NL DIVISION SERIES: METS v GIANTS

October 7, 2000

Rick White

RICK WHITE: This has been an unbelievable experience for me. Ever since day one when I got over here and got a chance to get in it, I guess the Cardinals got the win the first day I pitched. It's just been a great roller coaster ride for me and hopefully it keeps going up to the World Series.

RICK WHITE: It's funny you mentioned that. The first time I faced Bonds tonight, I was trying to strike him out. I had pretty good success against him in the past and I started nit-picking too much and I ended up walking him. And I knew the situation tonight with a runner on second that he was going to try to get on me early before I had a chance to throw different pitches. It was a two-seamer down and way and he swung too hard and popped it up. I was hoping Fonzie caught it because the wind was circling out there.

RICK WHITE: Well, I tell you, I've been up four times tonight before I got in the game, and each time, I thought I was going to get in there. And we ended up getting out of the inning somehow or they got out of the inning. By the time I got in there, I hope I had enough to carry us for the next few innings, because I knew Glendon was the only one left. I gave it everything I had, and was fortunate enough to throw a lot of strikes and everything was working and the guys played great defense and we won the game.

RICK WHITE: I don't know. My body says forever. My arm says forever. I've had a little dead arm period about three weeks ago, and it was kind of ironic that it ended right at the end of the season and ready for the post-season. I felt I could have gone all night if they needed me to and they held me. When I sitting on the bench, they said I was fourth to hit next and they were probably going to pinch-hit for me and I told them, "If you need me to go, I'll go." They were going to pinch-hit Bubba, I think.

RICK WHITE: Actually, I thought Tampa Bay was the best bullpen I had ever been associated with. I played with those guys down there for two and a half years and we fed off each other pretty good, for a losing team. And I got up here and got to talk to Johnny and Cookie and those guys and Armando, and they took me under their wing and next thing I know feeding off of these guys and we're feeding off each other. You have a Hall of Famer and one of the best closers in the game, Armando. And Cookie is one of the nastiest lefties, and so on down the road. All it does is make me want to perform better to be considered in a group with these guys. And to have those guys go out there and do what they did tonight and put up scoreless innings, it just made me feel like I wanted to be part of it and I'm just glad they put me in there.

RICK WHITE: Definitely. I'll be available every day. There's no doubt. You're not going to keep me out of these games.

RICK WHITE: Well, I've only been here half a year, and since I've been here, it doesn't seem to me like these guys ever give up. There was one game that we were down eight or nine runs in the eighth or ninth inning, and I thought we were still going to come back and win, and I had only been here for a couple weeks. There had been a lot of teams that I had played for in the past that once you get down a run, you get this negative thought in your mind that somebody is going to have to step up and do it and then everybody tries too hard and you don't get it done. Here, everybody feeds it off everyone else. It doesn't matter who is leading off or who is hitting ninth, this is a tough lineup and everybody does their job the way they are supposed to, and these guys are never out of the game.