NL DIVISION SERIES: METS v DIAMONDBACKS

October 9, 1999

Bobby Valentine

BOBBY VALENTINE: A little up a little down, then a lot up. I thought he hit it good enough. I saw Finley go up. I thought he came down with it so it was a little up, a little down and then when he was there dejected. It was a lot up and, hey, Todd Pratt, let's just dedicate a little time, what a guy. Been a big player for us all year long. Every time he plays, the guys say he will do something big for us; he will do something big. He throws out the guy first thing and hits a home run in the last inning. The Arizona team all year handled us. They handled us because they are an outstanding team. Buck just left here. There is no doubt you know what kind of guy he is. He built that team along with his coaches and owners and our hats are off to them. They are going to be around for a long time. They are a great team.

BOBBY VALENTINE: I am really not privy -- I don't think I could handle that. Probably scared the hell out of them because I was coaching third. It was just a long delay and Mantei showed me something; able to keep his composure after a long delay like that. Cookie is one -- he is the heartbeat of our team most of the time. He just -- he comes to work early. He sits on the bench an hour before anybody else gets out there. He watches every pitch with the intensity of a brain surgeon, and he went out there with his emotion and they were arguing when I got there, they were heated into it, and some words were exchanged back and forth. Cookie was called something and blew a gasket, no doubt.

BOBBY VALENTINE: Oh, he just he kind of called him something.

BOBBY VALENTINE: No. I am sorry, this should be good stuff. Let me think here. I can't put them -- the overall emotion. I can tell you the immediate emotion is one of pride. Is that an emotion? I think it is. Of guys grinding it out. Heck, we were looking over our shoulder at Randy Johnson. If they say they weren't I don't think anybody is going to be telling the truth. We do have a lead and Al pitched a fabulous baseball game. All of a sudden we don't have a lead; we are able to come back with a big run, a little help but a big run to tie it then grind it out for the win. I am just really overall proud of the guys.

BOBBY VALENTINE: Probably in my baseball life not since I was in the Minor Leagues and experienced that kind of elation, in the real life, you know, when my son was born and when he did some of those first steps and convinced some dumb banker to give me a loan for my first house. Those are all kind of -- (Laughter.)

BOBBY VALENTINE: I have seen that is in vogue and I know it has been done. The New York Mets bullpen, the guys that I have gone to, got us here. They have pitched an incredible amount of difficult innings to get wins, to get saves, to keep us alive and give us a chance to win. I don't think that right now in my mind there is anybody who is a starter who deserves to be pitching in that one inning and two inning stint anymore than the guys that I have in the bullpen.

BOBBY VALENTINE: I think we have something special going and I thought that for a long time. It is a special group of guys. Whether or not it could be stopped, you know it is going to take a good effort to stop us and the next team we are playing is going to be playing with, I guess, against some ghosts because they said we were dead, so I don't know if they have ever played against people who have come back from the grave before.

BOBBY VALENTINE: I thought yesterday he had extraordinary sink on his fastball and really good stuff and I thought tonight he was aces, yes. Thought he had very good sink. Hardly threw his changeup, had a good slider, little cutter and good location on his fastball.

BOBBY VALENTINE: I have to do that? It was a really well pitched game by both Anderson and Leiter and Al Leiter has been huge and today he was excellent. I think that with two out there in the eighth he might have lost his concentration a little with Ward, walked him on four and then when Fonzie didn't make the play on Womack's ball I was concerned that maybe the concentration was at the bottom of the barrel, but he was fabulous. It really was a well played game overall.

BOBBY VALENTINE: Yeah, well, you get a lead and you put in your best defense and I have said a couple of times that Mora is our best defensive outfielder; people have snickered at me. He is definitely our best bunter and one of our best defensive outfielders if not the best. He is in there just like a reliever is in there; to save a game. That is what he did; saved a game with an excellent throw. The guy that caught that throw from him put an excellent tag on him. He deserves to be up here for as long as he can stand. So why don't we turn it over to Todd Pratt.

End of FastScripts….