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NL DIVISION SERIES: DIAMONDBACKS v BREWERSOctober 1, 2011Prince FielderJerry HairstonMILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN: Game One DIAMONDBACKS – 1 Q. Prince, when you homered -- when they do the first pitch to you for a strike, they showed a close-up of you on TV. You could see you mouthed the word "okay." They pitched to you. PRINCE FIELDER: I was thinking a lot of things right there. I don't know. I just talk to myself sometimes. Q. Were you surprised? PRINCE FIELDER: No. I mean he's -- Kennedy is a potential Cy Young winner, he's their guy. I wasn't surprised at all. Q. You talked about being pumped the last time. Do you feel more relaxed? PRINCE FIELDER: Not so much in the zone, I was trying to enjoy the moment. Just trying to enjoy -- it's still baseball, just more magnified, I guess. But I was just trying to enjoy the fans, the teammates, and really trying to have as much fun as possible, and not make it a job to win so hard. Just trying to enjoy it. Q. (INAUDIBLE)? PRINCE FIELDER: Yeah, I mean, yeah, it was good. It was good. And also good defense. Me and Jer, Nyj on the center. Lucroy had a big hit, too. All around good baseball. Q. Talk about having fun. This is the first time people have seen "beastmode" on a national level. PRINCE FIELDER: I think that's what they gave it. JERRY HAIRSTON: It's more like "argh." PRINCE FIELDER: For me it's, my kids like "Monsters, Inc.," they watched that growing up. "Beastmode" is too hard for me. That's fine. That's cool. They can call it what they want. Q. Jerry, did you anticipate getting to start today, and secondly, how have you prepared yourself for this incredible variety of roles you have? JERRY HAIRSTON: That's my job, I've been doing that the last five or six years of my career. I'm very comfortable playing just about anywhere. It's not easy. Willie Bloomquist is very similar. We took pride in that. Wherever our manager asked us to play we want to excel at it. Whether it's at shortstop, third or centerfield. We just want to do our job. Q. Did you anticipate getting to start today? JERRY HAIRSTON: I've been playing a lot of third inning the last week or so, I've been getting in there just about every day. I kind of anticipated. But I prepare myself every day to play. If I'm not starting, I feel like I might come in the game at some point, so just be ready to play. Q. Prince, when things are much better for the club, do you think that relaxes players around you to do their job when you guys hold up your end of the bargain, so to speak? PRINCE FIELDER: I guess. I think it relaxes us, Yo, and our starters, when they go out and pitch like that. I think that's the start of it, I think. And it just helps relax the offense on the whole. I don't necessarily think -- obviously when me and Brauny do well. But it starts with the pitching. Our pitchers have been doing excellent. So I think it starts there. Q. With 2008 being what it was in the playoffs, coming out and having a day like this, is that a relief? PRINCE FIELDER: I don't know if it's a relief. Of course I'd like to have this kind of day the first day of the playoffs. But it was more, like I said, in a way I was trying to -- in my mind, I felt like it was a one-game playoff, every game. So today I was just trying to -- like I said, enjoy it. We've got a five-game series. So just try to play good baseball. It's still baseball in the end. Q. Is that the biggest home run you've had? PRINCE FIELDER: Yeah, the one in '08 didn't matter. But this one, yeah, probably matters. So this was the biggest one all year. Q. How big do you think winning this game was? PRINCE FIELDER: Very big. I know if we lost Game 1 we would feel terrible. Not that we couldn't have came back or whatever, it's just -- I don't know, you'd rather win. It just feels better, I think. Q. Have you ever seen highlight film or are you at all familiar with the 1984 series -- PRINCE FIELDER: Yeah. JERRY HAIRSTON: I brought it up in the weight room. PRINCE FIELDER: Me and my dad used to -- he'd tell stories, my dad, and I'd be listening all the time. Yeah, I heard about it. Q. Did the similarities strike you? PRINCE FIELDER: Yeah, I mean, I guess that was the World Series, though. So same genre, I guess. JERRY HAIRSTON: He's their best pitcher. He's had 21 wins. He's already two-something. You guys act like -- this guy, he pitched a great game today. Yo pitched awesome, too. It was great. He challenged Prince, that's what it's all about. PRINCE FIELDER: That's what he's supposed to do. Q. Two-part question: Jerry, talk about what you did at the plate. But the defensive plays you made [inaudible] were huge. And P, if you can talk a little bit about the fact that Braun softened him up a little bit with his at-bats and how that set you up for what you did? JERRY HAIRSTON: I was playing really deep. Obviously he's got a lot of power. He's an unbelievable athlete, too. I knew I had to come and get it right away. He can get down the line. Really there was no thought process, just get the ball and throw it as fast as I can and make the play. Q. Prince, can you talk about that? PRINCE FIELDER: Whenever Brauny is fouling pitches off, taking tough pitches, you know, that's mentally tough on the pitcher. He's making good pitches. And Brauny gets up there and sticks his bat out and hits a line drive, right. It will mess with the pitcher. I like it because hopefully they're exhausted by the time they get to me. Q. In a game like this it's shaping up like a pitching duel, how important is it to score first? JERRY HAIRSTON: I think it's very important to score first in just about every game, especially in Game 1. We realize it's just the first game of the series, these guys are really a good team, the Diamondbacks, especially the way Yo was throwing the first couple of innings. And Ian [Kennedy] was pitching well, too. It was good to score first. Q. Prince saw this in 2008. This was your first time here. What were your impressions? JERRY HAIRSTON: Unbelievable. Our fans have been great all year. We drew over three million. And they just are really hungry for winning baseball. They were outstanding tonight, egging us on, especially when we got the bases loaded, I think it was in the 4th or 5th, when I came up. I just wanted to hit the ball hard somewhere and fortunately we got a run. Q. You know there are some fans that left this game that went to the Wisconsin game, others will be scooting to Green Bay, what do you make of this? JERRY HAIRSTON: I love these fans, but I'm from Chicago, I'm a Bears fan. I know there's a lot of Packer fans that have really been giving me grief, since last week. They're making fun of me (laughter). But, no, they love their sports. They really do. And whether it's the Packers or Badgers, they've done a great job cheering us on. Q. Prince, you take some pride in some of the little things you do, how exciting is it to dribble one down third base? PRINCE FIELDER: That's skill, you know. (Laughter.) You've got to pull off just enough to keep it back in the zone. I don't know, like I said, I just try to see the ball and hit it as hard as possible. And sometimes I get a couple. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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