NL DIVISION SERIES: GIANTS v BRAVES

October 1, 2002

Bobby Cox

BOBBY COX: He's changed a lot for me, too. I can't tell you the exact mechanics, but he stays back behind the ball a lot more and hits a lot more fly balls; and therefore a lot more home runs probably. I remember him going up front more a little bit, but now he stays behind the ball like good hitters should, especially power hitters. Lot of ways to hit the ball out of the ballpark, but one it to stay behind the ball and hitting back all the time. He's certainly different. He's a cut above, right now, everybody else, for me. And he's different than he was in the Pittsburgh days, no doubt.

BOBBY COX: Probably one over 100 games. That's a lot of ballgames. Nothing surprises me in this game. We put our bullpen together in spring training. We went into spring training -- we had a lot of areas that were open for players to win jobs, especially in the bullpen, and the right ones won them, actually. Holmes and Hammond, we sent Grybowski out and held on to him. All of those guys played major roles in the success of the team. I mean, huge part, and that was -- you know, a little bit of a surprise because we didn't know exactly what we had out there.

BOBBY COX: No, actually, it's kind of easy. Once you get your bullpen established, it's kind of fun to manage a real good bullpen. I don't think you manage any more, any less, any time. We didn't have a lot of leads by seven, eight runs, going into the latter innings. All of them were pretty darned tight all year long as most clubs going into those games are. Just putting the club together, I think, probably had to manage a little bit more doing that -- not much. Good players.

BOBBY COX: It's got to be in at ten o'clock in the morning, day of the game. Right now, we may carry ten. I'm still thinking about carrying a third catcher for the first round. Our catchers are pretty healthy. Nobody is 100% this time of year, I don't care who you are talking about. But carrying a third catcher is on my mind right now instead of an 11th pitcher. We'll definitely go to 11 the second round.

BOBBY COX: Catcher injury plays big if you're going to pitch/run for your catcher sometime. He gets caught with one, breaks a finger and goes out, you're in trouble. We do have Matt Franco, but he's going to be pinch-hitting at times. We'll see.

BOBBY COX: No. He came to spring training this year as an invitee catcher as you know. He had a tremendous spring. I think he caught in the spring a couple innings, but he warmed up pitchers the entire spring. Did a lot of work.

BOBBY COX: I thought the division would be awfully strong this year. The Phillies gave us all we could handle last year and were right on our tails to the end, and I've always liked Montreal an awful lot with their talent, and I love the Marlins team with their pitching and every day talent, too, position by position is pretty darned good. Of course, the Mets thought they had done real well during the winter and everybody was talking about them. I thought it was up for grabs and would go down to the last three or four days of the season to declare a winner. We had no idea we could finish this thing 20 games up on somebody, at all. I had heard the rumor about Bobby, and it's unfortunate. It's going to happen to all of us. Easy to blame the manager, that's for sure.

BOBBY COX: I'm glad we're playing at 1:00 instead of 4:00. That means all of the hitters have at least a chance to see the ball. 4:00 is tough. You either want to play at 1:00 or you want to play at 8:00. I think since the Giants are in here and Barry Bonds happens to be on that team, I think we are going to draw that people. I think we'll have in the 40s, myself. During the week, that's good for any team playing at 1:00.

BOBBY COX: No. I think we are going to draw in the 40s, anyhow. We only hold 49,000. A lot of stadiums only hold 36,000, 38,0000. I think you need guys like Barry Bonds for fans to watch, you bet. I think Tom Glavine is a draw. I think Greg Maddux is a draw. I think Sheffield is a draw. If you didn't have any draws, nobody would come to the damn ballparks.

BOBBY COX: We've had good ballplayers here for the last 11, 12 years, and it's been not easy to win ball games, but we always have a chance to win ball games because of the pitching rotation that's lasted this long, and it's going to last some more, too. Two guys we are talking about are Glavine and Maddux as free agents, but hopefully we'll get them back. But they have been a huge part of this success. This year's team, I had nothing to do or anybody else, really -- Millwood wins 18 games and Moss comes on and wins 12, and those were key factors in us winning this year. And Leo has a lot to do with that, don't get me wrong, but certainly, I try to take care of our staff and make sure that they are healthy and do have long careers and we are always looking ahead. We've had good teams and you'd like to think you help a little bit, but without real good ballplayers, a manager cannot do a whole lot.

BOBBY COX: You know, I've heard that term, and it's a weird term to me, "urgency." Opening Day is urgency for me, Game 1 and then Game 2. It's just , you know, what are you going to do, play harder? You can't play harder. You play hard from day one.

BOBBY COX: We have closed games out from the sixth inning on a lot this year and homes and Hammond pitching at sixth and seven, Rem (Remlinger) the eighth and Smoltzy the ninth, we have done that so many times, that's how we have used them when we are ahead or tied. I'm sure they pitched some ballgames because they had to earlier on because we were losing to, get work, but mainly used all four of those guys when we were tied or ahead in ballgames, or at least within reach, one run.

BOBBY COX: I think he's done another fantastic job. He's a great guy, good manager, and I like him. I'd like to see Dusty come into town. He adds a lot. He played here. Dusty is a pretty good friend -- I'd like to think he was a pretty good friends of mine. I didn't know Dusty very well in his playing days, but I've gotten to know him pretty good, you know, at the winter meetings and things like that, just saying hello at the ballpark. One of the guys I like.

BOBBY COX: On the field, he's been terrific. He's really a force in the lineup with the way I swings the lumber, and he's been terrific in the clubhouse. It's hard to imagine there's ever a problem with Gary in anybody's clubhouse. It would be hard for me to visualize that happening, and I know there was some disagreements with the front office in L.A., and basically, that's all I know. He's one of the most popular guys on this team. He has a great sense of humor. He's always laughing. He studies the game. He's like Barry, he studies the game. He is ready. He's prepared. Kind of like Greg Maddux, he's already pitched his game. Gary has already hit four times against Ortiz tomorrow.