AL DIVISION SERIES: RANGERS v YANKEES

October 6, 1999

Bucky Dent

BUCKY DENT: It's scary. You know, it's scary. You don't want to see anybody get hit with a ball and get hurt. Especially a guy like Don. Any time a line drive goes in a dugout, you're always concerned about somebody getting hurt real bad.

BUCKY DENT: I think the big thing is for us to relax, you know, over the course of this year we've gone into kind of like a little bit of a funk like this before, we've broke out. When this team breaks out, it's going to be big. So I think for them it's just to relax and keep trying to do the things that they're doing, remember the positives. Because we have a good hitting club.

BUCKY DENT: I think for us it's an advantage. We flew from the west coast. We had some guys, you know, feeling a little bit bad because they got the flu. I think for us it's going to be an advantage.

BUCKY DENT: Well, they're the World Champions. Last year they had an incredible year, and they pretty much have the same team with a few changes. So, you know, they're a team to beat. They're good. They're solid. They don't make many mistakes. They have good, solid pitching. They have a great closer, so I don't see too many holes in their club.

BUCKY DENT: I think Coach Rudy Jaramillo does a great job preparing our hitters. Last night, like Rick said, we had a chance early in the game to score some runs and we just didn't get the big hit. I think once that happens, you know, once, you know, we get a big hit and it kind of relaxes everybody, I think you'll see some guys really start to get after it. But, you know, Rudy does a great job preparing as far as telling them what to look for and stuff like that. They're prepared. It's just a matter of them going up there and having the confidence to lay off some of the pitches that are out of the strike zone and stay in their game. Our overall line-up is pretty solid. Like I said earlier, there were times this year where we've been in a funk and not swung the bats real well and all of a sudden somebody will get a big hit and everybody will come out of it. We're capable of doing that.

BUCKY DENT: I like the wild card. I think it's interesting. Like this year, with all the teams battling to the end, it gives another team an opportunity to get into the playoffs. I think the one good thing is should the wild card play the team with the best record, even though they're in their own division. I think that that, you know, that should happen. I don't care where the wild card comes from. If the wild card's in, they should play the team with the best record. I don't care if they're in your division or not.

BUCKY DENT: No, not really. You know, let's give credit. New York has really good pitching. But I don't see any of our guys really pressing.

BUCKY DENT: No. That doesn't matter. I felt it even in '96 when we played, that the wild card team should play the team with the best record. That's really what it's for. Whether it comes out of the same division or not doesn't matter, you know. The team with the best record, I think, should play the wild card.

BUCKY DENT: See, I have nothing but good memories coming back here. I mean I've played on some great teams here. There's a lot of, you know, great players I played with. For me to come back to New York, it's always a real positive thing. The people always talk about the '78 year, the home run against Boston, the game against Boston. Those are all things that are real positive for me. I mean it's something that you don't forget because of, you know, the experience that you had here. So for me it's always positive coming back here.

BUCKY DENT: Well, it's a little bit deflating at the moment. But we still felt we were going to score some runs. We had guys on base, we had opportunities, and we just didn't get it done. But you could feel in the dugout that the guys really felt that we were going to break out. And we just didn't get it done last night. But, you know, they're confident. I mean, you know, they're -- it's a -- it's hard to explain unless you're in there with them. Like I keep saying, we've been there before where we've kind of been a little bit shut down, they shut down our offense for a little bit. Then all of a sudden, somebody will get a hit and they'll get you. So, you know, we still felt like we were going to score some runs last night.

End of FastScripts….