AL DIVISION SERIES: TWINS v ATHLETICS

September 30, 2002

Art Howe

ART HOWE: He has done a remarkable job. I don't think anybody gave the Twins any kind of chance to make post-season, and they were the first team to clinch in our league, so he has done a very job there in Minnesota, especially when they were talking about contraction before the season even started, they wanted to eliminate his team, basically, and he certainly has showed how great a job he did and that team did a nice job.

ART HOWE: Well, we just didn't want to start juggling the rotation down to the last week. They were all in a nice groove doing what they were doing, if you start changing a day here and there you don't know how it's going to affect people, and we have the upmost confidence in all three pitchers, and I think sometimes you can overrate the fact that maybe a team doesn't hit lefties or righties too much when you are running a quality right hander out there, like Tim Hudson, it doesn't matter what the numbers are out there on the other side, I don't think.

ART HOWE: I don't think we even think about prime time or whenever you are playing. We are playing in the post-season and we are going to go out and do our best, and as far as the crowd is concerned, we know the people are going to be here, rooting like crazy for us, and that's what counts.

ART HOWE: I think it's more those three pitchers are hungry and they have all pitched well in the post-season, and if they have to pitch on short rest, they want that opportunity, and we feel the same way. They are our best so if you are going to have a short series, let's run the three guys out there for all five games and -- if need be, and see what happens. We have tried the four man and it hasn't worked so we are going to go with the three-man this year.

ART HOWE: Well, I think your first time you are really, really, excited, the butterflies are there. I think after being here a couple times, I think you are more -- I don't know what you want to call it, more professional about it, you are not giddy about it, you know that there is work to be done. You know, we have come very close the last two years of moving on into the next series and we have come up short, so the one thing about this year, I think the guys realize the work is ahead of us, it's not behind us.

ART HOWE: Indifferent. Because you take -- the Twins are a very good club, and they are here for a reason, they played good baseball all year long. We played them nine times, every game, basically, was up for grabs, so we have to play our best baseball to beat them. And it's the same story with the Yankees, if we were playing the Yankees, we would have had to play our best baseball to have a chance. So in a short series it's the team that plays the best that moves on and, hopefully, we are ready to do that.

ART HOWE: Right now that's putting the cart before the horse. I will answer that question, hopefully, after that series, and that's something we certainly would look at.

ART HOWE: Well, the outfield is always a little chopped up, and -- because the stands are out over it and they have to resod things, so hopefully, it won't play a role in who wins these games here, so to come all this way, you certainly don't want a bad hop or whatever in the outfield to affect the outcome of a championship game, but the ground crews did a great job with the amount of times they have had and I think it's playable.