AL DIVISION SERIES: RANGERS v YANKEES

October 6, 1999

Don Zimmer

JAY STENHOUSE: Can you recap the events of last night when you got hit with the ball?

DON ZIMMER: One thing, it had nothing to do with winning and losing. I heard that enough this morning. I saw the ball coming at me. What I did was turn my head, when the ball hit me, I didn't know whether it hit me up in the head, whether it hit me in the cheek bone, I didn't really know. When I woke up this morning, I knew where it hit me the hardest. (Laughter.) Believe it or not, right here on my neck. I guess when I turned that way, the ball hit my neck and went up and cut my ear a little bit. I think it scared me more than it really, you know -- there was really not too much to it. I got a little swelling. I'm a little stiff from here to here. But besides that, I'm all right.

DON ZIMMER: Well, you know, most of our hitters, when they think the umpire's missing pitches, they'll go up to Charlie, who takes our camera work, and they'll come back and show it to Joe where the ball's that far outside and they called it a strike. That goes on pretty regularly during our ballclub. Probably other clubs, too, but I see Jeter coming out with that same sheet and I heard him say to Joe, "Take a look at this." I'm thinking maybe it's a pitch that far outside they called a strike on him. When I look down, it's this face with the ice pack on it. (Laughter.) Leave it up to Jeter, he'll do something.

DON ZIMMER: Oh, yeah. I would say so. First of all, there's a lot of guys that sit in the dugout and they're not paying attention. As many times as I've been hit in the head, I do pay attention. And if I hadn't been paying attention, the ball might have hit me solid and I could have been hurt. When I came back on the bench -- did you ever look at Joe Torre's hands? He's got hands like that. I said Joe, how come you didn't take one of them meat hooks of yours and catch the ball. He said I didn't see it. Luckily, I saw it or I could have been hurt.

DON ZIMMER: Well, number one, my wife, where she's sitting, she didn't know who got hit. She knew something happened in the dugout, and Joe Torre's wife, who could see into our dugout where she was sitting, went up and told my wife that it was me. So by that time, Mr. Steinbrenner, his son, the son-in-law, the two doctors, they were all in there, and the trainer said -- Donahue said, "Your wife is out in the hall, do you want to bring her in?" I said," What? " I don't believe in that. I said," Tell her to go on up, sit in the stands and have a hot dog and I'll see her after the game." That's when they slowed up the bleeding of my ear. Where else am I going to go but back to the bench?

DON ZIMMER: Well, George said last night in the trainer's room that he was somewhere along the line maybe for next year -- he was going to put up -- what do they call it, Plexiglass, up high where that couldn't happen. I know a few years ago in spring training, somebody almost got killed with a line drive, I can't think of who it was. But it was in spring training where it can be very dangerous. Again, if I'm sitting over here talking to you and not paying attention, you don't know what might happen.

DON ZIMMER: Well, at the time it happened, I had no idea, I just -- I said, "Oh, my, here I go again." I didn't know whether it was my head, my cheek bone. I didn't know what it was. afterwards, somebody's telling me Knoblauch, he had his head down and Joe I guess was disturbed, but I didn't know any of that. But I think not because it's Don Zimmer got hit in the head, I think anybody that would have had a foul tip like I got last night, I think everybody would have felt the same about anybody on this club.

DON ZIMMER: Well, first of all, I think we can talk about the whole pitching staff. I mean, unless I'm wrong, going into this season, leaving Florida, I think just about everybody in baseball thought we had the top best starters, six best starters in baseball. I have said all along to myself, to maybe some of my close friends, that I don't think this ballclub has played as well as I think they can play. I mean I can't remember playing ten straight days this whole year where you got -- that would be two starts a piece for five pitchers, I can't remember that happening, where we had ten good outings from our pitchers. We got good pitchers, and I will say this: I hope that I'm going to be right by saying we're still going to be better, and this would be one heck of a time for the pitchers to pitch like El Duque did last night.

DON ZIMMER: Well, I'm in there last night and they're fixing my ear, I got the ice pack on my face, George is standing here, Hal is standing here, his son-in-law is standing here, I said, "Well, maybe I'll clear this up a little bit right now." I said, "Boy, I've had a tough summer." I said, "I think I'll go another four or five years and then call it quits." (Laughter.) I was trying to throw George a little hint, you know, I'll maybe come back.