AL DIVISION SERIES: ANGELS v YANKEES

October 1, 2002

Bernie Williams

BERNIE WILLIAMS: I don't know. In that situation, I have to keep in mind that it was my first time facing him. So I didn't really have an idea on how to approach him. The situation dictated for me to be aggressive. You don't want to be down, to be in the hole 0-2, which I was anyways. But I think I had a pretty good idea of his velocity and the pitches he was throwing by me being aggressive early in the count. Then after that, I was thinking to hit the ball hard the first couple of swings. Then after I had two strikes I said, "Just cut down on your swing and try to put the ball in play." The one thing you don't want to do in that situation is strike out. You at least want to put it in play, make some things happen. I was able to hit a pitch. I think he was set up inside. He just stayed right over the middle of the plate. I was able to hit it out.

BERNIE WILLIAMS: Well, it was very frustrating for me in particular. He didn't seem to have any trick pitches. He was just throwing a lot of fastballs coming right at people. We just kept hitting them right at their defense. Yeah, it was frustrating.

BERNIE WILLIAMS: You know, I don't know. It was a great feeling. Everything happened so quick, you know, at that moment. I don't think I remember running the bases. I remember shaking Derek's and Giambi's hand. Then after that, the curtain call. But I was just trying to stay focused on playing defense, you know, the next inning, try to keep them down. But it hasn't really sunk in yet. So I think when I go to bed tonight, I'll probably have a great moment (smiling). Not that great (laughter).

BERNIE WILLIAMS: I think that, you know, for me in particular it was the meeting that Joe had before the game started in which he said, you know, we don't take anything for granted. We start playing hard from the first inning till the last inning. We play nine innings hard then whatever happens, happens. I think that's probably the philosophy on the whole club, you know, we don't take things for granted. We respect the opposition. Doesn't matter what the odds are, whether we're favorites or not, we treat them like, you know, the rivals that they are and we play them hard. I think that's the key.

BERNIE WILLIAMS: They were just great at-bats. Facing Weber from the right side I figured wouldn't be a good experience because he has such a great movement on his sinker that, you know, it can't be very comfortable facing him from the right side. They were able to work their way on base, you know, facing him. They were just great at-bats for me, especially with Soriano. He was so aggressive early in the count. Then he was just patient and he just worked his way into a walk. For me, that was the key.

BERNIE WILLIAMS: Obviously, it's a great feeling. I think, you know, I've just been very blessed to be in the situation in which I can hit home runs in the postseason because we get here so many times. Other than that, you know, I'm not going to downplay it, but I think for me it's not, you know, the time to think about, you know, what I've done. I think I just got to keep focusing on the things that are ahead of me.

BERNIE WILLIAMS: I have no idea what's going to happen. I knew that they were playing tough and, you know, obviously you get your hopes high when you start getting a lead. Then when they come back, you know, you start getting, you know, a little bit more focus. But on a game like that, anything can happen. You can't really think, "We're going to win this game, we're going to win this game," then take it for granted you're going to win. Then you probably stop working for it and let things happen to you instead of making things happen. I think in that situation, it was probably a great thing for us to come back with two outs and nobody on because I think it's going to set the tone for the whole series.

BERNIE WILLIAMS: I don't know. I think that Mike was just taking a chance on the fact that I haven't faced Donnelly. I think that he was just taking that chance, and it really affected my at-bat in the beginning because I didn't know what to expect. You know, you get the scouting reports on the pitcher, but it's not until you face them that you can, you know, formulate a plan on how you're going to approach them. It really affected the way that I had the at-bat earlier in the count. But then after I saw those two pitches, I had a better idea of his velocity and the stuff that he had. I was able to settle down a little bit and follow a couple pitches up. I was just fortunate enough to hit that one out.

BERNIE WILLIAMS: Yeah, I wasn't swinging hard at all. I was just trying to put it in play. That's what it looked like though, I guess...