MLB WORLD SERIES: INDIANS v MARLINS

October 26, 1997

Mike Hargrove

MIKE HARGROVE: Gosh, you're going way back in the past.

MIKE HARGROVE: A writer -- I had a habit of -- I had a routine between each pitch that took a certain amount of time, some people said a half hour, most people say it's about 15, 20 seconds. And it was the same between every pitch. That was how I prepared myself to hit. And I think a writer in Toronto said that Hargrove is a human rain delay, that's where it came from.

MIKE HARGROVE: I talked to Charlie last night, after I'd made the announcement of Jaret pitching today. Charlie was disappointed, as I knew he would be, but he was also -- he took it well. And is ready to help out in any way he can, which is how you would hope somebody would react. It's a very difficult decision, it's a very difficult thing to talk to anybody about that has any pride in their abilities, and this is not a slap in Charlie's face or a comment that we don't have confidence in Charlie, it's just the way we decided to go. And that's the way he took it and, he took it very well.

MIKE HARGROVE: I don't know that I can describe the difference. I've never done it before. So we absolutely know that this is the last baseball game to be played in the 1997 season. It is different in one respect that everybody is available to pitch tonight, which is not usually the case. Usually the case is that you have to try to protect people in your bullpen because you have a tough series coming up next week against so and so, or this guy needs a rest and you've got to try to cover with somebody else, and it's a continuous juggling act. There's no juggling tonight, it's get the outs, get the runs and let's go home for the winter.

MIKE HARGROVE: Bottom line, I felt that Jaret Wright on the 26th of October, 1997 gave us a better chance to win than Charlie Nagy did, bottom line. That was what -- that is what I finally came to the conclusion with. Charlie has been pitching on the edge for the last two or three weeks, and Jaret pitched well in Game 5 of the Divisional Series against the Yankees on three days rest. Given the fact that he'll be pitching on three days rest this time and we do have everybody available in our bullpen is just -- it made the decision a little easier, but it was not an easy decision to come to, either, because I like Charlie Nagy a lot, I have a lot of confidence in Charlie, but this time I just felt that Jaret at this point in time gave us a better chance to win.

MIKE HARGROVE: Well, hopefully he knows you well enough and you know him well enough to know that you're not lying to him. And I think that I have that relationship with my players that when I talk to them I really talk from the heart and I don't pull punches and I tell them the truth and exactly how I feel. Charlie -- this is the time of season where you put your personal pride aside and go with what's best for the team. And in Charlie doing that, it says a lot about Charlie and we really do like Charlie a lot. This has nothing to do with whether or not you think Charlie can get the job done, I just feel Jaret Wright has a better chance right now to do it than Charlie does.

MIKE HARGROVE: Nothing different than any other pitchers. I found that most pitchers are about half a bubble off. Jaret prepares himself just like any other pitcher. He's got his own routine, likes to listen to his own music. With the generation of pitchers, they all listen to their -- they've got the headsets and their own CD's. So everybody doesn't have to listen to the music. So you have to ask him what kind of music he likes.

MIKE HARGROVE: Yes.

MIKE HARGROVE: What clutch hitting it was that Cabrera did, and the fact that Sid Bream scored, it was very close at the plate. I didn't know -- at that time I had no interest in the ballgame, other than I liked to watch the game and I knew it was --

MIKE HARGROVE: No, not necessarily.

MIKE HARGROVE: No better or no worse than he was last night. I just didn't want to take the chance today, I'm going to start Fernandez rather than Roberts, I didn't want to have him come out in the 2nd or 3rd I think, this way he'll be available throughout the night, so that's what we're going to do tonight.

MIKE HARGROVE: Yes, they are.

MIKE HARGROVE: Very few times do you run across in this game that you really kind of get a warm, fuzzy feelings about, and Kevin is one of those guys. He absolutely loves the game so much and is so concerned about the people around him and his teammates that he generates that feeling. After the game he came up to me and thanked me and it was -- it made me feel good, yeah.

MIKE HARGROVE: David Justice is a good athlete, and I don't know if you can be surprised with good play from good athletes. I do know it's a new position that David was adjusting to well until he came up with his elbow and his knee bothering, and we had to start DH-ing him. Like most good athletes that believe in themselves, he adapts very well and very quickly. So I'm not surprised, no, by what he's done, no.

MIKE HARGROVE: That's hard to say, I don't know. Our fans are great fans. I don't know, I really don't know. I could tell you what it meant to the fans in '95 when we ended 40 years of frustration in bringing a winner to them and the city went absolutely bonkers. I would assume that it would be pretty much the same this time and we can get the job done tonight.

MIKE HARGROVE: Oh, I don't know that there is any one particular player I would feel good for, I'd feel pretty good for all of them.

MIKE HARGROVE: No.

MIKE HARGROVE: Said okay. There was no argument, no.

MIKE HARGROVE: Does the recollection of the boating accident have --

MIKE HARGROVE: Well, I don't think it relates to this team at all. The guys, the majority of the guys on this team now were not here when that took place. How it relates to me, it's an experience that I went through that was a very difficult period, and it's become a very private, personal moment now. So I don't know how it's affected my evolution as a manager. I think there's some things about it or some aspects about that incident and that period of time that probably stunted my growth as a manager, because I think I became too concerned about my -- how can I say this -- too concerned with making the players feel good and feel good about themselves, trying to get us back on track, and maybe felt that players were a lot more fragile than they are mentally, and it took me a while to get out of that. What's past is past.