AL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: RED SOX v YANKEES

October 18, 1999

Jimy Williams

JIMY WILLIAMS: I apologize to you folks, I just couldn't make it last night.

JIMY WILLIAMS: No, I just spoke my peace about the umpires in New York. I just didn't think I needed to keep addressing the situation. But it's out there. I just -- I didn't know what I could really say.

JIMY WILLIAMS: I apologized to Phyllis for not coming up here. I should have been up here. Sometimes when you see something, you want to react right away. And sometimes maybe it's better to sleep on it. I knew I shouldn't have, from the standpoint of you folks being up here, but I really didn't know what I could tell you, just keep talking about the umpires. We're here to talk about the players. We're here to talk about these two teams. That's the most important thing. The players decide the games; that's why everybody comes to watch. Don't come to watch me. They don't come to watch the umpires. They come to watch the players, because the players play. That's what it's all about.

JIMY WILLIAMS: I don't know. I don't have an answer for you. I like the human element in there, but the thing that I believe, I stressed before, and I'm being redundant here in going back. They're a team just like we are. We work as a team. I still think they need to work as a team. I'm saying it again. Shouldn't have to. Everybody makes mistakes. I probably made more than anybody in here. But I try and utilize our coaches the best I can to help us in a game situation and whether it be preparation or during the course of the game. So to me, that's trying to be a team to win a game as a unit. To me, as umpires, you're trying to officiate a game properly as a unit so it's fair for both sides.

JIMY WILLIAMS: When Georgie Porgie speaks, I don't listen. I didn't incite the fans. The situation incited the fans. I didn't incite them. I'm a manager of a Major League team. There are some plays that happen out there where I believe every manager would go out and argue, maybe more than I did, depending on who the individual is. To stand up for your team, you know, I think that's your responsibility. I mean I just reacted. I was just -- I don't like to go out on that field or argue with umpires; I really don't. I don't like to go out there. But there are times when you need to go out there, and I was just sick and tired of having to keep coming out here on these plays. I guess I blew my stack a little -- not blew my stack, but reacted. Incite the fans, no. That was -- that never even entered my mind. We have great fans here. They've supported us very, very well throughout this season, and I think when we were down 2-0 to Cleveland, you would think we were up 2-0, the way they came out and supported us in those two games we had here at home. We have tremendous fans. But what they did last night is not the right thing to have happen in a ballpark. I have the utmost respect for the New York Yankees. I know some of those kids over there, certainly I know Joe Torre and those coaches. I don't want any players, coaches or anybody to get hurt. I really don't, either side. When you go to other stadiums, hopefully you get the same type of security that our organization put out their last night to prevent fans coming on the field. I know there were things thrown, even though I wasn't on the field itself; I was already in the runway. I was out of the game. They try to do it in the proper fashion. You don't like to see it; I've seen it before. I think if you play the game long enough, you're going to get into situations during the course of a season somewhere where something like that's going to happen, if not worse. Whether it be during an organized situation in United States or winter ball or whatever. We all have. We all come from different backgrounds. Where we've grown up, we've seen things too, maybe yourselves included. It's not a perfect world out there. We don't like to see it happen. I believe in our fans too much, and certainly -- hopefully, it will not happen here tonight.

JIMY WILLIAMS: Yes, I did. I mean I asked him, you know, first thing I asked him was, "Why is he out?" He said he tagged him. I spread my hands like that, which you've probably seen. I said he missed him by that much. Can you ask somebody, can you get some help, somebody can help you if they saw from a different angle. I said Timmy, I know he didn't touch him. I know he didn't touch him. I know he didn't. I asked him. Did he ask, I don't know. But then I went like this, palms up, you got to ask somebody around here for help just to make sure you get the call right, because that's all I've ever been told by other umpires in situations where they've changed the decisions against the club that I was managing, we're just trying to get the play right. We've got to get the play right. It happened again last night. I talked about that in New York, too. Same thing. Got to get it right. Team umpires, to leave somebody else out there to hang out to dry again.

JIMY WILLIAMS: I can't remember what his response was. I know Dave Jauss was right there with me. I know he heard me ask him to ask for help; you ought to make sure we got the play right. I knew he missed it because of the angle of where we were. I went like this, I went around these guys, "Somebody help him." That's what I meant. Somebody help him. We've got to help this kid.

JIMY WILLIAMS: See the ball hit the wall, didn't come in the dugout. The angle of the throw went past Tino Martinez, but it hit the wall where it was still in play. It didn't go in that television well and it didn't come into our dugout. Basically, he caught it off the wall. If that's the same play.

JIMY WILLIAMS: Well, I guess we'll have to have them move that concrete or something, I don't know.

JIMY WILLIAMS: See, we're down 3-1. We have to win. You know, I mean am I going to come up here, am I going to see you folks one more time, three more times or five more times? We have to go play this game. But we have to win. We know, we understand that. Certainly Saberhagen cannot pitch. Ramon, cannot pitch. If, in fact, we get to a point in that game and we feel that it's right to ask Pedro to pitch, you know, then certainly we'll ask him, or maybe he'll come to us. But we need a good performance out of Mercker, and possibly some others prior to then. Because we know El Duque's tough.

JIMY WILLIAMS: I haven't even thought about that. That never even entered my mind. Could he have been in a better position? You know, could he have been in a better position to make the call? Because that call happens a lot during the season, the ball to the right side with the runner. And they either tag him and then throw to first, run him back to first and throw to first and out at second, a lot of different scenarios. But maybe somebody else, like I said before, got to step up. Where's the first base umpire? What was his angle like? To me, he probably would be the only other one; I don't know. Because I don't know exactly what they're looking at. Are they looking down at the ground? I don't know. But I never thought about that other part of that question. Never entered my mind.

JIMY WILLIAMS: I don't have a theory, but I think people better take a look at it, like they do in those other professional sports. They better take a good look at it, and not always have to ask these guys to ask somebody else. They better step up. Because they're accountable for their actions out there as a group, just like we are, so they better start helping each other.

JIMY WILLIAMS: Well, you create your own breaks. We made a couple of mistakes last night, they capitalized. I don't know about breaks. Talking about luck, you know, that can be real smart and say luck is a residue of preparation. Basically that's what it is. You put yourself into a position where if you happen to catch a break, it's because of everything else that happened before that that you did right. You know, so I don't know about breaks, the sport is what it is. Bad hops, you know, a lot of things happen, come into play, but certainly the focus should be on these kids playing the game, the players. The players decide the game. The pitchers, the hitters, everything. Let them decide the game. Not anybody else.

JIMY WILLIAMS: I'd just go back to talk to Jeff Nelson again for his reaction.

JIMY WILLIAMS: Our attitude is very good. We feel we can win. That's why we play. We go play to win. We understand how they're going to play, too. But we feel good about ourselves in our clubhouse, our kids. Same way they were all year long, out there today. You know, to me, same good work ethic, everything.

JIMY WILLIAMS: Certainly the physical errors by players are made by the same guys that have made great plays all year long to help get us here. Now, sometimes there's a lot of room around that ball; things happen. But it's not from lack of effort. It's not from lack of preparation. I'm not pointing at any particular umpire, as far as mistakes, but, you know, we accept our wins and our losses as a team together, in our clubhouse. I can't speak for them. I can only speak for us on how we are. You know, how we play. But I mean the Yankees capitalize. They took advantage and scored runs.

JIMY WILLIAMS: I really don't believe so, not at all. That to me was the way we practiced, just me watching how they did things out there. They did them right. Whether it was taking ground balls, or turning double plays or throwing the ball across that field or swinging a bat in BP or trying to bunt the ball, bunting the ball. I didn't see any difference from any other time during the year. So we're focused. We're ready to go play. But let the players decide it.