AL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: INDIANS v YANKEES

October 7, 1998

Mike Hargrove

MIKE HARGROVE: Paul, I did not follow Travis down the line, I saw the bunt. I saw -- I saw the pitcher and Tino Martinez react late to it. And I picked Travis up as the throw was reaching the bag, looked to me like Travis reached the bag at the same time. I thought they made the right call. If I was on the other side, I might have a different opinion. But from what I saw, and again, I picked it up late, I didn't watch Travis run all the way down, it looked to me like Travis was -- he was stepping on the bag as the ball got there also and eventually you have to converge to the bag. The bag is in fair territory. That is what I saw.

MIKE HARGROVE: I, again, you know, when the ball got -- when I saw the ball roll free, I picked up our lead runner, Wilson. And followed him and tried to help him stand up, all the way. So I didn't really check. I thought we were going to have to get a wheelbarrow out there for a while but --

MIKE HARGROVE: I think both ballclubs pitched outstanding. Outstanding tonight. Our club Charles Nagy again posted up big for us in a huge situation. We came in here wanting to get at least a split and we were able to achieve that because of Charles Nagy. And then everybody that came in after that did their jobs. We asked Paul Shuey to go a little longer than we normally would tonight because of the way the game was going. He ended up pitching, I want to say in the last two days, two, two and a half, three innings, which is a lot of innings, a lot of pitches for him, but he did that. Assenmacher came in, did a tremendous job to get out as did Poole. Steve Reed came up. Everybody we asked to do the job, they came in and did their jobs and without their effort, you know, we probably were going home down two.

MIKE HARGROVE: I am not -- I am really not trying to belittle that play or the importance of that play, but honest to goodness, we don't care how we get the win, as long as it is ours. That is the important thing. I don't think that the way it is done has much to do with any feelings of euphoria or anything else. We played a good ballgame tonight. The Yankees did too. At the end we caught a break and made the most of that opportunity. That is what it is all about.

MIKE HARGROVE: When the bases were loaded?

MIKE HARGROVE: How -- I don't think it was similar at all. I thought that at that time Surhoff ran on the inside of the base line and forced the throw, forced Alomar to make a bad throw. This time honest to goodness I did not see the path Travis took to the bag, but what I saw, I do know the ball and Travis was arriving at the same time. The runner has to go to the bag and the bag happens to be in fair territory. If the throw was on the bag, logic says that the runner and the ball are going to make it very difficult for somebody to catch it. That is I thought honest I really thought that I am not just saying this because it happened for our side, I really thought that the umpires made the right call and what impressed me about it, of course, I wasn't privy to the conversation going on between Joe and the umpires, what I was -- what impressed me was the fact that they talked about it -- umpires job is to get the call right and it looked to me like they discussed it, and so they would get it right, and I thought that they got it right. I don't know that there is much more to say.