NL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: METS v BRAVES

October 19, 1999

Bobby Cox

BOBBY COX: John is 100 percent. Nothing has changed. I had a message from John Schuerholz, our GM, when I got back yesterday afternoon, and the first message was that he was involved. I really didn't know what had happened. I called him right away and he said he's fine; it's nothing bad. Initially, it didn't sound too good; that he was going 140 miles an hour and totaled out his car. I guess. I still don't know. I just saw John. I still didn't ask him. I asked him how he was. He said 100 percent. I didn't ask him about the accident. I think it tore off his right front fender.

BOBBY COX: I'm not even sure if -- it was at the toll booth, I thought.

BOBBY COX: I don't know what happened.

BOBBY COX: No -- I don't know. I have no clue. I really -- the only thing I know is it wasn't very bad. I think it hit his front quarter panel of the car, and he is not even sore. He's fine. I've been in car wrecks before, and generally, you're so sore you can't move for a week. But he's absolutely 100 percent.

BOBBY COX: Well, the first message I got was that he was really going fast and totaled out his car, but he's okay. That still didn't sound too good to me. After being in a couple of accidents when I was just a kid, there were some people killed in a few cars that I was involved in. We were going to the Pro Bowl in Los Angeles, and I think there were like nine people killed in the accident we were involved in. We were almost killed. We weren't, nobody in our car, but we were sore for a long time and couldn't hardly walk. But it was -- the first message did say he was fine. He walked away and he's fine.

BOBBY COX: Well, you try to have positive thoughts. We've played two real good ballgames; so did the Mets, and the breaks went their way for a change, and not ours. We've been having our share of luck through the whole series. And neither team is really tearing the cover off the ball. And it's a game of inches. It's frustrating, yes, after playing so long in that game Sunday, a six-hour game almost. And to go ahead and finally -- we held them for 14 innings without scoring. They held us in every inning, too. You'd like to win those type of games. But I don't know. There's always -- I've told writers and people that cover baseball forever, even during the season when you're trying to lock it up, when you have a ten-game lead and only 11 or 12 games to go, it's still not locked up, and you're still nervous about it. It's just the way it is.

BOBBY COX: I like to play the game and manage the game with all the pressure. Just because you're behind in a series, I don't think that relieves it. I'd rather be ahead. I consider it all the same, personally.

BOBBY COX: Well, I think when you get involved in games like we did Sunday, especially, you're trying to do too much always. It never fails. Guys are trying to win the game in every at-bat on one swing. And when you do that, you're trying to hit the ball too far, too hard, rather than relaxing, and you're chasing bad balls. Both teams chased a lot of bad balls in that game.

BOBBY COX: Well, again, I haven't read a paper, and don't intend to, and I don't listen to the radio. So I don't really know what people are saying. The only thing I can tell you, the double-switch in the one game where Olerud took the ball up the middle, Ozzie has just as good a chance catching it as anybody else. He's still a good shortstop. I would do that again in a heartbeat. To me, that was the thing to do, period. And not bringing Millwood in, there's a lot of reasons for that. Our club was not in desperation. There's no guarantee that he's going to lock it up on a rain-slickened mound. Number three, he still had a game to pitch. When he came in to relieve against Houston, he wasn't going to start again. He felt good. He could have pitched easily, but he wasn't feeling his best. I asked him before the game started, asked him how he felt, and he said he felt good. I said, "Real good or excellent?" And he said good; so he could have pitched it easily. The only problem would have been if he had given up a run, he would be out of the series. He wouldn't have pitched the rest of it. And the mound had a lot to do with it. Kevin McGlinchy throws strikes; he breezed through the first two hitters in the previous inning. The mound was tacky. When you have that, mud sticks to your spikes and it becomes extremely difficult to put the ball where you want. I had made up my mind I wasn't going to use him.

BOBBY COX: No, I think they would, absolutely, if you asked them that. I'm not sure that was presented to them directly. Absolutely, I think everybody would take responsibility for knocking in a run here and there, but we did -- I thought Hunter's ball was out in right center. In a normal day game, that goes out, and that was with the bases loaded at the time. Andruw almost hit one out himself with the bases loaded. But then they didn't fall for us. Absolutely, it's a team effort. Our guys are very close. Have been all season long. I don't think there was any finger-pointing. I didn't hear about it. I felt bad for McGlinchy and talked to him after the game. I didn't sense that. Again, I don't know what's printed and what's said.

BOBBY COX: Yes, absolutely, always has.

BOBBY COX: Because you have to win to get there. And it just always has. I don't know what your opinion is in this room, but my opinion, absolutely.

BOBBY COX: No. It's just the fact you've got to win this to get there. Absolutely, you want to win the World Series, but you can't win it unless you get there. And these things, even the first round is really, really tough. The second round even becomes more increasingly tough.

BOBBY COX: I haven't talked -- I've seen John. I haven't really talked to him yet. He may be -- maybe Maddux could go a hitter or so, I'm not sure about that. What I said to Mac -- he really felt bad. Just to hang in there, and I told him how difficult I thought it was. And I thought he was as good as anybody else out there at the time to throw a strike, under those conditions. By the way, the grounds crew did a great job with the field. I'm not blaming the mound. It was very playable, the mound was playable, and home plate was playable. But it's hard to throw off a slippery, wet mound where it's sticking in your shoes. And Mac has a history of always throwing strikes. I told him that. I don't think it made him feel a lot better. But some conversation is better than none.

BOBBY COX: Well, the only good thing about those, really, he hasn't said anything about the opposition at all, the club, itself, or anything like that. And some of the stuff that has been said to him, I think anybody in this room would confront the person. It's really, really bad stuff. Nobody in this room, if they had a heart at all, would stand up and take it. I don't think he would, either. I think he would have some comment about it, and then back off and lend a deaf ear to what you hear. Some of that stuff is absolutely horrible. It's bad, really bad. I think every gentleman in here would probably fight the guy if he came up to your face. I think he'd punch his lights out.

BOBBY COX: This is the first year we've carried nine pitchers, I think. And it may have come into play in Sunday's game, I don't know. We've always carried three. Just the fear of losing your catchers and not being able to play a ballgame. You could lose a lot of players and still play, but you can't without catchers. No, I don't feel shorted, no. I think we can still do -- we've always had Colbrunn, who was a right-handed, pinch-hitter guy that could always catch. But he was a very valuable hitter, along with that.

BOBBY COX: Well, I think they must have done some good scouting or somebody saw something in him. My record doesn't indicate the style of play he's showing right now. And going to Japan -- somebody saw him. He looks good. To me, he looks real good. I don't know what happened in his Minor League career. But I know he was an infielder; he's moved to the outfield. He looks good out there. He runs good enough. He has a little bit of power. He didn't show that in the Minor Leagues. He hasn't stolen a lot of bases early in his career. You like to see those type of stories, like Pratt and Eddie Perez, to really come on and help the team win. They kind of survive, and all of a sudden, they're pretty good players. I like those kind of stories. I don't like them to beat us, but I like to see kids that really stick with the game and struggle and all of a sudden, here they are in the biggest game of the entire season. They're being able to play in it.

BOBBY COX: It wouldn't have worked.

BOBBY COX: Well, you have reasons to support them. And it's easy to get down in this game. Nobody is perfect every ballgame. Sometimes a little slap on the back and support them in the papers and things like that doesn't hurt. They are human. And I've seen managers, and I've played for managers -- in 40 years, you see a lot -- that I just didn't want to play for that type of person. I had the pleasure to play in the Major Leagues for Ralph Houk, and he was as supportive as they come, and a real tough guy. But he knew the value of communication, I think, when some of the players that normally weren't playing and things like that. The superstars always take care of themselves; it's the other guys you have to worry about some. But I liked that style a lot better than ripping them. It's not that I never -- we have our confrontations with players, but it's never public or anything like that. I can get on a player, and have, as good as anybody in the world. But certainly, when we leave, we understand each other and it hasn't been printed and nobody knows about it. At least most of the cases.

BOBBY COX: I'm really not aware of it. But the only thing I can tell you is I'm just completely focused on a game, and that's all. And the outside makes absolutely no difference. I know a lot of people don't believe I don't read the paper; I don't listen to the radio. I really don't, and I haven't for a number of years. And I feel good every single day. (Laughter). It can get to you. It got to some of our players when they first started having talk radio in this town and some of the things being said about John Smoltz. I was completely oblivious. I didn't know then. I didn't even know we had a radio station like that. And most of it was untrue. The guys were saying they were in the clubhouse talking to them. The guys never were in our clubhouse, ever. Just a lot of stuff. I just believe it's not a good way to live your life. You have to know what's going on in the world, and I try to keep up with that some. But I find it personally better for me. I just feel a lot better. I'm in a lot better mood and upbeat. Even managers need a pat on the back occasionally. (Laughter).

BOBBY COX: While in New York? I played in New York, and that's always going to be there. That doesn't change anything, anyhow.

BOBBY COX: Well, first of all, we have a good team. We have a very good ballclub. It would be the same test if we had to go through Houston. That is a tough team. We had to play like heck to get through them. And the Mets ran right through Arizona, a real good team. They just weren't on their game at the time. When they got past Randy, that seemed to really get things going. But that was a good test. And the Mets have always been a good test. They've got a great team. I don't know, a test is a test. We need to win a ballgame. They need to win two.

BOBBY COX: Probably so in everybody's opinion. It's going to turn out that way. We feel good. We're talking a lot of negatives, here. But we feel good about our team tonight. We feel very good. We expect that we'll play well.

BOBBY COX: I'm at the point in my life that I'm not worried about that. Baseball has been this way forever. And I know what I'm doing, I feel like. I can live with myself pretty easily. That's up to management. That's strictly up to them. I'm not ready to hang them up, I'll tell you that much. There's a lot of jobs out there right now (laughter).