NL DIVISION SERIES: METS v DIAMONDBACKS

October 5, 1999

Bobby Valentine

BOBBY VALENTINE: Absolutely. First off, it is what it is and there's no changing it. I'm not here to gripe about it, but it sure seems unfair for our fans that not only -- not only do they have to stay up real late, a lot of them can't go to their favorite place to watch it because by the 5th inning or so, there's establishments back east that get closed, especially in the middle of the week. I think it's really weird. No, we never close. That's all part of it. People are going to be interrupting their work schedule, don't want to miss part of the game and it gets weird, I think.

BOBBY VALENTINE: I wasn't really keeping track of it but it wasn't too late. It was about 11:30, I think when it seemed like about a quarter to 12:00, and, you know, we just showered and got on the plane, and we got here about a quarter to 2:00, I think.

BOBBY VALENTINE: You know a lot of the emotion when the game starts tonight the house will be rocking, and the fans -- it's the first time for the Arizona fans, too. They haven't waited as long as the Met fans, obviously. But I think that there will be continuous highs of emotion, hopefully by some created on the field, but a lot of us are excited to be here for the first time again. And, you know, it's the first time I think the Mets and the Yankees are in postseason together. I think that's kind of neat, too, a little added excitement. It should be exciting, no doubt about it.

BOBBY VALENTINE: You mean Lopez not being on the roster? And Bobby Bo? You know, kind of a late-night decision that we looked at the last couple months of play, and we saw that Bobby Bo had actually gotten in more games than Lopez had. And when we tried to predict what the next five games might replicate, we felt they would probably be in a similar situation as we had in the past two couple months. I mean, Luis hasn't played very much. You know, the way we look at it is that if it was Bobby Bo and Luis, that being the scenario, and I don't know if it necessarily is that, you know, I kept -- I just kept staring at that and I wondered if, in fact, if Al was going to come back and pitch Game 5, which he very well might and we're not that far down into our rotation schedule, but if there's a Game 5 and Al comes back and pitches that, that means that really Orel won't be starting. Maybe we could have kept Luis on the roster instead of Orel, but again, over the last couple months, we've used our bullpen a lot more than we have used our utility infielder.

BOBBY VALENTINE: Obviously, we don't play Monday unless we won Sunday, and Sunday happened to be -- on Sunday was the biggest game of the year, and he came up real big. It was a huge lift. Mainly, we haven't had to bring Al back on short rest, and he gave us a chance to get our offense good enough to win that game. He will pitch in the bullpen if we need him. He'll be available.

BOBBY VALENTINE: I'm trying to think of the difference. I guess, again, I don't spend too much time in the players' clubhouse. I think that that's their domain. I haven't heard much negative comments from anyone's demeanor in the clubhouse, particularly Bobby Bo's. I don't know if we're doing this because he's a nicer guy now than he was earlier in the season or whatever. I think it's because we think he has a chance coming up of getting a hit and helping us win a game.

BOBBY VALENTINE: All of them? I can't give you all my thoughts on Randy Johnson. Terrific pitcher. Tough to hit. Great competitor. I don't think our guys are intimidated by anything, but he definitely is different than anybody else in the league right now, and his slider, if he's getting it over when he's behind in the count is a devastating -- creates a devastating situation because it's real hard to pull the trigger on it. His fastball is real, real good. And we'll have two left-handers in the lineup tonight that will have to really hang in there and battle.

BOBBY VALENTINE: We went out to get him so that he would have an opportunity to start tomorrow night. And at the time, we were looking for a quality left-handed pitcher, we were looking for someone who was athletic, preferably who was athletic, could hold runners, and work with one of our strengths of our team; that's our infield defense. He's been able to do that by throwing ground balls and holding runners well and fielding his position, also.

BOBBY VALENTINE: Well, we'll just have to see how that all works. I just jumped ahead on that if, in fact, that's going to happen. After that, we're into an off day. I hate to make any of those definite statements that can be changes. In the postseason, I think you have to be flexible in most everything you do right now.

BOBBY VALENTINE: I think he gives a threat of power from both sides of the plate. He hasn't hit much right-handed in the game. We all know that, well-documented. Yet with a short roster to have a switch-hitter, it's still a bit of an advantage to the middle of the game, have a guy be able to move over to the other side of the bench and swing the bat and get you back in. I think mainly his experience has to have some kind of play, some kind of factor, and what he's capable of doing and hopefully that will be something very positive on the field.

BOBBY VALENTINE: I don't have it well-documented in my mind, but I do remember right before he came. The year before, he had to go into the egg there in Tokyo where the Giants play and beat them in one of the deciding games of the Japan Central League Championships, championship season. And then he went on to postseason play. But probably the -- you know, in his mind, playing in the -- his own league at the end of the game when at the end of the season when teams are very close, being able to pitch in the Dome against the Giants is as scrutinizing and challenging a job as any pitcher can have, I think, anywhere in the world.

BOBBY VALENTINE: Well, you know, they are just not going on adrenaline. We have a lot of talent and a lot of strength and plenty of endurance. But I think the adrenaline is going to help a little. We'll just see. I think if anyone says -- if anybody's gait is a little slower at this time of the day, if anybody is getting up off the bench or whatever it might be a little slower than normal, I think that's absolutely expected, and I understand it. Yet when the game has started, I have seen the athletic excellence that you expect out of these highly-touted athletes.

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