it the same way. There's enough pressure, and I don't want to add anymore.

BOBBY VALENTINE: You bat last at home, you know. And I think that's the biggest advantage you have. I think the fans at our ballpark can make as much noise as anywhere in the League. Now, I'm in the dugout, I'm kind of -- it's a dugout, it's like a pillbox, you're isolated from the real feel of it. And when you get out into it, it probably is elevating at times. It gives you an adrenaline rush, I bet, that you have to learn to control. In these games, even though they've had a lot of people at their ballpark, I think the fans here are even a little more excited now, and so will our fans be. And that's the situation you have to deal with.

RICK REED: Well, I can tell you one thing, when -- I think it was Game 5, I was in the bullpen. We had gone 15 innings, and we were running out of guys, and Bobby pinch hit for Dotel, and luckily Robin got the base hit grand slam. But I tell you, from the looks of it, from out there, the stadium actually was shaking. And I was talking about this the other day with one of the other players that I'm glad I was on the New York side, because I tell you what, that was scary.

RICK REED: Well, I don't think I'm a big-game pitcher. I approach every game the same way. I've said it a million times, I look at scouting reports every day, almost. I watch our video. We have videos of every hitter, every angle. And I get a gameplan together. Whether it's a playoff game or regular season game, that's what I do. And you might see me on the bench the day I'm not pitching one or two innings, and then I'm gone. I'm in there watching it on TV and getting an idea of -- and getting a gameplan together for my start.