MLB WORLD SERIES: PADRES v YANKEES

October 16, 1998

Scott Brosius

SCOTT BROSIUS: Well, Boomer keeps us light in the clubhouse. There is no question. He is actually -- he is a great personality to have on this team because things here, you know, can get so intense sometimes that you look over and, you know, there is Boomer throwing his word up at you and just kind of walking around with his Metallica shirt on and you don't take it quite serious. He has been a real horse for us this year. He has been obviously, you know, one of -- a major part of our club.

SCOTT BROSIUS: Well, easier to find one non-crazy thing that he does. But, I mean, he doesn't do anything, you know, just unbelievably weird. Like I said, he is the kind of -- one of those guys that has a good perspective on the game. He takes it serious when he is out there, but also allows him to relax away from it.

SCOTT BROSIUS: I haven't seen him really since he was in the American League with the Rangers so it has been a few years. He is a guy definitely that you know you are going to have to really battle against. He throws strikes. He throws hard and seems like he has developed some of his pitches since the time we have seen him, slider and off-speed and so he is just going to be a guy that we know we are going to have to really bear down on and try to do a lot of the little things to try to beat him.

SCOTT BROSIUS: I think I have probably done this probably 100 times in my backyard as a kid, so, in my wildest dreams, sure, it has always been there. This is what you dream about doing as a kid. You know, coming over here, like I said, after last year I felt real fortunate to get the opportunity to come over and play for the Yankees. With the way they have the winning tradition, and just what the Yankees are, so I certainly -- I feel real good about the opportunity to be here and it has worked out, you know, as well or better than I hoped.

SCOTT BROSIUS: Yeah, I don't know. That is hard to say. I didn't actually read that. So I don't know exactly what he said. But there is no question there is a certain amount of pressure getting through the playoffs to get to the World Series. It is not an easy thing to do, you know, the regular season is a season of many games and all of a sudden you get into a shortened series where anything can happen. The teams that we have played, you know, Cleveland, Texas - Texas started us through real well in that series and Cleveland, they have good pitching; that is why they are there. In the playoffs I don't think you expect to go in and score ten runs a game every game. The reason the other teams are there is because they pitch well. But I think maybe now that we are, you know, here and we are on the doorstep and have a chance to do what we have set out to do, maybe we can relax a little bit.

SCOTT BROSIUS: I have to be honest, I haven't picked up a paper this year at all. That is a nice thing to hear, but I think one of the real strengths of this team is I don't think you can really look and pinpoint somebody on this team that you would call an M.V.P. I think it has been a team that has been well balanced all year. We have thrown real well, you can look and probably pick nine M.V.P.'s on the team. Like I said, when I came over here, it was my goal to make a positive contribution to the team. So I feel good that I have done that.

SCOTT BROSIUS: I think I have said it all along, I think you become a better player and you seem like a more valuable player when you are on a winning team. There is no question when the team is winning, there is more attention directed towards the team. There is more attention directed toward the players on the team. So I think that is the biggest difference. I think I have had years in the past that, you know, this is the first year now in a few years that I was able to play all year without an injury so that certainly help to get more at-bats as far as numbers go. But I think I have had similar years, you know, productivity-wise if I had gotten the at-bats. But again, I think certainly playing on the winning team, it makes everything seem better.

SCOTT BROSIUS: Well, I think again -- I think RBIs, in a sense, they are a team stat because I am not a guy that hit 40 home runs this year so for me to drive in 90 runs, there had to be somebody on base in order for that to happen. On this lineup, I said all along, there is really no bad spot to hit in this line-up. You can hit anywhere from 1 to 9 and you are going to be in those situations and have opportunities to drive in runs. I think it has been a strength of this lineup because it just keeps rolling; you don't have to wait for the front of the order to come up again for something to happen; that we can score some runs in any inning.

SCOTT BROSIUS: I don't know if -- to be honest, if we are really focused on their strength other than, you know, us trying to do the things that we need to do. I think that as a team we are confident in our team. And there is no question whoever plays best, whoever pitches best in this series is going to win. So I think our focus has been more on us trying to take the at-bats the way we take them and pitch the way that we pitch and play defense the way we play defense. I think if we do those things well, then we will do okay in this series.

End of FastScripts�.