MLB ALL-STAR GAME

July 11, 2000

Bobby Cox

BOBBY COX: Yeah, we've been watching that ever since he came to the Big Leagues. And somebody in the clubhouse asked me if he was getting better. He was just good when he first came up. So, you know, that's why he's here; he's an All-Star. There's really three great shortstops right now, and he's one of them.

BOBBY COX: Yeah. They had really good nights. Chipper's home run. Galarraga's first at-bat, he lined out and singled in his second at-bat. Andruw knocked in a run, line drive. Tommy had a good night. They carried themselves well. The whole team played pretty good. The eighth inning, there's so many ground balls that got over our heads or right in the holes that blew us out of the game there, but Hoffman didn't throw bad, just kind of unlucky.

BOBBY COX: Maybe, but I don't think so. These guys are so good that are on the team. You're filling in with really excellent ball players; but, sure, some of them are recognized more than others. But I don't think it lost anything.

BOBBY COX: No. Just the normal thing. We had a meeting yesterday and told them the importance of winning, and trying to get everybody in the game at the same time, and stuff like that. The players, they really want to win. If you sat on either bench, you could tell. They're highly competitive and nobody wants to be embarrassed, and they're going to go hard and they did.

BOBBY COX: Well, I'm always excited. I don't know if one's any better than the other for me. You know, they're all good, and I thought last night was really terrific, the home run contest -- Sammy Sosa really had a good night for baseball. And the game was really -- I thought we were going to go into extra innings. I think that would have really been a great inning, tieing it up, going into extra innings. But then the eighth inning, as I said, they found a few holes and blew us out. But it was a tight ball game for the fans. I think they were interested in it.

BOBBY COX: Well, basically any of the vote-getters, if they would tell me they wanted to play nine innings, I'd let them play nine innings. But they know the importance of everybody getting in the game, and I think about three at-bats is the most anybody ever had. So Sammy had those.