MLB WORLD SERIES: INDIANS v MARLINS

October 17, 1997

Bobby Bonilla

BOBBY BONILLA: Yeah, it feels pretty sore, but I've been through a great deal, it's taken me a great deal to get here and I don't plan on missing it.

BOBBY BONILLA: I don't see it as a problem, I think he can come up with a big game. Can't get into any bigger than the 2-2 game he pitched.

BOBBY BONILLA: I'm pretty much the one that goes to the mound. I wouldn't let Edgar go out there at all, because he probably would be thinking the same thing Livan is thinking, so I would just say -- it all depends on what the situation is. I might say something in Spanish that might crack him up, it all depends on how I'm feeling, what the situation is.

BOBBY BONILLA: I came to the mound the very first time, it was in the 1st inning, after the triple he got behind to Lockheart, and I just didn't want him being too careful. I wanted him to make sure he was aggressive and he stayed aggressive. He got the triple and that was that, and if the run scored that was okay, too, but I wanted to make sure that he was aggressive to the plate.

BOBBY BONILLA: We've got a lot of pressure going. This is for my Latin counterpart. It all depends, honestly. It's what I'm feeling at the time, you know. Really, I can literally -- it might be something that Larry might say that I've heard Larry say over and over and over. Or I might throw out something funny. It really depends.

BOBBY BONILLA: I don't really know what went on this year, I know a great deal about what happened last year. I know they have a great hitting baseball team. And I know they're able to put up a snowman ( a lot of runs) in a heartbeat. You have to really approach it just like you would Atlanta. We have to have great pitching performances from our guys and we have to take it from there.

BOBBY BONILLA: Because I'm not in New York (laughter.) That's basically the bottom line.

BOBBY BONILLA: Bottom line is you have to pitch. You want timely hits. I don't know if you can necessarily go out in postseason and hit .9000. For some reason I keep hearing we hit under .200. But I didn't think the Braves were hitting over .400. It makes no difference. The bottom line is you have to pitch well, you really do. You have to keep us in the game in order to do something and have some timely hits.

BOBBY BONILLA: It was a little wet out there. No, I did not take any ground balls.

BOBBY BONILLA: Yeah, I'll wait until tomorrow.

BOBBY BONILLA: I had nothing to do with it, nothing, so I'm going to leave right now -- is this a New York guy?

BOBBY BONILLA: Stuff like that really doesn't bother me, I just like to consider him a crafty veteran, very crafty.

BOBBY BONILLA: Yes, it will be day-to-day.

BOBBY BONILLA: I had an opportunity to DH in a couple of games and I still didn't do it. I'm going to try to avoid that at all costs.

BOBBY BONILLA: It means a great deal to me, of course, it means a great deal. This is something I've thought about a very long time. This is actually what you work for, putting all the other crap that you hear aside, and just being able to participate in a World Series is pretty much everything. But again you do want to win. And making it with Leyland is, of course, it has a little extra to it because we've come so close before in Pittsburg, and I had an opportunity with Baltimore last year to make it to the World Series and that didn't happen. So to be together with him under the circumstances was very nice.

BOBBY BONILLA: Well, getting Jim Leyland, of course, was very important. I think that was a big, big step. But for some reason in Spring Training everything just clicked. I thought that is when everything kind of came together. People aren't going to say that. We went out and -- you don't go to try to do anything in Spring Training but get ready, but things fell into place. A lot of things happened that were successful in Spring Training. We knew something special was going to be thereafter coming out of Spring Training. And Leyland said we were pretty much set up for a big kill, so to speak, because we went out and spent a lot of money on some players. If we didn't do it, there was a lot to write about. So I felt it came together in spring.

BOBBY BONILLA: Just stay out of there. Because somebody was looking in my locker, I felt it was like going in my desk. You people bring that up, it's amazing. It isn't meant to stay out of it, not talk to me. Somebody happened to be looking in my locker when they shouldn't have been. And he's lucky I didn't have money in there, I might have really been nasty.

BOBBY BONILLA: In my heart it's the ability to communicate with everybody, regardless of who are you, whether you're Gary Sheffield, he has this ability to talk to you. Don't get me wrong, he doesn't volunteer any information, because he is with management, of course, and we all understand that. But if you need to go in there and you need to know where you stand, you're able to talk to him.

BOBBY BONILLA: I don't think anyone in the clubhouse has really thought about anything like that. Again, it's an unfortunate situation. We'd really like for them to keep the ball club, he's a tremendous owner. But again, I don't know what the situation is or what he plans on doing.

BOBBY BONILLA: You know, again, it wouldn't -- I have a -- I don't have a no trade clause. And I figure someone is going to pick me up it will be in a winning situation. So it really didn't bother me in the least to have one, so it wasn't important to me, so I wanted to be able to get to the World Series, and if that's what it took, that's what it took.

BOBBY BONILLA: First of all, I know they don't have that in New York, at least I can't recall them ever bringing that to my attention or I'm sure Jay would have worked on my image a little better in letting me get that award or working on that possibly. It actually took me by surprise, because we have some tremendous individuals. I can go from CJ (Charles Johnson) to EZ (Jim Eisenreich), to anybody. You don't want to leave anybody out on the team, but those two really come to mind. And I didn't know that the award existed. But actually it was a nice compliment. And the first thing I said is this is pretty funny, I said, wow they're going to have fun with this in New York. That's all I can think about. I was just thinking, the Mad Dog and LaRussa over there, they're going to tear this up. Have fun with the cartoonists in New York that are having fun with that. As well as Marty Noble will probably have some fun with that, too.

BOBBY BONILLA: I don't have a problem with that. I'm not afraid to swing the bat. If they elect to pitch to me, I'm going to swing. I'm not as picky as Mr. Sheffield. I'll swing at something over my head.

End of FastScripts�.