AL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: INDIANS v YANKEES

October 11, 1998

Chili Davis

CHILI DAVIS: I don't think Kansas City was all that bad. I had a good time there. That ball club is working its way to becoming a good ball club. They've got a lot of good young players. I don't have very long to play in this game and I didn't really want to leave there, but I had to. I had to do something for myself before I leave this ball -- this game of baseball. So I decided that I was going to give myself a shot to be on a team that's going to be a contender and has a chance to win the World Series.

CHILI DAVIS: It bugs you when you don't pitch. The days that he pitches, I think this ball club feels very comfortable with him going out there because we know the kind of competitor he is and he's going to give you all he's got out there as long as he can. The days that he doesn't pitch, keep him in the clubhouse. He really bugs you, he's a fun guy to be around. He doesn't care about much. He just goes out, loves baseball and goes out and plays baseball.

CHILI DAVIS: I didn't really see much after he came in. We shook his hand and just kind of said, let's go and I don't know where he went, so I don't know what happened out there.

CHILI DAVIS: George is paying me, so they're finding somewhere for me. There's one of those left fielder that I wish was here right now and I just wish him the best and this is all fine and we've got something to do here, but he's got a different battle to fight right now and he's pretty much on my mind and when you look back at the fact that I didn't play most of the year, he was a big part of this ball club, picked it up for me, got some good clutch hits, Chad Curtis played well, Rock played well. What was there to be disappointed about, I knew if I worked hard I could be back and get a shot to play in some games and really and truly the whole objective that we had in Spring Training was to come out and win, and whether or not I'm in the lineup a certain day doesn't really matter as long as you win ball games.

CHILI DAVIS: Lots of coffee. Lots of coffee. Just most of the time you try to stay in the ball game, watch pitchers pitch and see what patterns they're doing, what pitches they have working. And other times, I basically just go down wherever I can get a chance to swing the bat and try to stay loose physically that way. But you try to stay in the ball game more mentally than anything. You know, after your first batter, your first two at-bats, you're pretty much loose, physically, and now you start thinking game plans. You start thinking game plans from the first at-bat. If it works you stay with it. If you need to regroup, you regroup the second at-bat and then you just keep going. I think the big thing for DH is not to allow each at-bat to affect the next.

CHILI DAVIS: Boomer -- I've watched him pitch all year and I've faced him in the past. Boomer was basically a fastball, curve ball pitcher in the past. He just came right at you, 2-0, here comes a fastball, hit it if you can, he's still that way somewhat, but he's more of a pitcher now, mixed his pitches up and off speed pitches behind the count. Throws you a fastball and he thinks you're not really expecting a fastball, not geared for it. I don't know what he would have done in the old days, but I'm glad he settled down today, settled down and started to pitch the game the way we expected him to.

CHILI DAVIS: They carried me all year, it's about time I did something. I don't think this offense is sluggish, I think this is pretty much the time of year where you're facing ball clubs with very good pitching. We have very good pitching, the Indians have very good pitching. You don't get to this position, you don't get to the ALCS if you don't have good pitching. You might get lucky and do it, but you're not going to last long. Good pitching stops good hitting. The guys are trying and making good pitches on us. I think today we made Chad Ogea work a little harder than we had the last couple of days with the other guys we faced. When we did so, he put himself in a bind and we came off with some runs off of him.

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