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NL DIVISION SERIES: DODGERS v METS

October 3, 2006

Nomar Garciaparra

NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: Workout Day

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. You are in really good spirits. How do you feel physically?
NOMAR GARCIAPARRA: I'm feeling good. I was really looking forward to having a practice today, see how it felt, and it felt good. I was able to go through my batting practice, do that. Felt good going through batting practice, being able to hit the ball the way I wanted to.
I was thinking that maybe if it was hurting me, I was gonna probably, you know, limit; say, Okay, maybe just take half the swings, half the amount. I took a full batting practice. As a matter of fact, I was like, All right, if we had extra time, I was jumping in there to swing more.
Knowing that I was feeling that way, that told me that, All right, it was feeling pretty good. I'm excited about that.

Q. Are you saying "it's" feeling good? Aren't we a "them"?
NOMAR GARCIAPARRA: They're feeling good. Small contingency there that's kind of following me - no (smiling).
It's all feeling pretty good. My legs are feeling well. My side's feeling good. I've said this before. At this stage, I don't think there's any guy out there, be it on our team or any team that goes through a season, goes through a baseball season, that isn't playing with some sort of bump or bruise, dealing with some sort of aches and pains, and I'm one of them.
And here we are. You know, when you're at the playoffs, you're excited. This is a fun time. This is a really fun time for baseball.

Q. Any precautions that you'll be taking, or will you play all-out?
NOMAR GARCIAPARRA: I don't think I've really taken any precautions throughout the year. As I'm playing, I kind of -- you know, sometimes when you're in that, when you're playing, you just kind of -- your adrenaline and you let your instinct just kind of take over. You know, I know later in the season, obviously I wasn't running the way I wanted to, and that's the body just letting you know. I'm sure my body, when the game starts, is gonna say, Okay, you may not be able to just sprint the way you want to, all-out; you may need to ease back on some of that. But nothing different than what I've been doing the last week or two as we were been playing.

Q. Is the side the major concern, though?
NOMAR GARCIAPARRA: Major concern? Well, of the three, well, you know, that's the one that bit me, you know, a few days ago. That one really -- that one got me.
But, you know, like I said, you know, there was a question, What hurts more. I go, I really don't know, I couldn't tell you what hurts more. You know, like I said, right now they all feel good. They all feel good enough to go out there and play, and that's what I'm pleased about.

Q. You've had a chance to watch James Loney play recently. What do you see out of him?
NOMAR GARCIAPARRA: He's been great. He's been going out there, just like all our young guys, he's no different than the young guys that have come in and done their job all year long. I think we told those guys early in spring training, you know, we have a goal to set, our goal was to get to postseason, go out there and win a World Series, and when you're called upon we expect you to go out there and do your job.

Q. During the last week of the regular season, you came out of games early looking like you had aggravated your injuries. Would you expect someone to pinch-run for you?
NOMAR GARCIAPARRA: Maybe. I mean, they might. You know, depends. Probably later in the game. We'll see. Grady is good at dictating that and seeing, you know, when and where he wants to put guys in.

Q. Have you thought at all about next year and being a free agent, and whether you'd want to be back here, how much you want to be back?
NOMAR GARCIAPARRA: You know, I really haven't given it much thought at all. I always say that stuff you heard about in the off-season, and I still am like that. Right now my thought right now is postseason and still trying to accomplish the goal we set out from spring training. That stuff, I'll worry about when this is all over.

Q. How much value do you think there is in being the hot team going in?
NOMAR GARCIAPARRA: Uhm, I don't know if there's much value of being the hot team. I think at this stage you got all great teams that deserve to be here. I mean, can't say, Oh, this team doesn't deserve to be here. After a 162-game schedule, it's not like this team got lucky or anything like that; all these teams deserve to be here. And, you know, we're playing against the Mets, I think they did have the best record in baseball. They clinched early. They obviously know what they're doing. They obviously have done something right to do that, and well deserved. We're going out against a tough opponent, and we know that.
I don't think it's a matter of this team's hot or this team's not; it's two great teams that are gonna go out there and compete against each other.

Q. What are your thoughts on the possibility of El Duque not pitching?
NOMAR GARCIAPARRA: Well, I mean, I am sure they are dealing with injuries over there. I'm sure our team is dealing with injuries over here. When you have a record like they have, when they won all those games, it sure wasn't just one guy winning all those games. I'm sure it was a whole team. I know they're probably thinking, Hey, it's not one of us, it's our whole team that's gone out and got us here. I'm sure they're gonna have that attitude tomorrow.

Q. Does that change things for you guys when you're not sure which pitcher you'll be facing?
NOMAR GARCIAPARRA: I don't think so. It might change maybe the way our manager is thinking and what he wants to do with the lineup. But that's, like I said -- for us as players, no, it's more for him to think about what he feels he wants to do.

Q. Derek was up here a little while ago, and he was asked about Grady and 2003.
NOMAR GARCIAPARRA: So he answered it already, awesome (smiling). Cool.

Q. Hopefully, you can.
NOMAR GARCIAPARRA: No, Derek took care of it. I'll let him. 'Atta boy, D. Anything else?

Q. He said that --
NOMAR GARCIAPARRA: I really can't go out. If I didn't hear what he said, I'm -- like I said, if Derek took care of it, good job, D.
Anything about this year? Anything about us? Anything about that?

Q. What's it like coming to New York with an "LA" on your cap instead of a "B"? What's the difference?
NOMAR GARCIAPARRA: One's blue and one's red. And, you know, it's just a great feeling. I mean, I was coming here and playing, it's been an honor to put this uniform on. It's been an honor to put the uniforms on I put on in the past. It's just great to be in the postseason. It really is. It's a lot of fun.

Q. How do you feel about being part of returning Grady to this stage?
NOMAR GARCIAPARRA: I don't think -- you know, Grady is such a great manager, great person, I mean, doesn't surprise me that he's back on this stage. I think he's shown that in the past, and he's done that now.

Q. Are you of the mind that whatever Grady's moves were, if Boston had won the World Series, he would not have been welcome back there?
NOMAR GARCIAPARRA: No. I mean, you know, that's in the past. I don't even really think about that and think that it falls on him at all.

End of FastScripts...

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