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MLB WORLD SERIES: ROCKIES v RED SOXOctober 26, 2007Josh FoggDENVER, COLORADO: Workout Day Q. For those of us who don't get to altitude too often, can you tell us the difference, what the ball feels like in your hand, the one that's been in the humidor and one that has not? JOSH FOGG: This year the ball has been pretty good. It really depends on how well they're rubbed up. The balls that have been put in play a few times throughout the game feel a little better because they've actually had some moisture in the field, the guys have been grabbing it and throwing it around. When I was here a few years ago playing this visiting team, the balls, they kind of felt like cue balls. If you play pool a lot, you pick it up and it's kind of slick and hard to get a good grip on it. This year the balls have felt pretty good. If it's not rubbed up well enough, you can go out there and rub it up a little bit yourself and make do with what it is. Q. A quick question for you. I know you were 42 and 15 since June at home. I know baseball is played between the lines and all that, but can you talk about what the first World Series game in Denver means tomorrow night, the DS to the CS and whether that can provide any sort of advantage? JOSH FOGG: I think that's why they play 81 games at home and 81 games on the road. The whole 50,000 people screaming for you, and you get last at-bats. That's the reason why they play them that way. That's the advantage. You have a chance to go out there and try to score if their team scores, and it's tough to play with 50,000 people yelling at you. I'm looking forward to them screaming on my side this time. Q. When you signed here what did you see things in this organization that led you to believe they could get to this point? And the second point is, a lot of people would look at any pitcher signing here as a brave move. Were there people saying, "What are you thinking here?" JOSH FOGG: There weren't that many opportunities for me two years ago. I didn't have a great year coming out of Pittsburgh. My fourth year there wasn't unbelievable. I had limited options at that point. Colorado gave me a chance, and you know, I think the whole -- pitching here is kind of a -- it's what you make of it. There are pitchers pitching there, also. I have no problem going out there, and if I win 9 to 8 it's the same thing as winning 2 to 1. A win is a win in this game. I think once I got here in spring training two years ago, you could see the amount of talent that was on this team, how well the young guys swung the bats, Holliday, Hawpe, Atkins, one of the better hitters in the National League. Everybody knew who Todd Helton was when I got here. It was one of those things you could see the makings of a great team, and we managed to put it together this year. Q. Along the lines of dealing with the ball, when you are trying to compensate on breaking pitches, for those of us who haven't seen a game here, do you have to snap it off more, or what's the biggest thing you need to do to make it work? JOSH FOGG: If I could throw it any harder or any better, I'd be doing it everywhere. I think one of the keys to pitching here is breaking balls are great, but if that's your go-to pitch you're not going to have that much success because you're not going to get the same break that you would anywhere else. I think one of the reasons I've had success in this park is that I'm more of a change-up guy, more front to back. I take some velocity off the fastball, and I'm not trying to fool guys on Josh Beckett curve balls, I'm trying to get them off their front foot and mishit the ball. I think pitching at altitude, it is what it is, but you can't rely heavily on a nasty curveball. It's not going to be as nasty every time, and you've got to rely on some other pitches. Q. Do you know what the gyro ball is, and have you ever tried to throw one? JOSH FOGG: I have no idea what it is. I've heard a lot about it. When you see it, it looks like a change-up. I don't know. I'm guessing it's his change-up. Hopefully he doesn't throw it to me (laughter). Q. It took such an historic run for you guys to get to this point and now obviously down 0-2. Can you finish off this World Series and make sure that one stands the test of time, can that be motivation, or do you try to block that out? JOSH FOGG: I think the reason why we've had success the last month is that we've taken it one game at a time. Now more than ever that's kind of what we have to do. We have to go out there and find a way to win tomorrow. It's not -- you can't think about, oh, we've got to win three here, we've got to win two here. We've got to win tomorrow. Tomorrow is the biggest game of the year for us. Luckily that's the way we've played the last month, and I think that's the attitude that everybody in that locker room has right now. When we lost the first game 13-to-1 we came in the next day, that was the biggest game of the year, the next one, for us. Now being back at home and having home-field advantage, I think we feel like we have a little better chance going out there tomorrow. You know, we're looking forward to getting out there and trying to get that one win under our belt and go out and get the next one after that. End of FastScripts |
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