NL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: METS v BRAVES

October 16, 1999

Bobby Cox

BOBBY COX: Rem has been doing that type of job all season long, coming in and just dominating for an inning or two. It's one of the reasons Mr. Schuerholz gave him a two-year contract here recently. He's done such a great job. He has really been the set-up guy for John Rocker all season long. He's very, very tough on right-handed hitters.

BOBBY COX: You know, I really don't weigh in anywhere on it. The only time I have ever discussed it is with the questions in the interview rooms here, and most recently in Atlanta and Houston during the divisional series. I don't really think much about that. I think this organization has done a tremendous job in the 90's. I don't think we're done yet, either. I think we can keep going for a while.

BOBBY COX: Well, that's another question that's been asked a lot lately, too. And it's a good question because he's been extremely important. Once he was in the line-up full-time, he really added something to our ballclub. He added power, actually. Gerald can hit the ball a long ways. He's hit like he can since he's gotten in the line-up on a regular basis. He can make things happen on the bases like he did last night. Sometimes we're not always right in our decisions on running the bases, but we're a very aggressive base-running team, and Gerald is a big part of that. He has really been the spark that got us going for a while.

BOBBY COX: I think we had sent Simon down, because of a roster problem, or Gerald had the opportunity to play more than just against left-handers. And all of a sudden, in a week's

period of time or so, he was getting base hits against everybody. And we just stayed with it. It's a guy that was given an opportunity and took it and ran with it.

BOBBY COX: There's always something to pick on. No matter how good your team is, somebody is going to pick on some part of it, the bullpen or something. That's the part they pick on us, I guess. We have been to a lot of World Series. We've played great baseball in almost every World Series. Probably didn't play as good in the one that we won. We played better in some of the other ones and we got beat. It's a game of breaks when you get down to a four-game win series, must-win series. We've played well. We're proud of what we've done. They always ask that, though. It is irritating, to be honest with you. (Laughter).

BOBBY COX: No, I don't think the bullpen -- I was just giving you an example of picking on something. When they pick on the Atlanta organization they'll pick on: "Oh, you only won one World Championship." Generally, it's the bullpen they'll seek out because that's the one that is most in the eye when the game is lost. But we've had good bullpens forever. Nobody has ever talked about them. I think we've always had a pretty good bullpen, but no-name bullpens for the most part, and people that nobody recognized out there.

BOBBY COX: Well, I know what you're getting at. We swept them in four, and we haven't done that yet. I don't know. We pitched awfully good against the Reds that series, and we're pitching awfully good now. I guess if we can sweep them in four, there would be a lot of similarities, but really we're taking it game-by-game still.

BOBBY COX: Well, he's doing just fine, number one. He hit a ball real hard last night to left field. You've got to give the other team some credit, too. They have good pitching, also. Hitters aren't going to dominate good pitching, as much as the pitching is going to dominate them. He's getting pitched to very tough, too. As long as we're winning, yeah, I'm happy if he's getting no hits; that somebody else in our line-up is picking up the slack, and that's what happens sometimes. Mark Lempke did it one year, led the team in hitting in a Championship Series. It can come from anybody.

BOBBY COX: Well, I guess it is, but I don't know that I ever looked at it as more of a challenge. It was a little more worrisome when our guys started going down. We had some guys to plug in there all the time; so it wasn't as bad as we make it out to be at times, I don't think. We had some good ballplayers on the bench that could do a job. The only injury we really addressed all season was Galarraga's injury when we went to Spring Training with the team. That was a different type of problem than just a physical injury. And I thought then we could plug up first base. We could play good enough there to play good ballgames.

BOBBY COX: I don't look at the past three games. I look at the one game going on tonight, that's it. We'll go out and try like we have been every night, trying to win a ballgame. It's difficult to win any game this late in the season, but we would love to get up two runs early, just like the Red Sox did on Clemens a minute ago.

BOBBY COX: Yeah, I think you're right on target there. You could rate him in there on this year's performance, you bet. He's won 35 now or so. He's pretty much the dominating guy in this League right now.

BOBBY COX: I don't know. I don't sit around thinking about those things. I'm sure there were, with Baltimore's staffs years ago. The Yankees always had great staffs. And the Dodgers, Koufax and Drysdale, Osteen, those guys were Hall of Famers. But our staff is good and solid, and for the most part, they've really been healthy this season.

BOBBY COX: I don't think so. I don't know.

BOBBY COX: We've had a good bullpen for a number of years here. And Rocker has been sensational. But Alejandro Pena was one of the top guys we ever had, I thought. He was almost perfect. And Wohlers came along. We've had mix and matches and stuff like that.

BOBBY COX: I don't know. Pretty close.

BOBBY COX: I don't know. We've won a lot of games against the Mets this year. But most of the games have been real tight, could have gone either way. They hit-and-ran last night, and we were right in the right spot for some reason. And five feet over, there's runners at first and third with no outs, and instead, there's a doubleplay. I think we've maybe outlucked them in a lot of areas.

BOBBY COX: I think we had a meeting when we were down two in San Diego. St. Louis we had to win, I think three in a row, too, and we did. So, yeah you talk about it, because it's possible.

BOBBY COX: Yeah. You're not saying good-bye. You're trying to win a game, here.

BOBBY COX: Yeah, I did. I met with him last night before the game, but apparently didn't do a lot of good, because after the game -- I said we're going to meet again this afternoon. As soon as I leave here, we're going again.

End of FastScripts….