AL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: RED SOX v YANKEES

October 18, 1999

Jimy Williams

JIMY WILLIAMS: I don't believe in the curse. I really don't. Unfortunately, we did leave runners on, and, like I said before, when we made a mistake, they seemed to capitalize. So that probably hurt us.

JIMY WILLIAMS: Well, they have a very veteran ballclub, and, you know, they've been through the war, so to speak. They won championships. Most of that club has been the same as what it was before. But, you know, they beat us. I tip my cap to the Yankees. I congratulate them. Joe Torre, his coaching staff, the players. They have a fine club. I wish them the best in the World Series.

JIMY WILLIAMS: Well, this is a special club, for me. I think this City of Boston, the people of New England really like this team. This whole summer, you know, they never dropped their heads, they never quit. Even tonight we had a pretty good shot in that 8th inning, just didn't quite work. I basically just thank them all for what they gave, you know, what they gave every day as baseball players as a unit. But for me, it's a special group of guys that really became a unit to perform together daily.

JIMY WILLIAMS: A lot of blue-collar kids here. Read between the lines. I'm not saying other teams weren't, but they -- they seem to really enjoy being with each other and pulling for each other. So, you know, with that in mind, it's very easy to, if what I am as a manager, to manage a team because I don't have to do much. I don't. In fact, I don't know what I do but watch them play. You know, so... From that standpoint, they're always prepared every day. From that standpoint, it's easy to put on a hit and run, a bunt, whatever. They're ready to do anything to help the club win at any time.

JIMY WILLIAMS: We had trouble getting those top-two guys out. They're tough, Knoblauch, Jeter. They can create havoc, both of them. They walk, they hit, they hit with power, they run. I'm certainly not knocking the rest of the club because to me they are basically table-setters, is what they are. But very dangerous table-setters because the rest of that line-up, I mean they have seven, eight guys that can -- I mean they can hit home runs at any time. You look at their bench; they have a veteran bench of players, they have a good mix over there. They have a good blend of players that play and then those that aren't playing, maybe they played yesterday or they're going to play tomorrow. So that's a team, too. They not only have very good pitching, they have outstanding closers.

JIMY WILLIAMS: Well, you know, he had a shot earlier when Mercker picked off Martinez and Lowe came in and got Jeter out, still in the game -- I believe it was 2-0 and then it became 4-0. Varitek gets a home run, Nomar a double. O'Leary walked and then Stanley, to me, he hit a ball very, very good that was a defensive guy got it, Huskey gets a walk, he comes in, gets a strike out and a pop-up. At that particular juncture of the game when it's still 4-1, game's still hanging in the balance, we whack a ball here or there, it's tied or close to being tied. So, yeah, you have to think that probably from their standpoint, pitching-wise, they got out of a key jam at that particular time in the game.

JIMY WILLIAMS: I'd rather just savor the season and the playoff experience and look at the team we have here right now and I tip my cap to them rather than look ahead. Let's just take a step back here and see what these kids did. Whether it's the youngsters, you know, Daubach and Nixon, or the veteran guys, Valentin, certainly the year Pedro had. You can mention a lot of names. I'm not really focused in on looking ahead at this particular moment, just reflect back maybe.

JIMY WILLIAMS: See, when you get to this level of play, clubs do that. We did it, too. But in this particular series, it didn't work for us as well as it did for them, but I think to get to this level you have to be an opportunistic -- I can't say that word anyway. You have to take advantage of situations and then get a hit with guys in scoring position, you know, two out base hits. If you're talking about offense, certainly make some plays and some key pitches.

JIMY WILLIAMS: Thank you all very much, too.