MLB WORLD SERIES: ASTROS v WHITE SOX

October 25, 2005

Geoff Blum

GEOFF BLUM: I think it came to a head when the ball went out of the ballpark. This off season, making a choice to go back to San Diego and play close to home, family and friends, and things like that, is what makes the game special. But in the course of a season anything can happen. I got traded here and it's obviously been a true blessing and an interesting year, nonetheless.

GEOFF BLUM: The first pitch definitely was taken just because I hadn't seen a pitch in three or four weeks, so I wanted to gauge the velocity a little bit, seeing if I was seeing one ball or three (laughter). But I was fortunate enough to get a 2-0 count, and I was trying to work the count a little bit. But he didn't give me anything, and I took a chance and got a fastball, and fortunately got the ball up.

GEOFF BLUM: It means the world right now, even more if we go in and close this out tomorrow. It's the stuff dreams are made of. I've had about a hundred of these at-bats in my backyard with my younger brother. But to do it on this stage and in this situation makes this year incredibly worthwhile.

GEOFF BLUM: No.

GEOFF BLUM: The whole trade was pretty interesting, itself. As I said earlier, I signed in San Diego to be close to home. The triplets were on the way. It was an incredible situation. Family was close by, friends were close by. And I thought it would be a good situation for myself, personally to be in San Diego. I played with a great ballclub with a great group of guys. The day of the trade was interesting. You see the GM and assistant GM scurrying around the clubhouse. And things going on and you're wondering what's happening. You turn around and put your shoe on your you get a tap on the shoulder and your number has been called. My heart was torn to leave the family. But to get to a ballclub like this and now makes it all worthwhile.

GEOFF BLUM: Make sure you hit the bases (laughter). As soon as I hit it I knew it was high enough to get out. As soon as it got out Tim Raines' face lit up and stuck his hand up. Hitting his hand and touching the bag was a little tough.

GEOFF BLUM: I can't put it in words, that's why I'm making a joke out of it. It's unbelievable. The first thing is how am I going to hit Tim Raines' hand and give him a high five and make it around the bases. I don't think I blinked or looked at anybody until I made it at home plate and knew it was for real.

GEOFF BLUM: Those games in regular season are pretty high stress. But you put the impact of the World Series and 2-0 game lead and a chance to go up 3-0, makes it that much more intense. You keep seeing names getting marked off and marked off the lineup card and eventually it gets down to the last guy on the totem pole. I was near the bottom. Ozzie had enough confidence to go to myself and Marte in that situation. You have to give a lot of credit for Marte for the situation he was put into. And Buehrle coming in and closing it out was impressive, too.

GEOFF BLUM: It's tough. It's interesting. There are a lot of things going through your head when you find out you're playing one of your ex-teams in a city that treated you so well. The fans took me in for two years and spoiled me rotten, and so did the guys in the clubhouse. I learned a lot about the game and how to handle myself, how to go about playing every day and things like that. This is one of the first places I really got an opportunity to play every day. Other places came off the bench and doing things like that. But these guys on down the line still give support. I still have support for them. We still keep in touch. There's an strong tie here with a good group of friends.

GEOFF BLUM: Not a word was said on the base paths, it got pretty quiet. But when I first got traded from Montreal to Houston at that particular point in time I had jet black hair and white streaks. I took a beating for that over there from them. And that was -- it was first impression type thing. It seems to be an ongoing joke, what it's going to look like and what color it's going to be. It's a way to break the ice and get things going a bit. I enjoy it and I know those guys will get after me about my hair.

GEOFF BLUM: I don't know, those three beautiful ladies did a pretty good job of supporting the ballclub and myself when I was here. When I got traded to Tampa they showed up at Spring Training game. And when we came through earlier with San Diego they also showed up. I'm not sure if they were in the ballpark at all. But maybe a quarter of their heart was happy and the other three-quarters were sad. Good people, good fans. It's tough. It's tough. On a game that you start bouncing around a little bit.

GEOFF BLUM: On my list? Good Lord, have I had any big hits? There's a lot of mileage in between that swing right there and some of the other ones. But the most recent one -- maybe the most recent home run -- hitting the home runs on both sides of the plate in both the American and National League was pretty special. But my rookie year I had a game-winning home run off Randy Johnson which I thought at the time was a highlight to have.

GEOFF BLUM: I hadn't quite thought about that yet. I know some people mentioned the longest game in World Series history. If we win tomorrow we could win two World Series games in the same day. I don't think that's ever been done. I don't think the gravity of it is going to hit until we actually win this thing and we're celebrating.

GEOFF BLUM: No. Those guys -- like I said, I learned a lot about how to play the game and approach the game. They've been around a while, they've played for different ball clubs. But in watching them in the two years I was here, you take care of that business and do all those things before the game and when the game is going, you take care of business. Yeah, we're friends and stuff and maybe mentioned a couple of things here and there, but in that given situation, no, I was pretty much on an island out there.