|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
WORLD BASEBALL CLASSIC POOL A: TOKYOFebruary 28, 2009Ray ChangTerry CollinsChenhao LiTOKYO, JAPAN Q. Thank you very much, I would like to ask questions on behalf of everybody. Now I hear in Japan in the WBC Tokyo round is coming near, I would like to ask all three of you how you feel now. Please go ahead. TERRY COLLINS: Well, we feel, this is a tremendous honor to be in this WBC and to represent the country of China. Obviously my familiarity with Japan baseball, it's exciting for me to return to Japan and be the manager of Team China. We have got a huge task ahead of us, but we are excited about being here, and we are going to do the best we can. RAY CHANG: Just like Terry said, it's an unbelievable honor to play for a country, especially China. We've got a great bunch of guys, and we have got some talent on this team, and I feel like we can surprise some people out here. You know, it's just great to be here. CHENHAO LI: To be able to participate is again a very big honor to me. And also, this is the second time, second WBC, and I'm sure that we can do better than the last time. And our National Team has improved, and I would like to show that. Q. Manager Collins, how is Team China prepared and how are the conditions of your players? TERRY COLLINS: Well, we got a little bit of a late start. We have only been actually training for two weeks in Florida. We had some Visa issues, we took Team China to the United States for spring training. We are a little bit behind. That's why these exhibition games are extremely important for us to have some game situations. I think we need to take advantage of this time, to see some live pitching and get some workouts in, but we need to play baseball. We need to play baseball games, and so these two games are important for us. Q. All three of you, any impression for the Japanese team? TERRY COLLINS: Impression? (Laughing) I'm very impressed. I know all of the players. I've seen them all. I saw most of the players here in Japan. I've seen Ichiro and Johjima and Matsuzaka in the United States. Again, we have a huge task ahead of us; everybody does. Without question, they have got to be the favorite in the tournament. So we have got to go out and execute the game as best we can, and if we do that, we'll be okay. We'll have a chance. I think it's a great stage for this of these players here in Japan. After being here for two years, there's a lot of Japanese players that don't get the recognition of being the great players that they should: Inaba, Murata, Kawasaki, just to name a few. Yu Darvish, his name is now very common, and everybody is talking about him in the United States. But there's a lot of good pitches here. There's a lot of good players and I think the world stage, this tournament, especially being tell he advised now worldwide will finally get some of these players the recognition they deserve. RAY CHANG: I obviously have not seen a Japanese game, but over the years, I've heard a lot of good things about Japanese baseball and Japanese players, especially over the few weeks, just hearing it from my teammates and my coaches and stuff. You know, I'm very excited. I'm excited for the challenge. I'm excited to see Japanese baseball, especially these next couple of days for exhibition games. Yeah, I'm just excited. CHENHAO LI: The Japanese Team, they have a good talent, and they have a good, strong, hard team; that's a fact and we, the Chinese Team, we are the challengers, so we have to try to make -- work hard, as much as we can. Q. Manager Collins, you mentioned some of the names of the players that you are playing attention to. For the three of you, I would like to ask you one more time you are playing particular attention to? TERRY COLLINS: On the Japanese team? We will pay attention to all 28 of them. You know, I don't know who we are going to face. I heard Yu was going to pitch the first game. It doesn't really matter. They have got good pitching. They have got a good offensive lineup. They are outstanding defensive players. What we have to do is we have going out and play. We can't be intimidated by it, by their abilities. We have to play our game. You know, Ray has got to catch the ball defensively, he's got to put the ball in play offensively; Li's got to throw some strikes and keep staying away from big innings, and we'll be okay. We'll have a chance. Baseball is a funny game. Somebody steps up and pitches a good game, or you get a bloop single and get a ground ball in the hole that someone can't catch, and the game is over. We realize we respect the Japanese, but for sure, the Chinese Team is better. They are better than people think they are. We just hope we can come out here and show it. Q. This is a question for all of you. Who are the players that you are paying attention to most? RAY CHANG: Like Terry said, all 28 of them. I have not seen too much Japanese baseball. Obviously I have heard of Ichiro and Matsuzaka and Johjima, and Darvish; I heard about him recently. I'm just -- how can you not be excited to play in a tournament with names like that? I'm excited to see all of the players, and the style of baseball over here. You know, up for the challenge. CHENHAO LI: Just like the manager said, that we are paying attention to all 23 -- 28 players. For all the games, we have give it (our) all. Q. Today you are facing against Japan, and this is important for you, not only you, but also the whole team, what's the impression of the Japanese team in any comment? Any thought? TERRY COLLINS: The game is just important for us to play. Again, we have only played two exhibition games up to this point as a team, so it's important for us to have some game experience as a unit to get ready for the tournament. So these next two exhibition games, we are not caught up in the outcome, win or lose. We just need to get out and play as a team and start getting to know each other a little bit better. We brought Ray in and he has not played with some of the players here. So it's important for us to play. It's important for us to get to game speed. In order to improve in this game, you have to play it. You can practice all you want, but in order to get better, you've got to play it, so we are glad to play some games. Q. I have a question to Manager Collins. Now, what is your target goal for this WBC 2009? TERRY COLLINS: Our target goal is to win two games, to get to the next round. I don't think it's any secret we have a huge challenge, obviously, with opening up against the Japanese. You've got the South Koreans who have won the Olympics who also had a great World Baseball Classic in 2006. So it's a huge challenge for us, but our goal is to come here and win two times. If we do that, we will have accomplished a lot and we will take our chances in the next round. Q. This tournament, there's a pitching number limit, and this is a very unique tournament, and some people are talking, is this real baseball or not; but among the Japanese regular season, among the Major League Baseball games, there's no pitching limit. So any thought about the pitching limit? TERRY COLLINS: It all stems, basically, from Major League Baseball. You know, the pitchers in the United States or the Dominican Republic or even Matsuzaka; I'm sure the Boston Red Sox are extremely concerned about overuse, this early in spring training, to pitch in these games. It will make a difference, for sure. There's no question that your starting pitching is the key to any game, and to limit your starting pitching to as new pitches as we are, in this tournament, is going to make a difference; therefore, the importance of your bullpen. You can say what you want about the starting pitchers, but you look up when the game starts, they are probably only going to go three or four innings. So really, it's going to rely on your bullpen. Well, is it baseball? That's what the tournament is. We accept it. That's the way the rules are right now, and we will just proceed forward. Q. I have a question to Manager Collins. I have two questions. First question, now you took the position of the National Team; what is your first impression? And what is your impression now, how have you trained your team? And the second question, about your USA spring team, how many games you actually played? Now for this exhibition match, this exhibition game, what kind of plays do you have to make sure about your players using these exhibition games? TERRY COLLINS: Give me the first question again. Q. Yes, you took the position as the manager of the National Team. What was your first impression? TERRY COLLINS: Well, I talked to the previous manager, Jim Lefebvre, the previous coaches, to get an idea about the talent of the Chinese Team. I got a game tape of one of the Olympic Games, so I have a little bit of preparation going in with what to expect. And I found that we actually -- I felt we actually are better than what people are talking about us. We catch the baseball. Our pitchers throw strikes. They may not have the power arms that Darvish has, but they change speeds. They throw the ball over the plate. We catch the baseball. So those two parts make us pretty good. You know, we concentrated a lot on our defensive side, because I still believe pitching and defense win championships. So I was very, very impressed with the way we trained in spring training. Now, we only played two games in Florida. We were limited to the two games, basically because of the amount of pitching we had at the time, and we were concerned about overuse of our pitchers early in camp. We were only there 13 days before we played, and so we were very, very careful with our pitchers. That's why these two games are extremely important to give our pitchers some innings and give our hitters some at-bats to get ready for the tournament. Q. Question for Skipper. Now, your team, your new pitchers, what are you expecting from Mr. Chu? TERRY COLLINS: I am excited to see him pitch. I know he's been pitching in some spring training games here so he's probably ready to go. He's probably in a little bit of better shape than some of the other pitchers. I'm anxious to see him because I hear he's got an outstanding arm, and I'm looking forward to seeing some innings pitched here in the next two days. Q. I have a question to both players. Now, what are your strengths? And next question is for Mr. Chang. Now, you are the National Team member, and again, what kind of aspiration you have, and for Mr. Li, you have a lot of experience playing international games. What are the difficulties that you felt? What are the things that you feel very confident about playing an international game? RAY CHANG: First of all, what I aspire, you know, like I said before, it's an unbelievable honor to play for Team China. Obviously I'm from the United States but my parents were born here, and to represent them and the country, it's an unbelievable honor. Obviously, you know, I want our team to win. Like Terry said, we are out here to win two games. It's going to be an unbelievable challenge, obviously, but I feel like, you know, at least I have the confidence in our team to do it. I've only been with the team for a couple of week, but just being able to play and practice with these guys in games and in practice, you know, we got some talent on this team. We have got some guys here that definitely want to win, and so I'm definitely looking forward to playing these next games with my teammates. CHENHAO LI: After the game begins, that's the only place that I can show what I am capable of. About the strength and weakness of myself, I have a lot of experience. That is a strength. Of course maybe my weakness comes from too much experience, and sometimes I'm overwhelmed because I know the opponent too much. End of FastScripts |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|