MLB WORLD SERIES: MARLINS v YANKEES

October 20, 2003

Jeff Conine

JEFF CONINE: Yeah, coming up through the system there, obviously, I was groomed to be a first baseman after George left. Then they signed Wally to a contract extension, and got some Kansas City types here with Jeff Cox. He's the one in Triple A that put me back in the outfield that I never played before. Kevin McReynolds ends up pulling that rib muscle that year. I got called up to the Big Leagues with Kansas City in the outfield. David Howard still is a little bitter at me for -- I was the one protected -- I was the one not protected and he was the one protected. Then it was kind of like this situation, being able to go back to Kansas City after being away for so long. Basically that's the organization that I grew up with. To go back there in '98 was pretty special. Just like to come back here after being away for about the same amount of time is pretty special.

JEFF CONINE: Yeah, Moose was, as a pitcher and defender, was a pleasure to play behind. He works quick, throws strikes, extremely intelligent. Doesn't walk anybody. Makes guys put the ball in play. And a good friend. Then for him to leave, go to the Yankees and have to face him, was a little bit odd. But you get used to seeing him on one side of the ball, then all of a sudden you got to turn around and see him on the other side. You realize what kind of a great pitcher he is. He can throw, you know, any pitch on any count, and he throws them all for strikes, which makes him so dangerous.

JEFF CONINE: A guy like that, who's so unpredictable as far as what pitch he likes to throw on certain counts, all you could tell them is he's gonna be around the strike zone most of the day. But you can't really help too much on what he's gonna throw 'cause even in hitter's counts, 3-1, 3-2, you're not -- most of the time, you can't really expect a fastball. You've got to expect anything.

JEFF CONINE: Very. When I first came over here, obviously I knew nothing much about him. I get here and he looks like he could be in junior high, just the way his appearance is, he's very young-looking. They tell me he's 20 years old which, you know, I guess if I got started really early, could be my son. To see the poise and the confidence he's shown since I've been here, unaffected by the pressure, he played 55 games in the leftfield. They switched him to third when I got here and Mikey got hurt. He played that position flawlessly. I mean, very impressive. Then to ask him in the playoffs to switch to another position out in rightfield and play that very well has been, I think, beyond everyone's expectations. You can tell some day he's gonna be a superstar.

JEFF CONINE: Rabid. I think that '97 team was basically built to do what we did. They went in with the intentions in spring training that year of building a World Series contender. We ended up winning the whole thing. So not to say that it was expected by the fans, but this team has been so unexpected to do what we've done that I think the enthusiasm and the craziness you've seen in South Florida is much greater than it was in '97.

JEFF CONINE: Definitely a lost art. My first game up here, we were playing the Montreal Expos and Juan Pierre leads off the game, both corner players are playing well in on the grass. He serves around to bunt. I'm like, "What he's doing? Those guys are there waiting for it." He laid it down right in front of third baseman. He beats it out. Next at-bat, he does it again. Third baseman ends up throwing it away. We score runs. Luis Castillo is right behind him doing the same thing, whether it be advancing the runner or bunting for a base hit. It just creates -- I mean, I saw something the other night in New York that I've never seen before in my Big League career, that's playing the infield in with nobody on base and Juan Pierre up at the plate. Simply because he puts so much pressure on the defense by what he can do bunting and his speed that they create havoc and chaos on the base pads. It's been fun to watch. I mean, the stuff that they've been able to do and just the defensive alignments that I've seen since I've been here has been impressive. And I can't remember ever seeing a team -- there might have been individual guys that I think have been as adept at bunting as they are, but not team-wide, no.

JEFF CONINE: You know, you sure hope so. There's such a young core group of guys here, it's obviously not up to us to stay here. But to be able to keep this core group of guys that are so excited to play, they've got such a passion for the game, I think in '97, after we won the World Series, we kind of had a grip on South Florida as far as embracing baseball, which it took a long time and it took a winning team to do. Unfortunately, we all know what happened to that team and I think, with it, the enthusiasm for baseball went right out the window. Now, with this team and the enthusiasm that the fans have shown this last -- toward the last couple weeks of the season and during the playoffs, you got to hope and feel encouraged by the fact that if we keep this team together and play as excitingly as we have, next year, that they'll come out and support us.

JEFF CONINE: The ghost of knuckleballs past (smiling). I don't know. I think our advantage in this park is that people think it's ugly and think it's not a baseball park. But we call it home and we feel like we've got that advantage. They always come in and say, "Oh, the lights are bad." And, "It looks like a football stadium." I think they just can't get up for playing in a place like this, as compared to a Yankee Stadium or a Camden Yards or a Fenway Park that's got all the history. So I think it definitely works in our advantage that it is kind of a dreary and glum place to play.

JEFF CONINE: Sure. You know, Chris and I have kept in touch over the years, and matter of fact, when he first got -- was with Atlanta in spring training a few years back, I thought he was coaching because he had been gone. I'm like, "Hey, what are you doing? Coaching?" He's like, "No, I'm playing." I was like, "Are you crazy?" He winds up putting together one of the finest pitching performances over the history of baseball. Felix, obviously, the language thing, we didn't stay in touch. We've said hello and chatted about '97 and the Marlins' past. It seems like not only players-wise, but front office people, Marlins are everywhere in both leagues. Everywhere you go, you see a Marlins front office personnel or player that I played here with my first five years here.

JEFF CONINE: Yeah.

JEFF CONINE: Yeah, facing each other in a World Series, shoot, probably seven or eight years after we were teammates. And after he was out of baseball, basically, for a couple years. It's good stuff.

JEFF CONINE: It's got to be last play of the game. 11-inning game, you have Edgar Renteria, he probably did what he did 10 times during the season. I mean, it was uncanny what he could do with a bat and how he ended a lot of games. There were a couple pitches I think where -- probably would have hit a left-handed batter that he threw his bat and got hits on. That hit, if you watch the replay of that tape, that ball is gonna be in the dirt if he didn't hit it with his bat. Somehow he gets it over there. The euphoria you feel after seeing that ball clear Charles Nagy's glove and the realization that you've just done what everybody in baseball that puts on a uniform aspires to do, is win a World Series. It's just -- doesn't get any better than that.