MLB WORLD SERIES: INDIANS v MARLINS

October 21, 1997

Jim Leyland

JIM LEYLAND: You know, I don't know that we really had that many defense lapses, we just couldn't get a hold of the ball. Al got himself in a little bit of trouble. That is part of your defense, but I don't really consider that that big a deal. He got himself in trouble by not fielding his position. Leiter just got in trouble. I don't really think the cold affected anybody, other than the fact that I will say this, when you have a pitcher, if he happens to go deep in the count and starts walking people, I think that's one night you don't want to be out there standing around. It may have had a little effect that way. If he was zipping along, like he was early, he was really good. If you're making something happen, I think the defense always plays better, but I don't think that has anything to do with the cold weather. Even when it's warm if your pitcher starts walking people, I think people have a tendencies to get back on their heels.

JIM LEYLAND: That's what you're supposed to do. Bobby is not exceptionally fast, but an exceptional base runner. It was almost like he wasn't quite sure he wanted to go, because he had a flash it was the World Series, and he went. He probably hesitated a little bit too much. He's always been a good base runner, particularly early in his career.

JIM LEYLAND: No, I don't think it had to do with either one. He got to the ball good, he just didn't get a grip on it, I don't think it had to do with anything else.

JIM LEYLAND: Well, to be honest with you, all we're concentrating on -- I kept telling my team, we don't need to win three games to get to the World Series, I told them tonight, we need to win one game, and that's tonight. And tomorrow we need to win another game. We obviously know that and that's obviously we're going back to Florida for sure. I think what you try to do is hey, let's not look beyond tomorrow, let's not think about the ring, let's not think about being the World Champions. Let's not think about being National League Champions. Let's think about today's game, and play today's game today and see what happens from there.

JIM LEYLAND: No, I will not, he's playing third base, period, unless something -- he's playing third.

JIM LEYLAND: No, I really didn't, to be honest with you, and I'll tell you why. They had a couple of hits early, he had great stuff, he made the error, himself, and at times ran into trouble, but it was still a tie game. I'm not defending the fact, but you have to remember something else, I would have been bringing in Alfonseca, who really ended up bringing him in, but I thought Leiter had really good stuff. And it's tough to sit there, but he's one of those -- like this for a manager (indicating), because I've seen him get in jams, and he's capable of striking people out. You've got to be careful that you don't panic too much. Should I have gotten him a little earlier, I don't know, I guess when we were -- thanks for asking me that, nobody from Florida is going to say anything, we won the game, but now I've got to answer that question.

JIM LEYLAND: Absolutely not, no way. Unless the starter has really had some type of a great game, he'll be in the game.

JIM LEYLAND: That was a dandy, wasn't it? Just a great play, Gary came up real big tonight, obviously, tremendous play. I thought also that the ball was carrying pretty good to right field, but not to left field. I thought Sheffield smoked that first ball he hit out of the ballpark, I thought it was way out, and it turned out it wasn't. So the ball was pretty much flying to right field tonight and I felt like earlier -- that let those right handers take a whack at it.

JIM LEYLAND: Yeah, I just talked to her. I finally got to see my mom, and my brothers, too. I got back to the family room to see my mom, and yes, she made the whole game. We finally got her back to the family room right after the game, and I can assure you one thing, she's the oldest person in the wives room right now (laughter.)

JIM LEYLAND: I think he's swinging the bat real well right now. But something happened in that game tonight that goes unnoticed, and I thought it was very important, when we got behind 7-3, had our hitters panicked and started going up and trying to hit homeruns, I think we would have lost the game, I think Milt did a great job on keeping our hitters zeroed in on the gameplan, take what's there, work our way back in it. Because I know all your people in here have seen a lot of baseball, and a lot of times when a team gets way behind they get fly balls out, because guys are getting fast balls, and they're trying to get that homerun. I think Milt did a great job reminding the guys to stick with our gameplan, and we've got a chance to get back in this game.

JIM LEYLAND: Well, yes, I can. I think that most everybody when we acquired Darren Daulton thought it was some type of move for our clubhouse. And that's not why we made that move. We made the move because Darren Daulton is still running good, he's still an excellent player. How much does he have left, I'm not sure, but he's still a good player. And we got him because we needed another left-handed bat that we felt could hit and anything else, as I always thought, we don't need leaders in the clubhouse, we need good players on the field. When you play good on the field you've got a lot of leaders in the clubhouse. I think everybody thought we made that move for that reason, but we got him because we felt he was an outstanding player, and he's done everything we've asked him and more. I spoke about, I think it was yesterday, I can't remember, but somebody asked me about Eisenreich and about what a good guy he was, Jim Fregosi said about it. John Vukovich, who is also with the Phillies, told me when we got Darren Daulton that he was the most professional person he's ever been around in baseball, and he's been at it about as long as me.

JIM LEYLAND: No, I used Abbott as a DH, and I really only had Arias left, I didn't want to do that, because I wouldn't have another infielder if something happened. So Bonilla is going to be in there. He knows it's there, but I think Bobby is a lot better sometimes when I don't pay attention to him. I'm talking about the injuries. He's better, if you keep him going, he's fine, if you try to say, well, maybe I can, maybe I can't, how bad is it then we both get screwed up, I think it's best if I -- when I see him coming sometimes, it's hurting a little bit, I just go get a drink (laughter.)