AL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: INDIANS v YANKEES

October 11, 1998

Mike Hargrove

MIKE HARGROVE: Sandy left the game last night because his back tightened up, it's been bothering him now for the last four, five days. It worsened during the night. Starting behind the plate. It has nothing to do wit aggressiveness of the Yankees on the bases, it has everything to do with the fact that Sandy is physically unable to start the game. He can catch if we need him, but not in a starting capacity.

MIKE HARGROVE: No. Just sat and talked to them. It was nothing unusual. I do that occasionally. If you need a pep talk this late in the season and in the postseason, when you have a chance to go to the World Series, then you've got a problem with your ball club. It was just a little get together.

MIKE HARGROVE: Well, they're both young kids. Key words being young and kids. They play the game hard, they're smart. Real talent. That eliminates any sort of fear you might have in not playing them and I think very fortunate to have these guys in plays to pick up the slack, which is what they've done. So they're good kids, they're a lot farther along at this time of year than they were last time and last year at this time. And they figure, playing is in their future.

MIKE HARGROVE: You can't. We've got a number of guys that have grudgingly volunteered.

MIKE HARGROVE: The guys we have available are Fryman, Branson, Sexon. None of them very attractive. But do the best job they can -- I don't think it will come to that, but we'll wait and see. As far as Sandy, availability in Game 6 and/or Game 7, I talked to our trainers and we feel pretty good about the chances of him being ready to play on Tuesday, given the day off.

MIKE HARGROVE: It's a classical case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Gosh, I don't know. It's -- no, he shouldn't get hit like that, no.

MIKE HARGROVE: No. That's -- it stares you in the face and if you're choosing the word guys like you bringing it up and beating you over the head with it, so there's no way to ignore it. It's just part of the process. It's part -- there's no more pressure in that regard than there is when you start the whole thing. And I don't mean to make light of that, it's just part of it. I think that the only -- some of the ways I know I deal with it -- a lot of the people at home sitting right now wishing they had the pressure to go back and do that. Some sort of perverse way you kind of go back and welcome that.