NL DIVISION SERIES: METS v DIAMONDBACKS

October 5, 1999

Jay Bell

Steve Finley

Luis Gonzalez

Matt Williams

MATT WILLIAMS: I'm a resident here, and I have been, for going on 12 years now, and I know what Jerry Coangeol is all about. I knew it was an expansion team, but I knew that coming here, we could have opportunities, but I knew that Jerry would do his best to make it as competitive as possible. You certainly can't count on it, but I knew that he would do his job and to the best of his ability and get the players here he wanted here. So, you never know.

STEVE FINLEY: I think this team is probably more balanced up and down the lineup offensively. Last year we relied heavily on Greg Vaughn and Cami in the postseason. This team has a lot more weapons. This team can win games a lot more ways than we did last year when I was in San Diego. We have a good, solid starting staff. Our bullpen is with Mantei. I think overall it was definitely a better team than I was on last year.

JAY BELL: I think this year certainly has been as enjoyable as any other that I've played in. Of course, I enjoyed all my seasons -- I have enjoyed all my seasons and I think simply because I take a lot of enjoyment in watching my teammates perform out there, this year certainly has to rank right up there with some of the better ones because I've got teammates that have had tremendous years. Onza came over in a trade and ended up having a terrific year, hitting .330 plus and driving in a hundred and scoring a hundred. Steve scored a hundred and drove in a hundred. Matty, drove in a 130-plus, 140-plus whatever it was. Just to watch my teammates perform this year was very, very satisfying.

STEVE FINLEY: In the beginning when I was a free agent, my first thought was to stay with San Diego, but I realized they wanted to go in a different direction. They were going to be building for the new ballpark and have a team similar to what Cleveland had done. I wanted to go somewhere where I thought I had a chance to win. And I looked at all my options out there, and I thought Arizona was going to be the best. I talked to Jerry a couple times and I was sold. This is the place I wanted to be.

LUIS GONZALEZ: I think we all have inner drive and push each other. Towards the end of the season there, we were pulling for -- Jay was pulling for me to try to get a hundred RBIs, and these were -- and we just kind of pushed for each other. This is the type of team we have here. We have a quiet confidence about ourselves. We don't try to show up anybody on the field. We play hard baseball and this is just the style of play that we have had all year.

LUIS GONZALEZ: Well, I was a free agent last year going into the expansion year and that was one of the teams I wanted my agent to talk to. They wanted to go in a different direction and get some younger players. Obviously, everyone's childhood dream is to play this their hometown. When I realized that wasn't going to be the case, I signed a two-year deal with Detroit which didn't work out very well. I was able to hit some home runs and do some things, but they wanted to go in a different direction with this some younger players. I ended up getting traded over here which was a blessing in disguise to be surrounded by so many great players here. Everything has worked out for myself. I have great teammates here and I've been happy ever since.

MATT WILLIAMS: You know, I don't know why that's said. Didn't we go over three million people coming through this ballpark this year? That's pretty good. That doesn't happen every day. There are a lot of things to do this in this area. There's a lot of golf courses. There's a lot of other activities. You have other sports teams. One I believe is playing tonight. There's other things to do. But we have had fantastic support all year. Granted, it wasn't sellouts like it was last year, but that comes with newness and intrigue and all that stuff. But I guarantee you, if we keep repeating what we're doing here, we'll fill this place every night, because the bottom line is if you give them something good to watch, they are going to come watch. That's our job. That's what we're supposed to do. So if we can do that, they will come.

MATT WILLIAMS: I think so. You know, the people this community get spring straining until they moved the franchise here, they got spring training and that was it. They got to seeing spring training games and see a few of their favorite players and things like that. But to have 181 games here, give them a chance to get to know the players. Gives them a chance to become fans and root for their teams. So once again, the more we win, the more we'll be appreciated, and that's the case anywhere. So winning cures it, and if you win, you'll get people in the stands.

End of FastScripts….