MLB ALL-STAR GAME

July 7, 1998

Mike Hargrove

MODERATOR: The team was aggressive from the start. Was that a big key for you guys?

MIKE HARGROVE: Yeah. We went into that with that in mind, that we would be as aggressive as we could be if we could get people on base. Felt that if we could get our guys like Alomar and Lofton on base early, put some pressure, steal some bases, get into position to score early, maybe we might have a better chance of carrying it on through.

MODERATOR: Talk a little about Bartolo Colon, Mark went out there.

MIKE HARGROVE: It really was just to calm him down. It was obviously his first appearance in anything of this magnitude. He was understandably nervous, as everybody was. And Mark went out there to just calm him down a little bit.

MIKE HARGROVE: Well, I was in Colorado Springs in 1989. I'd forgotten -- one thing I'd forgotten how deep the outfielders play to make up for the way the ball carries. A lot of balls that are hit softly fall in that normally wouldn't. I'd forgotten that. Yeah, it played pretty much as I expected that it would. The one ball that didn't go out that I thought probably was out when he hit it was Galarraga's when he hit the first pitch, I don't remember who was pitching for us, Arrojo. I thought that ball when he first hit it was out. That's the only ball that surprised me that didn't go further.

MODERATOR: As an American League Manager, you played the NL game really well, with the substitutions, getting every player in. How important was that, how much was it on your mind?

MIKE HARGROVE: Well, I think that you come in with two thoughts in mind. Number one, that you want to win. Number two, you want to get everybody in the game that you possibly can. These people are the best at what they do. They don't come here, you don't bring them here to have them sit. But you go in understanding that there's going to be somebody that's probably not going to get to play. Playing, having the last couple years of experience with the interleague play has helped. We were able to stay up with what we needed to stay up with the guys in the game as it allows.

MODERATOR: You know a lot about the Alomar family. Having Sandy do what he did last year, Robbie doing what he did this year.

MIKE HARGROVE: I played with their father. I've been fortunate to watch both these boys, young men play. They're a very talented duo. I don't think that anything that any of them do should surprise us because they are very good at what they do.

MODERATOR: Last question.

MIKE HARGROVE: Well, I'm happy for Bartolo. Kind of a double-edged sword. He had to give up a three run home run to get the win. A bit of a double-edged sword. I think -- I'm as happy as anything that after he came up with the three run home run to Bonds, he gathered himself, came back and pitched very well, and stopped it right there, and we were able to go ahead and take the lead from there.

MODERATOR: Last question.

MIKE HARGROVE: I felt that probably Ray Durham as our back up, him and Brosius, were kind of the more versatile people that we had in the ballgame. I wanted to keep Ray out as long as I could in case somebody got hurt. Having Robbie Alomar in a ballgame for a long time doesn't hurt an effort, a winning effort. That was the reason.

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