MLB WORLD SERIES: MARLINS v YANKEES

October 20, 2003

Jack McKeon

JACK MCKEON: Everybody slept fast today, huh?

JACK MCKEON: Beg your pardon?

JACK MCKEON: What did I tell the players? Come out tomorrow and have fun. We just got beat a game. We been beat a few times before. No, I can't tell them anything. They know what's at stake. Just go out there and we're back here, in the friendly confines of Pro Player Stadium, nice, sunny day, warm day, warm evenings. We'll do all right.

JACK MCKEON: I'll be honest with you, I didn't see Beckett pitch too much on TV, but I did see him somewhere along the line. I knew he had a lot of talent. Got a great make-up, outstanding young man. Just a matter of time when, experience, when he had a chance to put it all together. He's starting to do that right now.

JACK MCKEON: Well, I've said all along we have probably one of the best defensive teams in the league and there's no question about that. You know he's going through a little period where he's not hitting, but he's so valuable out there playing shortstop that you don't have any thoughts of taking him out of the ball game unless it would be a situation where you were down a few runs near the end. But all players go through tough times. He's going through a tough time right now. He's probably pressing, wants to do good in front of the national audience. I think you ought to be patient with the kid and stick with him, which I'm going to do, and have his glove out there. He's too valuable to be out of the line-up.

JACK MCKEON: I think you're gonna find that out throughout baseball. When you're winning, everybody wants to see a winner. They had some tough experiences here after last time they got to the World Series. I think a lot of them lost interest in the way things were handled before the prior ownership of this club. Basically, now, they're seeing an exciting club. They're jumping back on the bandwagon. They're good fans, but like everybody else in the country, they want to see a winner.

JACK MCKEON: Well, today, you'd like to see this team kept together. But in today's -- in the way the business of baseball operates today, it's pretty tough unless you've got a lot of people out there that want to put a lot of money in a ballclub. I understand the ownership is going to do the best they can within their means to keep as many guys as possible together. You've seen this in every ballclub throughout baseball. It's pretty tough today to keep clubs together because of the salary arbitration and the free agency. So there's gonna be a lot of players out there available next year. You're gonna see a lot of clubs having the same problems all along about trying to keep the clubs together. You don't see any more Tony Gwynns out there that are gonna play 20 years and play at a discount.

JACK MCKEON: I'm not surprised. Really, this young man is something special, really. When you can take a youngster out of Double A and come into the Big Leagues, first time, his first Major League game, hits a two-run game-winning homer in the 11th inning, you see the composure he has, you see the mental toughness in the youngster. You see his athletic ability, that he can play probably any position in the field, and just going through the last half of the season with him and seeing how much he has improved and seeing how much poise that he has, really. He's not intimidated by anybody. I mean, he's faced some pretty good pitchers coming up out of Double A, the Randy Johnsons, the Wood, the Shmidts, few other guys. He's held his own against those guys. Each time out, he gets better and better. Here's a kid that started out hitting 8 for us. Now he's a cleanup hitter in the World Series. It says something for his demeanor. He's a big-game player, really. You don't see too many kids come out of the Minor Leagues and do what he's done. His up-side is unlimited.

JACK MCKEON: Well, Pavano is scheduled to pitch Game 4 anyhow. He's not taking anybody's place. Redman had a couple tough outings, sure. So did Penny, Willis. They all had some tough outings during the season. We're not worrying about Game 5 or 6 right now; we're worrying about Game 3. So we're gonna play it by ear, keep it close to the vest and we made a change last time in the rotation when we figured it was the best matchup to help beat the Cubs when we switched from Pavano -- from Penny to Pavano. So we'll wait till we come up to that decision. We don't have to make it right now.

JACK MCKEON: I tell you, I've had a lot of young players, young pitchers. Believe me, this guy here is, I'd have to say, by far, the most outstanding young man I had as far as mental toughness in the Big Leagues. He's a youngster that has got a lot of confidence, has outstanding stuff; we know that. But he's always in command of himself. I mean, he's had a few bad outings, but that's early on, coming off an injury. But right now, I have the most confidence in Josh Beckett as I do anybody.

JACK MCKEON: Is he feisty?

JACK MCKEON: My relationship with Josh is feisty? No, I wouldn't think so. Heck, I was just out there. I love that kid. I think he's got a tremendous up-side. All I've done is try to encourage him to seek that pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. The only way you're gonna get there is by hard work and dedication, focus. Believe me, in fact, 15 minutes ago I just talked to him in the clubhouse and told him how proud I was of him, that now that he is out there working his tail off and focused and dedicating himself and realizing how good he can be, and it's a credit to Josh Beckett because he did it himself. I might have had to push him a little bit, but basically he deserves all the credit because he's the one that's gonna have to do it. I tell you, this guy is on a mission. He's on a mission to be a 20-game winner. And he's on a mission to be an All-Star next year. I wouldn't bet against it.

JACK MCKEON: Bunting is the key to our guys because we have a couple, three guys that can bunt pretty well. Of course, outside of, I think, two of the best bunters I ever saw was Rod Carew and Bret Butler. This guy is pretty close into the class, Juan Pierre. This guy, with his speed, his bunting is an asset to our ballclub and Castillo can bunt. A couple other guys can bunt. But bunting is, yeah, it's a lost art. It's a lost art because of the financial situation in the game today. You don't get paid for bunting, you get paid for home runs. Everybody's going out there trying to hit home runs. That's why we see so many home runs today. That seems to be where the money was. But it's a very important part of our ball game, and especially with Pierre up there. But I think that sooner or later, when you get a ballclub like we have here and you get two guys like Castillo and Pierre that can bunt on a regular basis, they're unselfish players. They're just thinking about one thing, is winning, and whatever they can do to win a ball game, they're interested in doing that. You got to feel real good about those two guys.

JACK MCKEON: Well, there's a lot of Yankee fans, Met fans, Cub fans. We saw in the last series with the Cubs, it looked like half the ballpark was full of Cubs fans because they were smart enough to go on the Internet and get tickets. But, really, I don't think it's gonna have any bearing on the game. I think you're gonna see -- I think you'll see more Cub fans than you will Yankee fans down here. But there may be more rabid fans. The Cub fans were out in force down here. It was pretty interesting to see half the stands full of Cubs, rooting for the Cubs, and half for the Marlins. I don't think it will have any bearing on how the players react.

JACK MCKEON: Well, like I said earlier, and many times during this postseason, this is a unique ballclub. I have managed a number of years for the Major Leagues and I have never had a ballclub like this. I mean, I've never had so many unselfish, dedicated players, that are interested in one thing, is winning. I know it's difficult sometimes. You keep Lowell out of the line-up, Encarnacion out of the line-up. I think they realize they're part of 25 guys trying to complete a mission, winning the World Series. I think they realize that there's no need to cause waves, rock the boat. I think it's a tribute to their unselfishness, really. But it's difficult, being a manager of these guys, when you got so many guys that are talented that you can't find spots in the line-up for them. As I go back and I talk about my reserves, I mean, I can't say enough about the guys, how dedicated and what great attitudes they have. This club, probably, if I would manage 10 more years, I probably would never have a club as unselfished and with great attitudes and with one thing in mind, winning, as this group here. They're unbelievable. I was talking to Joe Torre a while ago in the weight room about -- he was saying the same things. He said you know, "You always manage a club, you got a couple gripers or complainers." I said, "You know, it's funny. You go through 50-some-odd years in baseball and run across a club like this. It's unbelievable." Probably never happen again, but... We're happy with the group we have right now.

JACK MCKEON: Yeah, I'm interested in winning the game. Those guys out there are the best I got available, then I'm gonna go to them. But it's -- you're in a seven-game series with the Cubs, you got to go out there and you got to win. We're down to the wire in Game 6 and Game 7, in order to get to Game 7, you got to win Game 6, so you have to pull out all your stops and do the best you can. If a starter is ready, in the case of Pavano, he did a great job in the bullpen for us early in the Cubs series. Then we went to him in Game 6. He did a spectacular job there holding them at bay. Using Willis or Pavano or Penny, we used Pavano the other night, last night was just to get him an inning. He hasn't pitched since the Chicago series. So we figured we'd get him an inning in, face some live competition and be ready to go on Game 4. But Willis is a guy that we talked about, sure, deserves to start. But on the other hand, when you're in a seven-game series, you've got to say, "Where does he fit into the scheme of things?" Right now, our thinking is that he gives that power left-hander out of the bullpen, which we don't have. So his situation now is probably more beneficial to us to use him at least for the next couple days in the bullpen.

JACK MCKEON: Well, I wouldn't say he's "cocky." I think that's confidence, really. It's his way of being confident. Want to call it "cocky," call it "cocky," but I don't think he's a cocky kid. I think he's just a very confident young man that goes out there and tries to do the best he can.

JACK MCKEON: I haven't had a chance. Got up this morning and came to the park. We didn't get in until about 5:30. Didn't have much chance to check the town out or anything. I saw the sign that said, "Welcome back and good luck." As far as the line-up goes, we'll probably go back to our original line-up that we had in the Cubs series, without the DH.

JACK MCKEON: I'm not too concerned about the extra base hits. We were able to get one win without any extra base hits. It's nice to have some, but you got to give some credit to the Yankee pitching. They stopped our hitters, did a good job of scouting us and kept us at bay. We're back home now. You'll probably see some extra base hits tomorrow.

JACK MCKEON: He's struggled a little bit for a few games, as we talked about many guys, Gonzalez. All of a sudden in Chicago. I know I had a few people say to me, "Well, you gonna change the batting order? Lee is not hitting." Move him down, move him up, whatever. So I said, "No, gonna leave it like it is." All of a sudden, he comes up, delivers a key hit in Game 6, gets a two-run double. Game 7, he puts us out in front, gives us a cushion with a key base hit off Kerry Wood. He's picked up the pace a little bit. Little streaky at times. But right now, I think he'll be ready for this series.

JACK MCKEON: Well, Mike, when I came over here, I had seen Mike Lowell play, but I didn't know much about Mike Lowell. After being around the guy for a long time now, I see he's got a tremendous influence on these players here. He's a leader. He's a guy that provided us with tremendous offensive output for most of the season. Unfortunately, he got hurt. But now that he's back in the line-up, he's an outstanding defensive player. The guys just seem to -- he seems to get them around, get them going. He's got great character; no question about it. There's no finer guy on this ballclub than Mike Lowell. And what he's gone through, we all sympathize with him, all prayed for him and hoped that everything would work out like it did. Like I said, he's on there giving you a good day's work. He's not a colorful guy. He doesn't make any spectacular plays. But the thing that impressed me, people asked me what impressed you after you took this club over, and I'd say I was surprised at how good a defensive player Mike Lowell was. You see him from the other side of the dugout, and you know he can hit the ball and hit the ball with power, but you don't see him day in and day out make the spectacular plays he does in the infield, provides that leadership in calming a pitcher down, talking to pitchers. All the little things that go unnoticed to the average fan.