NL DIVISION SERIES: BRAVES v CARDINALS

October 5, 2000

Craig Paquette

CRAIG PAQUETTE: It all depends, sometimes he lets us know a half inning before, sometimes a pitch before; he usually is pretty good. The other day when I came in, he let me know the middle of the inning, so I had two batters to get ready.

CRAIG PAQUETTE: I thought I was going to have to run in on it. It was in the shadows, I ended up making the play.

CRAIG PAQUETTE: It got me pretty pumped up. I knew what they were cheering for. I actually had a chance to look at the scoreboard and saw they put a 4 on the Colorado side. It got me pumped. I put a good swing on it.

CRAIG PAQUETTE: We have no idea. We hope we win, beat Glavine today. We will worry about that tomorrow.

CRAIG PAQUETTE: Very impressed. I played against him for a few years. You do not realize how quick he turns a double play and how solid he is on the routine play, but he has been impressive.

CRAIG PAQUETTE: This is my first Playoff Series, I would not really know about it. Every game we are taking as one step at a time. We will do the best we can and play nine hard innings and hopefully it will be 2-0 after today.

CRAIG PAQUETTE: It just seems that everything is so much more magnified, everything you do, as Fernando said, is more magnified, everybody is watching you, every pitch, everything you do matters, just coming off the bench like I did yesterday and today. I am stretching all the time, ready whenever. During the season it might be different, but I am ready to go whenever he needs me now.

CRAIG PAQUETTE: Yes. I actually think that was my biggest lesson in baseball, as far as pressure put on a person. I was in Triple A last year, did not know where my future was, I playing for USA, trying to get to the Olympics. If we did not get there, who knows what my future would have been. A lot of the guys on the team were veterans. We did not know how anybody would treat us if we did not qualify for the Olympics, being our pastime. It did prepare me a lot for -- I came over here after that, it just seemed everything was a lot less pressure. I was more relaxed. It prepared me a lot better for this.

CRAIG PAQUETTE: I mean, I am a natural third baseman, I would say that is my best position. I work so much in the outfield, I went down last year and worked extra on second base, I feel pretty comfortable everywhere out there right now.

CRAIG PAQUETTE: No. It was funny, in Spring Training when I played with him, it was funny, we got traded for each other and ended up on the same team. You never expect that. I had a lot of fun with the guy. I enjoy playing with him.

End of FastScripts….