MLB WORLD SERIES: YANKEES v BRAVES

October 26, 1999

Bobby Cox

BOBBY COX: Tommy's fine, and he's lost about three or four pounds, I guess. I think he lost seven at one time and he got most of that back. He should give us seven strong innings. I look forward to him pitching well. Tommy had lost like seven pounds, I think, and he's gained back half of that or so. He should be strong enough to go seven good innings tonight. We're looking forward to him pitching well.

BOBBY COX: He would bother anybody. He throws a lot of strikes, and he's got a great fastball that he can cut, and he challenges a lot of hitters. He is really tough to hit at, for right-handers or left-handers, I don't think it makes much difference.

BOBBY COX: Yeah, we hit a little extra yesterday. Some of the guys took some extra, Andruw Jones and Ryan Klesko. They left the batting practice, which is only batting practice, but they left there pretty confident, and in their minds, you know, they swung the bat well. Hopefully they can carry that into tonight's game.

BOBBY COX: Well, I know, you know, the Yankees did in '96 and, you know, then they rolled the table on us four in a row, and, you know, with the amount of good pitching that all the teams have when they reach the World Series, that's not impossible because each club does have great pitching. So, hopefully, we can make that four.

BOBBY COX: Nothing, just some pats on the back and stuff like that. We didn't -- we're not going to have a team meeting or anything tonight. We had one before we started this thing, you know, and they're professionals, and, you know, they would rather be one and one right now or 2-0 right now rather than 0-2. Nothing we can do about the past, but we have to be positive about, you know, each game. We're still going to play them one at a time. We can't try to win four tonight. We have to play one at a whack.

BOBBY COX: He could be, I suppose. I haven't talked to Kevin about that yet, and, you know, if push came to shove, we could do anything to win a ball game late if it's extra innings again, whatever, even use Maddux for a hitter or whatever if we had to.

BOBBY COX: Yeah. I really got some decent sleep last night. We had dinner and I was in bed at 12 o'clock and I didn't wake up till 8, which is unusual for me. But I always walk in New York. I'm always out walking early in the morning, walked for a couple hours and then came back, shower and sat in the lobby for about 20 minutes and came to the ballpark. And that was about it. I like to kill the time really either walking or being at the ballpark.

BOBBY COX: We have been in New York so many times this year that some of the people I'm starting to recognize. (Laughter.) But, yeah, you'd be surprised how many people, because we are on TBS and now national network television, with the Yankees and all the playoffs, people do recognize you and they're very nice. They're all very nice. I haven't had one person this year in New York say anything bad about the Braves or anything else.

BOBBY COX: Well, I think they have been very aggressive this series for me. I think we've had as many walks as they've had. I think they're just -- I think they're very aggressive, what I've seen. I mean they hit a lot of two-strike pitches. I mean they showed me a lot with two strikes. They got a lot of hits the other night, I thought, with two strikes.

BOBBY COX: Well, he's not your ordinary pitcher, that's for sure. He's getting a little older and all that, but he still throws great. If his control's on, you're going to be in for a tough night, no doubt about that. Roger, you know, is just a -- he's a big kid who still throws great, and he's tough. He's really tough.

BOBBY COX: I don't have a clue. I can't think, you know, for the other guys on the other team or even speculate about it. Sure, he would if he had a bad outing, you know, he'd like to come back with a good one.

BOBBY COX: Well, both teams have probably, but, you know, you have to remember Game 1, we had them shut out till the eighth inning. So they were probably swinging at a pitch or two they shouldn't have, as well as our team. But you can't just go up there and take the bat out of their hands. I thought we did a good job against El Duque the other night. We took too many pitches, probably, on certain counts that were hitter's counts and we took them for strikes and we probably should have been swinging. But against certain pitchers, you're going to swing at pitches out of the strike zone. David Cone is going to make you, you know, get out of the strike zone. That's the way he pitches. He throws so good you can't help yourself but do that.

BOBBY COX: As far as the energy level and the adrenaline, there's nothing better than having a pennant race and then getting into the playoffs. Honestly, you don't have much sleep. I know they don't. But yet they're not tired. It probably, through the years, you know, we've been in a lot of, lot of these games and a lot our starters are the same starters that have been through this, so they're logging an awful lot of innings. But, you know, we stuck with a five-man rotation almost the entire season, so when we started the playoffs, our pitching staff was well-rested. They were really strong. I don't think it's very significant.

BOBBY COX: Well, they, you know, they're here for a reason and they've got great pitching. Overall, they had a lot better pitching, I'm sure, than Boston and Cleveland probably. The one pitching staff probably is -- ours can match them and maybe Arizona with Randy and Daal and maybe Anderson in there, Stottlemyre, and also Benes. That's a pretty good pitching staff. But this is probably the best, you know, ones that I named and ours.

BOBBY COX: No, we've got our regular line-up, right-handed hitting line-up along with Jose Hernandez DHing. No surprises.

BOBBY COX: You have to make him throw strikes on you because he'll go out of the strike zone on you and you'll start chasing. Jimmy Key was a lot like that when he was here, make you hit balls out of the strike zone. The one thing about Pettitte, he has such a great move, it takes away your running game. The hit and run, your runners can't get any type of break to get an infielder moving out of position, to try to hit a ball through the opposite side. With his move alone makes it tough.

BOBBY COX: Well, John, I know, was looking around. Most of them didn't fit for us, and the one trade that we did make to add a little punch to the line-up was Jose Hernandez. And we got Mulholland in that deal, too, which really helped. But we lost a lot of power with those two guys; there's no doubt about it. And we were still able to score runs different ways, and Eddie, Eddie Perez is a pretty tough out, too. He doesn't hit the home runs like Javy, he's not going to hit for the average, but he's going to get a lot of big hits for you.