AL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: YANKEES v MARINERS

October 19, 2001

Mike Cameron

Mark McLemore

MARK McLEMORE: I went to sleep.

MARK McLEMORE: Pretty much.

MIKE CAMERON: Would have to say the same, too. Everyone was really exhausted, first and foremost, and myself, I had a nice little bottle of wine and a nice little nap.

MIKE CAMERON: The big one. No cheese, no crackers. Just everyone was really relaxed and here again, it's still baseball. We got beat by a good team for the last two days, and obviously, now we've got to find a way to beat a real good team.

MARK McLEMORE: For me every time we put on a uniform and go out and play the game, something is on the line. Yankee Stadium is a different place to play, a different atmosphere but I love it. The fans cheer, it doesn't matter whether they are cheering for me or against me. Just having them cheer makes you know that you are in a ballgame. So it's the competition factor. You are not only competing against the Yankees but you are competing against the fans. It's fun for me. That's what we have all dreamt about from the time we were little kids.

MIKE CAMERON: For myself, it's just the fact of playing at Yankee Stadium. Obviously, we love to come here and play very well, which we have done in the past, and you've got to go out and try to beat a real good pitcher tomorrow, and it's going to be back and it's going to be crazy here. The best way to do it is to come out and try to put some runs on the board and let the guys play some baseball which we all love to do against a very good team and the competition of it, it makes the adrenaline rush and everything that surrounds it very exciting.

MARK McLEMORE: Well, Ichiro cannot swing for the rest of us, so it's not just him. We've all got to swing the bats. But you've got to give credit to their pitchers. Mussina pitched a great game yesterday and Pettitte threw a great game the day before. They are hitting their spots right now but we have got to find a way to change that. There's no doubt about it. We have to find a way to change that tomorrow and we'll be out there tomorrow and we'll just battle, the way we've done all year long.

MIKE CAMERON: Really don't think he would have said something if he had a very young team or any particular thing like that. But obviously, Lou knows what type of team he has and what type of response he can get from that and, you know, maybe three or four years ago, I would have went into a panic, (laughs), but playing with some of the best guys in baseball, as far as this year is concerned, we obviously know how to handle this situation. But there again, we still have to go out and play the baseball game and take day one, and that's Game 3 tomorrow and try to come out and pull out a victory. We are going to go out and try to play some good baseball. We are going to play our best and we're going to try to give El Duque hell.

MARK McLEMORE: I love what he says. I think it's great for us, great for everybody, great for our fans back at home. It fired me up. I want to go out and play right there again. Lou knows his ballclub. He knows what he can say to us and when he can say it. It's a sign of a good manager. Like Mike said, if he's got a young team and he says that, it could send everybody into a panic. But for our clubhouse and our team, I think it was great to hear.

MARK McLEMORE: You'd have to ask him what he meant, but we're just going by what he says and taking it that we know he's got confidence in us and we need to go out there and show it. We need to go and show what type of team we are. We've got two thirds of our game intact. Our pitching has been great and our defense has been outstanding. We just have not been doing the job offensively. We need to step it up offensively.

MARK McLEMORE: No, I only came just to talk to you guys. (Laughs).

MIKE CAMERON: Not too much. Just a nice way to get away for a little bit. Obviously, you could be still sleeping, but I would rather right now be playing baseball, so we're only here for a little bit. There's no stress in doing that. Obviously we have not been hitting in the game so I'm going to go out and try to see if I can get some hits in the cage. (Laughs).

MARK McLEMORE: I don't think it will mean anything. He is very intense. He may not show it outwardly but you don't need to show it outwardly to go out and perform well. So everybody has a different style. You look at Joe and you look at Lou; they have got different styles, but they are both just as fiery and just as intense as the other. Lou just happens to show it a little bit more than Joe does. But I know Joe and I know for a fact that Joe is just as intense as anybody in the game.

MARK McLEMORE: We have not had one all year long and we are not going to start now. We all know what we are playing for and what we need to do. There's nobody pointing fingers or there's nobody that is not giving the effort. The only meeting we are going to have it outside of game time, just go get 'em. There's nothing that needs to be said. We have a veteran ballclub and everybody knows what they need to do, we just have to go out and do it.

MARK McLEMORE: Oh, really?

MIKE CAMERON: If we would have won the game, it would have meant a little more. Justice was on first base and he had a great opportunity of getting himself in scoring position or himself trying to score. Again, it was just a nice play that I tried to make day-in and day-out because that's my job. You know, I would rather win a ballgame than come up with a big catch, especially to win a ballgame. The one I was really disappointed about was the Knoblauch ball. Turns out that was a very big run at that particular time. I thought I had a good play on it, but the guys didn't say otherwise, so, what can you do. They just put the bat on the ball and found the area where the glove was not in the area. I thought the glove was in the area, but it didn't happen. Now just going to try and come out and play some relaxed baseball. Right now we are down 2-0 and we can be -- I'm sure everyone is going to be ready to play; I'm not even going to get into that. But you've just got to enjoy the game of baseball still. It's a pressurized situation, but, you know, the baseball field is where we do our work every single day, so everyone feels comfortable out there.

MIKE CAMERON: I was planning on going down today perhaps, but I guess some of the guys went down earlier and they started telling me about it. When we were coming over this morning when the sun was coming up, I just got a little burning sensation in my stomach or my heart, so to speak. I probably get -- I don't know how I'll feel if I went down there. I'm going to try to go down there, but again, I just heard some stories and already they got me a little revved up. The good Lord has sunshine over New York right now, so some good things are being done down there right now and good things are being taken care of, but it's a different feeling. It's definitely a different feeling. Still, you've got to love the fact that you are in New York, and what a better way to release all of the tension and anxiety that you've got to go out and try to get a win in Yankee Stadium tomorrow.

MARK McLEMORE: I plan to visit. I plan to go down. I don't know when. It may be tomorrow or it may be Sunday. My wife is coming into town tomorrow, so I want her to be with me. We will go down together and visit. I think we have a visit planned to one of the fire stations for Sunday morning. I think it's something we all need to do, and I'm sure everybody will at some point.