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MLB ALL-STAR GAME

July 10, 2007

Jim Leyland

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA

Q. You guys have been obviously pretty dominant over the National League the last ten years or so. The American League is described as the "junior circuit"; could you think of a better term to describe the American League?
JIM LEYLAND: First of all, I don't think that we dominated tonight. We go down to the ninth inning and if they get a base hit, the National League wins the game. It was a great ballgame.
Obviously I'm so happy. But even if Rolen would have gotten a base hit, it was a great game. I don't really believe in that dominance thing. I mean, it's happened in the All-Star Game but that's a totally different ballgame to be honest with you, it really is.
You know, the nice thing about it is that, you know, when you take guys like A-Rod and Jeter out of a game, you're not putting Jim Leylands in. You're putting Carlos Guillen and Mike Lowell and Crawford who hit a home run and Jorge Posada. I mean, that's pretty good.

Q. You were Barry's manager when he first came up in Pittsburgh and I know he has a lot of respect for you and you were out for his 500 home run celebration a few years back. Did you get a chance to talk while you were here and what did you talk about?
JIM LEYLAND: Yeah, we did. We had a great conversation. I hope I'm not here when he breaks Hank's record because that means I got fired. (Laughter.)
We had a great conversation. We're very close. He had a nice party last night that he invited me to but I didn't get the invitation until late so I think he's bullshitting; I don't think he invited me at all. (Laughter.)

Q. Sort of a microcosm of Ichiro couple of singles; how is it to manage him?
JIM LEYLAND: That's a great point, I had heard this about Ichiro but never paid that much attention to it. They said he hits balls out in batting practice like it's nothing. He probably hit more home runs tonight in BP than any player on the field and he made it look easy. I can't believe it. This happened to be an inside-the-parker.
I can't believe what ease he was hitting balls with over the fence, like it was nothing. I'm not really too happy about that because we play them Thursday. That's who we open up with. (Laughter.)

Q. You've been a part of some pretty special things through your career; what was it like being out there for the Mays tribute and the reception Bonds got?
JIM LEYLAND: That's great. I can't say enough about the way things were done. I mean, the Willie Mays thing, the Barry Bonds thing, that's baseball. I think what's so good about it is when I came to the ballpark today in that Red Carpet Parade, uniforms were everywhere, people were cheering for everybody. I don't think anybody booed me. I mean, that was hard to believe, because I know there's some people that don't like me. (Laughter.) But it was such a wonderful thing to see these different uniforms and every car get greeted with applause no matter if you were a National League fan or American League fan. Baseball is really booming and that is a tribute to the Commissioner and everybody involved. Most of all in my pregame meeting, I talked to my players, most of all it's a tribute to them. It couldn't have been nicer.

Q. Were you thinking of bringing in Jenks?
JIM LEYLAND: I had Jenks up earlier in the game if you noticed maybe to get out of an inning if Danny Haren struggled and since I had him up early in the game, I really did not want to get him up again late in the game unless it was a total emergency, so that's why it went the way it did.

Q. With a game like this, were you able during the game to enjoy the experience or is it too competitive?
JIM LEYLAND: No. I didn't enjoy it a bit. I enjoyed it about five minutes ago and I'm dead serious about that.
I'm talking how great baseball is going and everything, but really, I have absolutely no thump with anybody in baseball but I would like to recommend that in the All-Star Game they have the DH from now on and I'll tell you why. I didn't enjoy managing the game from the standpoint that you have to make double switches, you have to worry about changing players around. We had guys in different spots all night long and it really makes you work too hard as a manager for this game to be honest with you. I'm not complaining but I'm just making a point. I'm very serious about it. Because then you don't have to double switch, you don't have to worry about a pitcher hitting. I mean, these guys are all valuable players to other teams and you worry about stuff like that.
I just hope that maybe they will consider that. I know next year it's at Yankee Stadium, you know, I'd sure like to be there for that one, but I don't know about that yet.

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