AL DIVISION SERIES: RED SOX v INDIANS

October 6, 1999

Mike Hargrove

A. I think that you have a little bit of everything. You have good pitching, obviously. I think you have two offenses that can score runs decently. The teams are comparable. I think it's going to be a very hard fought series. I don't look for any one team to just dominate the other. In a five game series, anything can happen.

A. You know, I feel you go into a short series and you need to go with your best. I think that Charlie over the years has proven to be one of our better pitchers and certainly the fact that he's pitched well in Fenway was part of the decision, but I felt that it was important to go at the Red Sox with what we've got and not to play too many games. You can sometimes, I think, think yourself right into a box and I wanted to go with our best.

A. Because Pedro is pitching? No. I mean, if I did, why would I tell you guys.

Q. Yesterday in talking about Bartolo Colon, you said he was sort of getting there in terms of being a number one pitcher. Is that just because you haven't seen any consistency over a period of time?

A. I don't think he's missing anything to be a number one. I think that to finally get the label of a number one pitcher, to have that bestowed on you, it's something that comes over the course of time. There are a lot of guys out there that I think have the stuff to be number one, but it's more than just stuff, and I think that Bartolo has all the ingredients to be number one. It has to just all fall into place and I think that's done over the course of time.

A. Well, I think it says a lot for his talent to still be able to pitch effectively as he does given his physical ailments. I think it also speaks to his character to stay with it and fight through and overcome a lot of the obstacles that have been in his path. You know, I have a lot of respect and admiration for Bret Saberhagen.