AL DIVISION SERIES: RANGERS v YANKEES

October 5, 1999

Bernie Williams

BERNIE WILLIAMS: Let me see... I think it was -- he had two strikes. We were playing him a little bit to pull, Juan. He hit the ball the other way, I started running. I didn't think I had a shot at it, but the last minute, the ball just stayed up a little bit, you know, longer than I had anticipated and it gave me a chance to dive and I was fortunate enough to make the catch.

BERNIE WILLIAMS: Not really. Not really. I was just trying to figure him out, you know, he has gotten me out the last two at-bats. It was good because the runs didn't score. That was a good thing. But as far as going to the plate, I was just doing a good job separating my defense from my offense, and I was just trying to figure Sele out. I did.

BERNIE WILLIAMS: I just feel like we need to score a lot of runs throughout the game because they can hit with the best of them. What happened tonight was an exception rather than a rule. Those guys can hit with the best of them and we just need to keep scoring runs. It doesn't matter who we score against, the starting pitcher or the, you know, bullpen, we just need to score runs.

BERNIE WILLIAMS: I got the count to 0-2, I said to myself, "Stay focused" try to have a good at-bat. He made a couple tough pitches, that back door breaking ball. It was very close. I decided not to swing at it and he decided to call it a ball. After that, I don't think he threw me a fastball up until the end, he tried to sneak that fast ball in there, that last pitch. I was thinking, try to hit the ball up the middle, straight away or left center field. It was just, you know, cut the outside of the plate a little bit and I was able to put some good wood on it. I hit it pretty hard.

BERNIE WILLIAMS: No. Actually, I thought I was going to have a terrible night. You know, I was sleepy and dragging a little bit and it was cold. All throughout batting practice, I was like wow, I don't know how I'm going to get through this. Something happened when they said the line-ups. I started hearing the anthem. Something inside of me just woke up, said it's time to play. And that's what happened. After that inning that I, you know, grounded out to first base, I said you just got to go out there and play hard, you got to wake up. This is the post-season. This is not the regular season anymore.

BERNIE WILLIAMS: I suppose as far as the pressure on the field, it's the same. Last year, I think the easiest part was playing the game. I had so many distractions off the field that I felt that those three and a half, four hours I spent on the field playing the game was the easiest part. Right now I feel the same way. We're having a lot of fun, and so far it's been great. So I have no complaints.

BERNIE WILLIAMS: It's just the first game. You know, we still have a lot of work to do. Those guys are, it's like walking up an ant hill. They're going to come out swinging, and I don't blame them. So we just got to be ready. Can't take them lightly at all. Tomorrow is going to be a different -- I mean Thursday's going to be a different game, and we just got to keep doing the same things that we're doing right now and we got to be ready for them.

BERNIE WILLIAMS: I don't know. Just the whole atmosphere was very emotional when we saw Zim on the ground just, you know, yelling in pain. And it was just very emotional for all of us. I felt that, you know, we should stay in the game. So I saw Joe just a little bit, you know, watery eyes and he definitely looked upset about the whole situation. And I just came to his side and told him that, you know, if he was all right, if he was with us, just to stay with us in the game, and, you know, that was the whole thing. Later on, I asked him if he was mad because I told him that, he said, no, not at all. So... It was a good thing. The whole team got together and we were able to pull it through.