MLB WORLD SERIES: GIANTS v ANGELS

October 19, 2002

Jackie Autry

Chuck Finley

CHUCK FINLEY: Well, it's been great so far. Obviously, to come back here, I'm very happy that the Angels are in the World Series. I'm here with my great friend, Jackie, who when I came to the Angels, her and Gene were very generous and very honest and took me in and established a great relationship with her and Gene. It just carried on throughout the years I was here, and even when I left, it was still very connected and wonderful. I think it's great. It's great for the city. These fans have been starving for this team. We have teased them so many times from '82, '86, '95, '97. It's just great to see a team that brought them to their feet and kept them to their feet throughout the whole year. It just shows you that it can happen, and it did. By no means am I front running here or anything, I'm just saying being a part of this organization for as long I was, I think it's great they've done what they've done. They knocked off the World Champion Yankees, went through a team that was very tough in Minnesota. They definitely deserve to be here and they deserve to win. It's a great accomplishment.

CHUCK FINLEY: Obviously, I'd be lying to tell you I wasn't a little envious of the fact that I'm not playing on the first World Series championship contending team. I'm just as happy for them. Obviously, I had just as much opportunity to get here as they did. We came up a few games short. That's basically where I'm at. I am honestly happy that these guys are here, not only for the guys that were on the team when I was here, but Tim Mead and Jackie, Billy Bavasi, all the teams that we went to battle with and helped try to put this organization together. So, it's great not only for the players but for them and the city.

CHUCK FINLEY: When we got past the Diamondbacks in three games, I thought the possibility of us ending up here against the Angels, I said, "Every day it looks more and more like I'm going to end up back in Anaheim playing." I had talked to Percival quite a few days in a row to Tim Mead thinking, "I think you guys and us are going to end up playing in the World Series." I think he was hoping as much as I would. It would have been a great story book ending, probably would have given me closure of not only leaving Anaheim, but 17 years of baseball, just coming back to the place you started and loved, playing in a World Series, that just would have been terrific. The Giants played a lot better than we did in that series. But half of me continued on with the Angels. At least I get to enjoy it in that sense.

CHUCK FINLEY: We just didn't play as well as we could in that series. They came in there after beating the Braves, and then took a day off, then went right to us. Punched us and kept punching us. Then we got that game Saturday, we won that one. We had an opportunity Sunday and Monday to win. Just didn't play up to the way we were capable of playing, didn't get the breaks that we made during the season and didn't get the key hits when we needed it. I'm not saying they're a better team than we are, they just played better than we did. In those series, that's all that counts.

CHUCK FINLEY: No, I haven't.

JACKIE AUTRY: I've been thinking though (smiling).

CHUCK FINLEY: I'm just trying to enjoy my time here with Jackie and the atmosphere of this ball game tonight. This is the first World Series I've ever been to. I've watched them on TV a few times but I've never personally attended one. So this is going to be kind of weird for me.

CHUCK FINLEY: Hi, Steve, how are you?

CHUCK FINLEY: I thought it was meant to be. I don't know if it was meant to be the time I was here. I didn't know if I had the stamina or whatever to wait this thing out. It just seemed like the last couple years I was following the team, it seemed like they were building up something. I thought this year they were probably going to be as strong as they could. We were always just one or two players short when I played. We were missing some piece, I don't know if it was luck or bad luck or what. But we never really could put it together for that final month that we needed to do it. We did it that one time and came up against Randy Johnson, which was a bad draw. But I think they had a totally different thing going after I left. They went in another direction with players and style. Mike Scioscia and Bill Stoneman have done a great job of putting together a team that people call "scrappy," or not that much talent or whatever, but they do it and they get it done. Very well-respected in the league.

CHUCK FINLEY: I thought that was the norm, I said, "Wow, okay, that's good. Next year we'll just do it again, do it again." That was a 16-year-drought. I'm still not here. I got here half way, I had to drive my own truck in here and borrow a ticket from Jackie. That's how I got to the World Series. That's not quite the way I envisioned my career to go. But as a player, you're so focused on one thing. You just think that whatever happened this year, just automatically -- same team comes back next year, it's gonna happen again. It doesn't work that way. Just does not work that way. Things just don't work that way. A lot of things have to fall in place for a team like the Angels and Giants to be here. Obviously, they did. So, to answer your question, yeah, I thought I would touch the World Series three or four times in 17 years. Closest I got was sitting here, which I don't mind for now, but this is the closest I got.

CHUCK FINLEY: I don't know. I know Walt Jocketty told me he wants me to come back and play with him. I still feel like I can be very competitive and win a lot of games, do my thing. I don't know. It's been a rough year for me, so... I'm gonna see how it goes.

CHUCK FINLEY: I thought when I -- first of all, when I left the Angels, I thought I had to go to a team that was absolutely, positively going to be a strong contender for a World Series. I wasn't going to leave the team for somebody that might make a run at .500 or Wild Card. I had to go with a team that I knew was going to be there for a couple years and be in place because I didn't want to leave here. Then I knew that for me to leave, that's the only situation I would leave in. I was convinced that Cleveland was a team, because they had done it so many years, and John Hart was not going to field a bad team , that why shouldn't it be that way again? 2000, we missed it by a game. Next year, we went to the playoffs and got knocked out in the fifth game of the first round. This year, we didn't have that good of a team. I expressed my interest to Mark Shapiro that I felt if he had a chance to move me, would he consider it? He told me he would look into it. I said there's a couple teams I wouldn't really care to go to, would you focus on these five teams. He said, "Okay, I'll do whatever you want." So, ended up coming down to he had me traded to the Giants, then Cardinals, then it was the Giants, then it was the Cardinals. Ended up both playing each other. But I knew to leave Anaheim, a place that I love, I said, "It's got to go someplace where I thought I could get to the World Series quick."

CHUCK FINLEY: No, they're here. They're here. We got back in today.

CHUCK FINLEY: Yeah.

CHUCK FINLEY: Yeah.

CHUCK FINLEY: I have a few other things other than baseball to factor in as far as if I go out and play again. Do I feel as though I can go out and help a team win and do good in postseason and give them a chance to win a World Series? Sure, I do. If I didn't, I wouldn't even think about taking somebody's money and putting on a uniform and go out there and try to trick somebody. But I still feel as though I am very competitive and I can go out there and still beat teams. So I'm just going to kind of wait and see how it goes. I have every intention of going back and playing next year. Unless something else turns me away from it.

JACKIE AUTRY: Well, I'll tell you something, this has been an extraordinary experience for me. I was here for the '82 and '86 playoffs, and went through the disappointments of those two not fulfilling my husband's dream and wish, I wish he were here today. Right now, I have butterflies in my stomach not from anything that's happening here, up to and including the start of the game, it's what and how we're going to finish when this game is over with. I was that way when we clinched it, and I felt sick to my stomach for the first four innings. But I tell you something, the last five were terrific. So, I'm really looking forward to what's going to happen today on the field.

CHUCK FINLEY: I'm more convinced on if I'm going to play than where. I'm not going to the east coast, I can tell you that. I'm either staying on this side of the line or I'm going to go to St. Louis. That's just where I'm at right now in my career, so...