MLB WORLD SERIES: METS v YANKEES

October 24, 2000

Bobby Jones

Jay Payton

JAY PAYTON: I mean, I think we still lost the game from that point of view. But on the same note, for me personally, if you go in there and you do a little something with your swing or you have a little -- like for me, I've been struggling with my swing for a lot of the post-season, just battling to hit. But I think I kind of figured something out. Hopefully, I can carry that over into the game. As far as momentum or anything, I don't feel it has anything to do with momentum. If each individual can take something out and bring it into this game, I think it can help from that standpoint.

JAY PAYTON: I could care less, to be honest with you.

BOBBY JONES: I don't even know what it is.

BOBBY JONES: Tell you the truth, I really don't even want to talk about it. I have probably one of the most important games of my life to worry about right now, and I'm worried about the guys I'll be facing tomorrow.

JAY PAYTON: A must-win, to me, yeah, we want to win this game. And to get back in this thing and be where we need to be, we have to win it. A must-win is when you're facing elimination. In a sense, this is a game we really want to win to get back in this.

BOBBY JONES: Yeah, I totally agree. I think that obviously 2-1 is a lot better than 3-0, and then if it is -- if people consider it a must-win situation, I think you go in with the attitude that, yeah, this is a very important game. I mean, this is an important series. We don't want to get down 3-0. If we do, we have to be able to put it behind us and worry about the game that we're playing on that given day. And that's what we're doing today.

BOBBY JONES: Well, I think I'm a little more consistent than my first game at Yankee Stadium. Obviously, it was in the middle of all my struggles. It wasn't a real good time for me. That was my last start before being sent down. But I think I came back and I pitched a little bit better the second time here against the Yankees. I felt more comfortable. I think I made better pitches. But I still, I think, gave up three runs or something. You have to make great pitches throughout their at-bats because they're very patient. They don't swing at your pitches right off the bat. They're waiting for a good pitch to hit, and that's why you have to make sure that every pitch is a good pitch.

BOBBY JONES: Well, I've always put my previous starts behind me, regardless if they're good or bad. I think there was some difference, obviously, with the way I pitched. I think in the St. Louis game when I got hit in situations where it hurt me were pitches that were up, pitches that had a little more plate than I wanted them to. And sometimes you get away with those pitches; sometimes you don't. It wasn't like it was a drastic change in how I pitched. It was a matter of -- a little bit elevated, a little bit over the plate. And this game is a matter of inches. It can make a lot of difference in how far the ball travels.

JAY PAYTON: Not at all. I mean, me and Timo, the errors we made, we're aggressive outfielders. If you're aggressive, you're going to make errors. You can be passive, let the ball come to you. My ball particularly, I was trying to be aggressive, keep the guy going from first to third. It came out of my glove. When I went to throw it in, by the time I saw Posada going to second, it was kind of just a throwing-it-anywhere type of thing because I didn't have enough time to grab the ball and make a good throw to second. Like I said, when you're an outfielder, if you're aggressive, you can make errors. You can be passive, try to make plays, field everything, at the end of the season not have any errors. But me and Timo are aggressive. When you do that, you're going to make errors. You want to make sure they're not at a point where they're going to cost you a ball game.

BOBBY JONES: Correct.

BOBBY JONES: Well, I think every one of our dreams, when we decided to play this game, is to play a World Series and win a World Championship. Just being here through the tough times and the tough years -- you know, when I was first coming up in that early to mid '90s when the team struggled a lot, it got to a point where in the season where you're so far out of it you knew you had no chance to play in the post-season. It was disappointing because we want to play in the post-season. To finally get that chance, it's a dream come true for me. It's something that I sit there, the last couple of games in Yankee Stadium, and just thought about my dream is going to come true on Wednesday when I get the chance to go out there and pitch in my first World Series. It's something that I'll remember forever. It's, like I said, probably the most important game that I have pitched and may ever pitch. So I'm excited about it, and I think my nervous day is probably today, preparing, because we're not as familiar with the Yankees as we are a lot of other teams, because you don't face them as quite often. But once you step out on that field, all that is put behind you and blocked out, and you worry about who that hitter is stepping in the box and how you want to get them out.

JAY PAYTON: There's really no magic formula for playing better at home. I don't have an answer myself. I think myself, personally, I think I play better on the road. But I wish I had an answer to that. The fact of the matter is we are back home. And even though we're down 0-2, we still feel good. The guys are very loose, joking around in the clubhouse. We feel good. We're at home where we do play well. If we can play the way we did during the regular season at home, we can get right back in this thing.

JAY PAYTON: You obviously don't watch me hit because I don't take any pitches. But you try to. You like to see -- I mean, especially early in the game you want to know if the guy's comfortable throwing all his pitches, if he's able to throw over the plate. If he is, you see that he's going to be comfortable throwing all of his pitches over the plate, and he's around the plate. Then maybe later in the game, you're going to be more aggressive. We just want to go out, try to get a hit early and take it from there.