AL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: INDIANS v YANKEES

October 10, 1998

Mike Hargrove

MIKE HARGROVE: At the time, we had Doug Jones instead of Chad Ogea to give us more help back in the bullpen. Steve Reed was coming off his problems, circulation problems and we weren't sure how ready he was. Felt between him and Jones we could have some help in that regard. In the meantime between then and now, Steve has shown us he's healthy and pitching well and Chad has had good numbers against the Yankees in the past. So that was --

MIKE HARGROVE: No, I didn't. I think that hitting, coming around and -- has everything to do with how effective the other pitcher is against you. And I think -- the guys have swung the bats well and I think that a lot of times that it has more to do with -- as I said earlier -- it has more to do with the opposing pitching than it does the fact that you're not swinging the bats well. Good pitching will beat good hitting and that held true back when Babe Ruth played and holds true today. We've got good hitters as the Yankees do. If we pitch well, we have a chance to get them out and if they pitch well, they have a chance to get us out. If the pitchers pitch to the big part of the plate, then the other plays -- I think it's that as much as anything.

MIKE HARGROVE: Talked to Jaret yesterday afternoon and alerted him to the fact officially what I was thinking about and had a 15, 20 minute conversation with him. It went well. He wasn't happy with the news -- as I didn't expect him to be, but he understood, and like the true professional he is, he will do what he can do to help the team win and officially told him about 10 minutes ago that we were going to go with Chad and he was fine with it as far as I know. I mean, he didn't seem too upset. He wasn't happy, smiling, jumping up and down, but he wasn't kicking and throwing things at me, either.

MIKE HARGROVE: You'll see him tonight and I'll make a decision on that tomorrow. There's every chance at that Enrique will play more. Again, Joey Cora is a good player and if we can get him on track, then he'll help us a lot. If not, then we'll see how it goes.

MIKE HARGROVE: Jaret is in the bullpen, he was in the bullpen last night and will be in the bullpen tonight and tomorrow and, yeah, if -- I will use him. I'm not afraid to use Jaret, I really am not. He is a good pitcher, has got good stuff. Good competitor. Things are just not working for him right now in the role we've got him in and we've got to make an adjustment. But I've got no fear into putting him into that situation.

MIKE HARGROVE: No. He was awfully good. Again, David Wells is on his game and hitting his spots with his stuff, it makes for a long day offensively. There are some things that hopefully we've picked up that might help. But, again, if David is on his game, it's going to be a tough afternoon.

MIKE HARGROVE: You know, I don't know the specific reason for that. I think that it's a combination of things. He has good location with his pitches, he's sneaky fast. I think also that he has an extremely strong belief in his ability to pitch no matter what the situation. And I think all of those things combined give him a chance to pitch big in big games.

MIKE HARGROVE: You know, you'd probably have to ask him that to get a definite answer. But I would assume so. Yes, I would assume it will be a little easier here than it would be in Yankee Stadium. But, you know, that and 50 cents -- my opinion 50 cents gets you a cup of coffee on that. I'm not sure, but I would assume that, yes.

MIKE HARGROVE: I don't know how much of a role I'm on. I think a lot of times good players, obviously, will make decisions a lot easier to turn outright. We have a versatile team with guys like Enrique Wilson and Mark Whiten that gives us options to be able to take advantage, hopefully of situations. But what happens in the end is that talent tells and last night Mark Whiten was very focused, did a great job, as did Enrique Wilson especially defensively and, you know, I don't know that I'm on a roll as much as my players are playing very well.

MIKE HARGROVE: Well, good hitting will bring good hitting. It's a contagious thing and certainly when you've got one or two or three of your key people struggling, everybody else will try to do a little more than they're capable of doing trying to make up the difference and you start getting a team of hitters that are pressing, yes. And once one guy comes around, all of a sudden the next guy will relax and it's a domino effect. That happens since the first baseball was ever thrown.