AL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: ANGELS v WHITE SOX

October 12, 2005

Chone Figgins

Adam Kennedy

CHONE FIGGINS: I just love to play, and if this is something that will give me 10, 15 years in the big leagues, I'm all for it, and if I get to play with these guys, I'm definitely all for it.

CHONE FIGGINS: Well, you have your Erstad, your Kennedys, Molinas and Washburns who's played together for some years now, and the type of attitudes that they have is winning. They don't really say anything to us to strive for us to get better, but you watch the way they play the game, and they understand how to play the game and they have winning attitudes, whereas guys coming up or coming from different teams, you watch those guys play and you follow by example. So I think it's come to a lot of us, even Guerreros and Cabreras, it's helped a lot.

CHONE FIGGINS: Probably just try to hit a double or triple. Those Molina brothers, they can throw. A lot of times when someone runs, they're right on the money and they never miss. It would be tough to run off them.

ADAM KENNEDY: It's tough to say that with the pitching they have and the quality of hitting. We just play pretty similar baseball. Whoever has the lead coming down in the 6th, 7th I think, it's going to be tough to overcome the other team, and we just happened to have that as of late, but I wouldn't consider us having their number by any means.

CHONE FIGGINS: It doesn't change. I still get here early enough to make sure I get my workout in. It's something I've always done. I know we're not going to get much rest, but that's probably helped me even more, to get yourself ready to go for the game.

CHONE FIGGINS: From those guys, like I said, the Kennedys, the Erstads, the Andersons, even Molina, Washburns, they lead by example. It's nothing that they say to us, like I said before. They play the game the right way. We come from the minor leagues or from other teams, we do that. You follow it. Why? Because it's been winning baseball games and it continues to work.

ADAM KENNEDY: Lackey is probably the guy that makes you be able to deal with Colon not being with us a little bit better, also Santana. He's been healthy. Washburn we don't miss a whole lot, the way Santana has thrown and has pitched for us, it makes the loss a little bit easier to swallow. There's really nothing we can do about it. But like you said, I pretty much considered having Lackey the second half of the season as two aces, and now we just have one. I think there's a lot of teams that would fight for the four guys we have working for us right now.

ADAM KENNEDY: I think tomorrow will be a big day for us to really get some rest, catch our breath. But at this point, it's just every guy is happy to be here, and if by any chance for one minute they get tired, I promise you that they're going to look inside themselves and say "This is not the time for that." I can't imagine there's going to be a carryover from the travel to us being tired on the field at any point.

CHONE FIGGINS: They're good pitchers. They're tough on you. You do not expect to score a lot of runs on them, so to set your sac bunts down and get your runners in, runners in scoring position with less than two outs are going to be big because they're not used to giving up a lot of runs, and I don't think they're going to start now.

ADAM KENNEDY: It's tough to say because each team, each year has its own identity, new experience. It would be great to say that it helps, but back then when we won it, none of us had any experience and we played really well. So to go into a game or a series against a team that may not have the experience you do and to think you have an advantage I think is taking that for granted, and we don't really do that. It's nice to have done it and played, but you don't take your success from the past into this next series.

CHONE FIGGINS: Well, to me it looks like they have some guys with experience. Pierzynski has been with Minnesota, Jermaine Dye has been with Oakland, Carl Everett has been in some playoffs, so they've got some guys that do have experience, and they've got some guys that know how to play the game, and that in general, it's going to be tough. I don't think that they're unexperienced that the guys that they don't have in the playoffs it's going to be a problem because they've played this game long enough to do what it takes to win. That's why they're here.

ADAM KENNEDY: Since being a member of the Angels, a huge amount of difference. The last three, four years playing at Angel Stadium has been a pleasure, and it's sort of taken on a big presence in the game. The fans have gone to other places, maybe New York or other places where they see how the fans act, and I think they've brought a little bit of that to Angel Stadium. There's a lot of pride in the city now, and people enjoy going to the game and rooting for us, and it's a good feeling, especially this last series against New York, the last game, you could really -- that was probably, including the World Series and everything, the most that they had got into it and it helped us through. I can't imagine it's going to change the rest of the way.