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WORLD BASEBALL CLASSIC POOL C: TORONTO

March 11, 2009

Derek Jeter

TORONTO, ONTARIO

Q. (Question about ball hitting him).
DEREK JETER: No, it did not hit me. The umpire said first base when it hit my bat, so I'm not going to argue with him.

Q. Did you get a sense seeing how they celebrated, there's just a lot of pride on the line?
DEREK JETER: Well, yeah, everybody wants to win these games regardless of whether this has any bearing on the second round. You know, you want to play well and you want to perform well. So that's understandable.

Q. Moving forward now, I guess 2006, would you say you guys learned a little second lesson from the second round? A lot of people expected you guys to win.
DEREK JETER: I don't think you necessary learn a lesson. I think, you know, you just understand that it's a short tournament, you know. And with the exception of tonight, where we knew both teams are going to the second round, every game is important. So you have to come out with intensity every game.
Not saying we didn't do that the first time around, we just didn't play very well. But, you know, now we have a few days off and then we get going again on Saturday.

Q. Is it a little difficult to manufacture the intensity when you guys had already qualified to go on to Miami?
DEREK JETER: It had a little bit of a different feel, you know, than the first two games, to be honest with you. But, you know, you are still trying to win. You are still trying to get your work in, you know.

Q. How was the whole experience here in Toronto with the time you guys spent here and the games you played?
DEREK JETER: It was fun. I think especially that first game when we played Canada's team, where they had 40-some thousand people there. It was a lot of fun in that atmosphere.
But we came here, and we did what we wanted to do. We wanted to advance to the second round, and now we look forward to getting down to Miami.

Q. Do you get much of a chance to kind of assess the team that you will be taking on with three days off?
DEREK JETER: No, I didn't watch any of the games. I saw the end of the Netherlands-Dominican game last night. But, you know, I'm sure we'll sit down and people will get the scouting reports.
A lot of the guys, particularly on Puerto Rico, you know, you know from playing with them or against them. And then Venezuela, we already played twice.

Q. What do you make of the fact that the Netherlands beat the Dominicans twice?
DEREK JETER: It's tough to beat any team twice. I don't think too many people gave them a chance to win, and they went out there and showed what this tournament's all about.
And there was a lot of excitement there, and everyone's pretty much trying to do their country proud and represent themselves. And, you know, they did a tremendous job.

Q. It did have a different feel. Did you get a feeling that it kind of really ramped up in the bottom of the ninth inning?
DEREK JETER: Yeah, I think probably after Chris hit that home run, I think our U.S. fans were outnumbered once again here by the Venezuelan crew that was here. But, you know, it was fun.

Q. You played a lot of games with this guy. Have you seen (indiscernible)?
DEREK JETER: No. No, he crushed that ball, man. It was only a matter of whether it was fair or foul. I can't relate to that.

Q. You get a chance to play against Bernie Saturday night. What is that going to be like?
DEREK JETER: It's going to be fun. I'm sure I'll mess with him a little bit. He worked out with us there in Tampa before we left, so it's always good to see Bernie.
There's a few guys on the Puerto Rican team that I played with or against, and, you know, you look forward to seeing them. But, you know, we're still trying to beat them.

Q. Where did you get hit?
DEREK JETER: The back. I mean, the umpire's first reaction was, he said, "It hit him. Go to first." All right. We were losing at that time (laughter).

Q. Did you need a perfect throw to get you there.
DEREK JETER: Yeah, it was a perfect throw, but I can't get thrown out in that situation, not the tying run. We tried to be aggressive. I had an idea that Jimmy's going to try to go. Actually, we and Ripken were just talking about it, and I told him, "If he's going, I'm going, too.
But, you know, that can't happen, whether it was a perfect throw or not.

Q. Did you get far enough of a lead?
DEREK JETER: I thought so, but apparently not.

Q. (No microphone).
DEREK JETER: No. I know a couple guys are sick. I was feeling real bad when I was running to second (laughter). The flu hit me halfway there.
But, no, I haven't noticed. I mean, a couple guys have been sick, but I thought we played well the first couple games.
DeRosa is in bad shape today. Don't quote me, but I think he even went home because he wasn't feeling good.
Other than that, I didn't notice it much.

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