AL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: YANKEES v MARINERS

October 19, 2001

Scott Brosius

SCOTT BROSIUS: I think there's always been a sense every year for us. We have never taken for granted -- in the time that I've been here since '98 you never take for granted that you are going to get to the post-season again. So we have always treated the post-season like this could be our last shot at it, and I think that's one of the reasons that we have been successful by looking aside and saying if it doesn't happen this year, we'll get it next year or anything like that. We've always treated it like this year is going to be our last shot and this is no different.

SCOTT BROSIUS: I think certainly we came into this series with a lot of energy coming off what happened in the Oakland series, to go into Oakland and get two huge wins in Oakland and come back in front of the crowd here at Yankee Stadium and win Game 5. We certainly came in with a lot of energy and we still have that energy, but we are just coming off a series firsthand where we've seen that 0-2 does not mean the series is over. And certainly, in a best-of-seven we know there are two more wins to get. There is not a mood of overconfidence. Obviously we did everything we could have done in Seattle to win those two games but we know there is a lot more work to do.

SCOTT BROSIUS: I'm not sure. Like I said my first year here in '98, that was my first shot at winning the World Series and I don't see a big difference between that year and this year. At least with our team, the hunger is still there. I said this before, I'm kind of a dessert eater so I liken things to, if I'm sitting here with a piece of chocolate cake in front of me and I had one bite and I liked way it tasted, I'm not going to put it down, I'm going to go ahead and get another bite. That's how the guys feel about winning here. We've had a taste of it, but just because we've had a taste doesn't mean we want to put it down yet.

SCOTT BROSIUS: I don't know. I think that's something the media talked a whole lot more about than we ever did. It's just not that easy to win. You cannot go out there and say, just because we won 114 games or how many games we won, the World Series is just ours to be had. It's just not that easy. So I don't think whether you win 85 games or 185 games, that really shouldn't matter, I guess going into the post-season. It's just about winning a series and whoever plays better, wins.

SCOTT BROSIUS: Moyer just, he's tough because he never gives in and he is a lot like Glavine, if you watch him. He lives on the outside part of the plate. He has command enough to throw the ball inside when he has the feeling that you are diving out over the plate. He also has good movement with his offspeed, his fastball always seems to be tailing away from righties, his changeup has good movement on it. You never seem to get in there and feel like you're in the same rhythm with him at the plate.

SCOTT BROSIUS: It definitely feels better to feel like you do something to contribute a little bit offensively. Obviously, the Oakland series was a struggle, but that's what the post-season is all about. That's the fun part of it is; it's all -- everything in the post-season is short-term. If you struggle the day before you have the chance to come out the next day and be the hero. That's the fun of it. Every day feels like it's 0-0 and it really is. The strength of our team has been maybe one person one day and another person the next; it's not just one guy carrying us all the way through. Tomorrow, who knows, it could be somebody that we don't even know is in the lineup. You just never know and that's the great thing about the post-season.

SCOTT BROSIUS: I don't know. I think that there's definitely two schools of thought. You know, one school says try to go up there and see as many pitches as you can. I think he's a guy that doesn't throw 120 or 140 pitches in a game so if you can get a pitch count up, possibly, you might be able to wait him out and get a pitch to hit but another school says if you get something to hit from him you might want to get it whether it's 0-0, 0-1, early in the count if he throws you something to hit you've got to take a shot at it. He's a guy that definitely the hitters give a lot of thought to and I don't know if there's one good way to approach him.

SCOTT BROSIUS: Well, we've obviously always -- in the post-season, we've relied on our pitching and El Duque has always been a big-game pitcher for us, especially in the post-season. He's come in, and when he's needed a win he's given us a chance every single time and we expect the same thing tomorrow. We expect him to go out and give us a shot at winning, and that's all you can ask when a pitcher takes the mound.

SCOTT BROSIUS: To be quite honest, it didn't really have an effect. The strength -- again, our team has always focused on what we need to do. There's never been a real focus on what other people are saying and what other people are doing. We don't pay attention during the season to what other teams are doing, how many games they are winning and it's always been kind of an inward focus and I think the same holds true. I think we are more concerned with how we are going to play the game. We are not concerned with what other people are saying and what other people are doing. We know it's up to us. If we want to win games we know it's up to us to go out there and play well and so the focus has been on the job we have to do.

SCOTT BROSIUS: It's just something that especially out here it's going to gain headlines. It's just kind of the fun of playing in New York.