WORLD SERIES

November 1, 2000

Bob Brenly

BOB BRENLY: I would say he did a hell of a job and made all the right moves. (Laughter). First of all when I was up in the booth I made it a point to never second guess. If you cannot point something out ahead of time, it becomes the lowest form of journalism as far as I'm concerned to come in after the fact and say what should have happened. I tried to never do that when I was up in the broadcast booth.

BOB BRENLY: Second question first: He'll handle it fine. He was fine after the ballgame last night and he's fine in the clubhouse right now. As far his availability, he is available to pitch tonight, obviously a much more limited role, maybe an inning or maybe a hitter, but he is available.

BOB BRENLY: I agree. I think he's an extremely interesting young man. As I said the other day, he's very thoughtful, very caring, very intelligent. Those are all great qualities to have, but I'm more concerned with his on-field talents.

BOB BRENLY: I thought he had really spent himself in the seventh inning. That was his longest pitch count inning of the night. He had to really work hard mentally and physically to get through that inning. I started to notice, especially on his split finger, it wasn't as sharp as it had been earlier in the ballgame. I thought the Yankees were starting to get some better swings at him in the seventh inning and we said when he came off the field, if we got some points in the eighth inning we were going to go to BK to get the last six outs. Could he have gone out for the eighth? Probably. Would he have struck out the side like BK did? I'm not sure even if he does strike out the side in the eighth inning he would not have gone out for the ninth, so I don't really see what the big deal is.

BOB BRENLY: I think BK has really grown up some this year. We lose sight sometimes of the fact that this kid is only 22 years old and pitching in a foreign country. It's mind boggling to think that he's able to do what he has done this year, but has this season started and progressed and as we got deeper and deeper into the pennant race, I just noticed a change in him. He was -- he wanted the ball. He wanted to be on the mound in the ninth inning of a one-run ballgame and he looked forward to those situations whereas, I think maybe in years past or even at the beginning of this season, there may have been some apprehension on his part as to whether he was the right guy for the situation. I don't think he feels that way anymore. He believes he's the right guy; I believe he's the right guy, and that change in his mental approach is what justifies my confidence in him.

BOB BRENLY: As I said earlier, I don't think it's fair to compare or try to say these two guys are like those two guys, because I don't think that's fair in any sport to compare players of different eras. But as far as them feeding off of each other, I don't think there's any question that they have both benefitted being around the other guy this season. We all know Curt is very much of an extrovert; Randy is somewhat of an introvert and I think a little bit of the other's personality has rubbed off on the other. Curt is more focussed than he's been at any point in his career and Randy seems to be enjoying his success more than any other point in his career and I do think they do like to one-up each other when they are out on the mound.

BOB BRENLY: We knew Gracy had it in him, he hit a home run in batting practice yesterday that apparently knocked somebody out cold. We were not sure from the ball hitting him or just the shock of Gracy hitting one. (Laughter). But he is a very intelligent hitter, he got the count in his favor and he was looking for a pitch in one particular zone and normally he does not try to hit home runs, but given the circumstances and the short porch in right field, he got the pitch he was looking for and got it up there in the upper deck. It really didn't surprise me at all. The tag at the plate, it was a great play. The throw was a little bit to the infield side. He did everything he could do to just dive back in front of the plate and try to cut Tony off right there and it was a very close play, but I thought he made a tremendous play.

BOB BRENLY: The first two times Counsell bunted, it was a sacrifice bunt that we put on from the bench. Throughout this post-season, for that matter, because of the caliber of pitching that you are facing, we, like most teams, feel that if you can get a run early, get a lead early, it definitely puts the pressure on the other ballclub to come back. Craig is one of the best bunters in the game. I was sure he could get it down to advance the runner. The third time, he actually did it on his own, and Tony was on base and I gave him the option to get either get down the bunt or swing away and he chose to put the bunt down to advance him. We will probably do more of the same tonight if the opportunity arises. With Durazo at third base, he does a lot of things well, but getting great jumps off third base is not one of them. Cummings is a very quick, instinctive runner, and we knew we were going to go on contact on that play; so, we decided to go with the best baserunner we had available off the bench. Which was Midre Cummings. He did get a tremendous jump, and as the replay showed, he beat the ball there.

BOB BRENLY: We had no preconceived notions about how any of this is supposed to work out. That has been our team's attitude all season long: Don't anticipate, don't try to predict what's going to happen tomorrow. Let's go out tonight and do whatever it takes to win a ballgame; forget about it, come back tomorrow and we'll do it all over again. Certainly with Johnson and Schilling going in 6 and 7, we like our chances, but right now, we are worried about this ballgame.