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AL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: TIGERS v ATHLETICS

October 11, 2006

Jim Leyland

OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA: Game Two

Q. Did you know Cory Lidle?
JIM LEYLAND: Yeah, a little bit, not well. I'll address this and start by saying that from what I just heard from the mayor of New York, there's nothing that's been confirmed for sure about names. Maybe you people know more than I do. So it would be totally out of line for me to speculate on anything that I wouldn't know what I was talking about.
So if you'd be patient with that I'd appreciate it. We're certainly hoping for the best, but obviously it's not a good situation because obviously somebody lost their life.

Q. Can you give us the update on Casey and exactly what you're looking at at first base?
JIM LEYLAND: I can't give you an exact update because I can't pronounce those fancy medical terms. But there's a tear of some type of a muscle around the bigger muscle. I asked the trainer, "If it was a burn, would it be first, second, or third degree? And he said, "Second." He's obviously not eligible to play. He's eligible, but he's not going to play tonight.
The trainers, I think, are hoping for a miracle when they say possibly by the end of this series. But I think that's probably not going to happen. So I think we'll just have to do with what we have.

Q. I know you're focused on your own business here, but I wondered if you had a chance to stay in touch with Tony LaRussa in the last few days.
JIM LEYLAND: I talked to him this morning 4:15 our time.

Q. Would you talk a little bit about your friendship with him, and have you two allowed yourselves to even think about who might be managing --
JIM LEYLAND: No, I can assure you that our friendship is just what it is; it's a great friendship. But I can assure you that even if by some stroke of luck that situation would happen, I can assure you that both Tony and I will not be talking about that at all. We'll be talking about our players.

Q. You have to play Guillen at first base. Can you talk about him at that position and how it changes the dynamic of your infield? You're going to start Perez today; is that correct?
JIM LEYLAND: That's correct, starting Perez at short. He has quite a bit of playoff experience obviously. And what happens is you just improvise when you get in situations like this. We'll do what we have to do. Is it an ideal situation? No, it's not. But I remind everybody that the Oakland A's just lost their double play combination, so we're certainly not looking for any sympathy, nor do we expect anybody.

Q. Who called whom when it was 4:15? And if it was him, did he forget about the time change?
JIM LEYLAND: No, I called him because I -- when I'm out here I get up -- it's kind of in my brain, I guess, that I get up to tell my kids to have a good day at school, and today is my son's birthday. So I woke up and called them about 7:00 their time, 4:00 our time.
I said, Well, while I'm up I might as well give Tony a call because I know he's up. So we chatted for a little while and I went back to bed.

Q. Is batting Perez second a byproduct of wanting to keep -- (Inaudible).
JIM LEYLAND: Well, Thames is not in the lineup, Gomez is in the line up. So you've got to figure out a lineup that makes sense. Obviously when you lose your No. 3 hitter, it changes a lot of things. So you try to get as versatile a lineup as you possibly can, thinking that you might have to do some other things.
You may have to play a little bit of a different type of game possibly. But Neifi, he can bunt, he can hit and run, he can do some things, and Gomez is down at the bottom tonight. We just took a shot that maybe by chance, a lefty may have a shot, and Esteban, a righty, and Marcus is there for a couple games. When you have to make these moves because that's what's dictated by our situation right now.

Q. You guys were pretty free-swinging club at the plate during the season, and last night you showed a lot of patience at times against Zito. Can you talk about your approach at the plate last night and how important patience like that will be the rest of the series?
JIM LEYLAND: I really believe that being around the Yankees and talking so much about the Yankees patience as everything has rubbed off a little bit on our club, and I think it's helped us, to be honest with you.
We're certainly not home free, but I think we did a very nice job last night with Barry. He's a great pitcher, and I thought we did a good job of at least trying to make him work.
We got the big blow by Inge and another big blow by Inge, so I thought we did a pretty good job. We're still not the most patient team in the world. I've always had a tough time with that, because one of the first things you do as a manager is tell your team to be aggressive, and then in the same breath you tell them don't swing at bad pitches. That's kind of a Catch 22, and I think you've got to be real careful with that.

Q. Obviously your relationship with Dave Dombrowski is a long one. Can you talk a little bit about that? Do you think there's a possibility you wouldn't even be managing this year if it wasn't for the relationship you had with Dave from Florida?
JIM LEYLAND: Well, I probably wouldn't be managing this year; I would say that. It wasn't like somebody was knocking down my door. But we have a good relationship. We go all the way back to the White Sox when Dave was actually a young kid, and I was quite a bit younger, too, to be honest with you.
We always had a good relationship then. I have so much respect for Dave, because he kind of learned on the job like I did. He was in the Minor Leagues; he went out with baseball people to learn more about the game. He's not just an executive; he knows players, he's got a good feel for players, and he knows when he's looking at when he sees a player.
We became very good friends, and obviously we were fortunate enough to share a World Series together and be a part of a team that won a World Series. It's been a good working relationship, and on the side of that and probably more importantly, there's always been a friendship there.

Q. What motivated you to acquire Neifi when you did? And you mentioned playoff experience. What else does he brings in terms of playoff skills?
JIM LEYLAND: He's kind of a Helter Skelter player. You see what you get. He's liable to swing at one one foot over his head, and he's liable to swing at one two feet for a triple. The thing I love with Neifi Perez is energy. He plays with a passion. He loves to play. He's a smart player.
And like I said, when Polanco went down we had to have somebody we felt -- and he's a player that we were able to acquire. We feel like we're very fortunate to have him. And like I said, I like players that have energy, and Neifi has good energy.

Q. How do you describe the impact that Kenny Rogers has had on your entire team, especially your pitchers? And when you look back at the performance against the Yankees, will you always remember how he kind of raised his emotion to another level?
JIM LEYLAND: Well, I think that first of all, I think it's always dangerous when you have as much emotion as he had. Once again, that's a Catch 22. Sometimes players get too keyed up and don't perform as well. Sometimes that works for you, sometimes it works against you. In the case against the Yankees last week, it worked for him.
The first part of your question is I remind everybody that the most impressive thing about Kenny Rogers to me is his 18 wins or whatever he has, because that's what we got him for. We didn't get him to babysit anybody; we didn't get him to tell anybody what the big leagues was all about. We got him because we knew he was 59 games over, .500 in the big leagues.
That's why we acquired him and Todd Jones, not because they were elder statesmen and could give good advice. We felt they could pitch and perform, and that's what they've done.

End of FastScripts...

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