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AL DIVISION SERIES: RANGERS v RAYSSeptember 29, 2011C.J. WilsonARLINGTON, TEXAS: Workout Day THE MODERATOR: Okay. If you have a question, please raise your hand. Questions for C.J. Q. When you found out, I mean, Rays are your opponent, what came to your mind? C.J. WILSON: Well, overall yesterday was just a crazy day for all of baseball. I don't remember the last time that no team knew who they were playing or where they were playing or what's going on. So I was watching our game, I was watching the Red Sox game, I was watching the Yankees game kind of all the same time. And I was just thinking this is the craziest -- that's all I could think of this is the craziest pair of games going on ever right now. So I don't really care as long as we are at home. It doesn't matter to me. Obviously I pitched against all the teams so far this year and I had some good success against Tampa, so I'm going to look to continue that. Q. First of all, C.J., back here for the second year in a row. You are a guy a few years ago they brought in off the bench, and now here you are at the top, the number one man. Has this all sunk in yet? And how was the team experience from last night coming back? C.J. WILSON: They flew me ahead, so I wasn't there for all the all the high-fives when Napoli hit the two home runs yesterday. Obviously for us to get home field is a big deal. We feel very confident, we have for a couple of years, that the organization is going in the right direction. We made a lot of transitions from top to bottom, with coaching staff, with ownership, you know, personnel. And I think we're all just really happy to be part of a winning tradition now. Doing it two years in a row after not really having done it since I had signed in 2001 out of college, you know, it feels pretty good to be part of that, and it feels really good to be a big part of that as a starting pitcher. So I'm proud of where we've come as an organization, but, also, that people are talking us up about, wow, look at all of the innings there are starters through and look at all the wins they have got. It is nice to be one of those guys. Q. You guys had to win the last six and 14-16 to get home-field advantage. We know what the Rays had to do to get into the playoffs. But going into this series, the irony that last year in the series nobody won at home. Talk about that a little bit. Does the home-field advantage really mean as much as everybody makes it seem? C.J. WILSON: Well, I think looking at it last year, Cliff and I won on the road last year, but it didn't really have anything to do with being on the road or at home. It's not like we had a particular disadvantage. Cliff is a great pitcher and I pitched a good game and I think that's why we won. If your starting pitchers go out there and give up one total run in two games, you will probably win those games. If not, you will be slapping each other around in the clubhouse a little bit. Q. C.J., is your mindset any different as you approach this year to the playoffs? Last year was kind of a Cliff-led rotation; this year it's a C.J.-led rotation. Anything different for you in your approach? C.J. WILSON: No. Every time you go out there, you try to win. You are trying to throw a shutout just like you would in the regular season, so it is the same kind of thing. The only thing is I got a lot of advice last year from people that have been there and I hadn't been there. Now that I have been there, I know what to expect. Obviously this is a little different than regular season, but other than that it's not like they have a different lineup; they are going to have the same lineups pretty much they had in the regular season against me. So knowing that, I feel like it's -- even though we found out the last minute, I have all my notes and the video and that stuff to go through and I feel prepared. Q. With your wide variety of interests off the field, how are you able to separate that and keep your focus on the game when you need to keep it on the game? C.J. WILSON: Well, during the game -- I guess that's kind of an odd question, but I understand that I am an odd guy, so it makes sense. But the reality is that everybody has stuff off the field. Some guys have families, wives, dogs, you know, businesses on the side. I have businesses on the side and hobbies that just happen to be in the creative field or whatever. So for me those things are actually a nice diversion, because if I spend too much time worrying about baseball -- it's sort of like there's like a Samurai proverb where you can oversharpen your knife and eventually it gets dull. That is kind of the case there. You have to have different interests for different purposes in your life. And you have to have different parts of your personality expressed through different stuff. Obviously I am not out there reinventing molecular biology on the field; I am throwing strikes. That's the main focus. There's not a lot of -- there's only so much baseball you can take before you kind of like -- with someone like me, I guess I can't speak for everybody, but when I'm away from the field and I don't have anything to do and I think too much about baseball, then I tend to press and it allows me to relax and enjoy the game a lot more, when I have light switches that I can turn off and on. And that way when I am at the field or I am pitching, it is all 100%, I give everything I can, and then I am absolutely spent at the end of the game and I can go home kind of satisfied that I have spent everything, if it makes sense. Q. C.J., where do you think you are as a pitcher at this point going into the playoffs last year versus before going into the playoffs last year? C.J. WILSON: Well, this year I feel like I've been a lot more consistent. Just from an innings standpoint, I was out there pretty much 6 2/3, 7, 7 1/3, for like almost every start. I had a couple of games where I went 8, a couple of games I went 5. But other than that, I feel like I learned how to settle into that routine of throwing most of the game. Which is a big adjustment obviously, because a lot of people have seen me now so I am not sneaking up on anybody with the backdoor cutter or with the slider in the dirt. It's kind of like they know it's coming. And I've been able to kind of stay ahead of the adjustments and stuff through the scouting process. And health-wise, I mean, last year I was scuffling when I had the blister problem all year and was really hoping that I'd get enough time between starts to heal up. But now I have more of a routine for that as well, so I don't think there is anything physically holding me back like there was last year. Q. You mentioned your interests off the field, and I know a lot of athletes more and more are getting involved in Twitter, and you are very active in that respect. How much -- is that an outlet for you with fans or does that get your mind off things? C.J. WILSON: It doesn't get my mind off stuff. If anything, it gets my mind on stuff. It is a news feed. Like I don't really watch a lot of TV, other than I watch Formula One racing, I watch Shark Week, and other than that -- I may watch basketball. Now that Lost is over, I have nothing to watch on TV. I don't really follow what's going on unless I get it through Twitter. I feel like I'm really busy all the time, and Twitter enables me to stay engaged with what is going on everywhere. Yesterday with the baseball stuff going on, I was able to see like, oh, who is starting today, all that stuff, what's the score. I was getting updates through the guys that tweet about that stuff. But more than anything it's helped me thicken my skin a lot. You have a lot of people on there that are like -- you are accessible as a player. If they want to drop harsh language on you or express a distaste for your team or your city step your left handedness or blue glove or whatever, they're going to do it and you have to sit there and take it and find a way to be positive about it. So I think the biggest thing is it's sort of a maturity thing where you try not to overly engage the negative fans, because there's a very big trap with that. Like I am a relatively G-rated personality off the field, so there's like only so much I can say, you know. Like I told a guy to wash his mouth out with soap yesterday, and I was very proud of myself for limiting it to that, because obviously if he was in the tunnel down here, I would say something completely different. You have to maintain the professionalism, and that is the biggest challenge I think you see with all the other sports as well. Like Herm Edwards has a thing. He's like, Re-read that three times before you send it. And I know some people do need that. I've been doing social media stuff for eight years now, so it is kind of old hat. But I think Twitter is fun. But for me it is mostly a promotional tool for my charity and for my off-the-field interests, whether it is my racing team or my friends, D.J.s or whatever, all that stuff. Q. Can you run us through last night? You said you flew back a little bit early. Were you watching the games by yourself? Were you scrolling through on iPads and TVs? What happened last night and what was your reaction to everything that was going on? C.J. WILSON: Not to brag, I have a very large TV at home. I was watching on that. And I am a second-screener. I am big on that. I like to have iPad, MLB At Bat app or I have my laptop always going, so I am doing this, doing that, you know. I went out to dinner last night and the end of all of the games were on at the same time. So the Braves game and the Tampa game and the Rangers game were all on, and they were just cycling through them on TV at the restaurant I was at. And so when Napoli hit the home run, you know, in the ninth or whatever, I pretty much lost my mind. I had a mouth full of food, so I couldn't really yell. But the people I was with, they knew I was obviously very invested in the game. But I was like, Ahhhhh. So it was great. I was really happy. It is an awesome feeling. I wish I could have been there to high-five everybody, but I got to sleep at a decent hour, and everybody got in at 4:00, so I'm not missing that jet lag at all. Q. How big is your TV? C.J. WILSON: It is a rental house, but it came furnished, so I think it is like a 70-inch. The guy actually had one in the other room that was even bigger. And I walked in and I said, You're going to leave this behind? He said, I can't fit it in my car. It is like, Obviously. It is the size of this thing. It is literally like -- this dude I am renting a house from in Dallas, he is one of those dudes that he is like -- he's like Jerry Jones. He's like, If you can get a bigger TV, you will get a bigger TV. It is the way you do it. And it is like, Look at the size of this thing. It is bigger than my arm span. Has to be 72 inches or something like that at least, 75 inches. It is very large. Q. You've become known as a really dedicated to your fitness and conditioning. Who turned you on to that? When did you realize that was a key to your success? C.J. WILSON: There are so many funny ways to answer that question. I was always someone that like took baseball seriously, even as a little kid. I was too serious. Because I wanted to be a really good baseball player. I felt if I was in really good shape or I could run faster or run farther or throw hard, whatever, it would help me. But I didn't really understand the science behind it as well because I was so consumed with playing the game itself. I wasn't really worried about periodizing my training, my nutrition, anything like that, until I had Tommy John surgery in 2003. In that year and a half I missed, I got my certification to be a personal trainer, I got a nutrition license. I got all sorts of stuff. Because like I have nothing else to do. I have to go for rehab two hours a day that I'm stuck here in Surprise, Arizona. There is nothing going on. So I have to get myself better as a baseball player somehow. It was like, Okay, if I am going to be a relief pitcher, I need more power. I need to start squatting more, doing Olympic lifting, stuff like that. Even though at the time the people that were running the strength and conditioning program said it was the worst stuff to do. I was doing football lifts and everything. As I came back from surgery, I was throwing harder. And it is like, Oh, look, getting stronger works. Look at that. As I transitioned into being a starter, I knew I had to reinvent myself again, which was more towards like health and longevity, stamina, which are totally different than max power per pitch or whatever. Two different energy systems. So I started reading more books on marathon running and endurance training and stuff like that. It is a constant thing. Now I do that cryosauna thing. I did that today; froze in my underwear. And that was cool. And maybe next year it will be something different. Everything layers on top of itself. I decreasingly -- I have less and less free time with each year because I decided to do more and more stuff to put it all together, which is okay, because I like to party. Q. C.J., you watched the game and saw them come back against the Yankees. You guys were in a similar series against the Angels, had a big lead on them and they came back on you guys. You know they are coming in here and you remember last year, so how do you keep your team focused on staying -- knowing what this team is capable of doing, C.J.? C.J. WILSON: That's the thing, obviously in the playoffs. This is not Spring Training anymore. Every run counts and every game counts. And I remember Benji Molina said something last year. He was like, If we score 1, that means they have to score 2. If you give up 1, that means we have to score 2 to get it back, to get the lead back, or whatever, if you are 0-0. Every run is really important. And a team like Tampa that has the chaos defense, where they bunt and run and do a lot of stuff, they are going to be very active. Obviously we know that. They steal bases and sometimes swing at the first pitch, sometimes they squeeze. You have to be on your guards at all times as a pitcher. I think one of things for us, we still have a little bad taste in your mouth how last year ended, losing here at home in the World Series. Obviously there was a lot of glory on the way there, but we're all looking to win the whole thing, and that's why we're here. So every day in Spring Training we talk about it and every day during the season we have been talking about it. Somebody on the team every day has had it in their mind that we're going to win this year. And that's the confidence that we have. And at the same time it is the work ethic we put into it. We feel we have the sweat equity to be confident. Q. C.J., some guys described you, and maybe I think you may have even -- C.J. WILSON: Which guys? Q. I will not reveal my sources here. C.J. WILSON: Shocker. Q. The word "perfectionist" has come up. I think on occasion you have used that word yourself. On the mound are you a perfectionist? Is it a blessing, a curse, combination? C.J. WILSON: I wouldn't say it is a curse. I wouldn't say it is a blessing. It is a choice. Everything I do is deliberate. I don't just wake up and like, You know what? I think I am going to do this today. I have everything planned out and thought out. It is about having a plan and executing it. Every once and a while you make mistakes. Obviously as the pitcher you hold the ball. You hold all the cards. It is your choice to throw what you want to throw. And it just comes down to your execution. The more mechanically like fluid you are, then the more able -- you are able to repeat your delivery and throw strikes to the exact part you want to throw. Or sometimes throw balls. That's important too. You've got to throw outside of the strike zone in order to get guys to chase or to set guys up by backing off the plate. I am never satisfied. Obviously I had a lot of good games this year and last year. And the last year we went to the World Series and people around the area were like, Whoa, this is the most amazing thing ever. And I'm like, We didn't win. And they are like, Congratulations, you made it. It is like, So? We haven't won it. We haven't won a series yet. We haven't won a game yet in the playoffs. It is a whole new year. We can't rest back on anything. We have to go out and charge through and use our experience from last year as strength, you know, and not as a comfort. There is nothing comfortable about the playoffs. You can't sit back and look at a team that won 91 games. Obviously, they are very good team. We played against them. Shields is great pitcher, David Price is great pitcher. They have good relievers and good hitters. So there is nobody that you will take lightly, you know, in the playoffs. Especially a team that played in the World Series, that's played hot against a lot of good teams at the end of the season like Tampa has. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, C.J. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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