MLB WORLD SERIES: INDIANS v MARLINS

October 17, 1997

Livan Hernandez

LIVAN HERNANDEZ: I know he's a great pitcher in the Major Leagues, and a pitcher that moves the ball around a lot. He's one of the best pitchers there is in baseball.

LIVAN HERNANDEZ: Well, I once threw a game where they got the first hit, a one-hitter with two outs in the 9th inning, to me that's probably the best game I've ever pitched.

LIVAN HERNANDEZ: Yes, I did speak to her.

LIVAN HERNANDEZ: No, that's all the information I have (laughter.)

LIVAN HERNANDEZ: No, I feel real good. I feel very strong physically right now.

LIVAN HERNANDEZ: I pitched against them in Spring Training, they're a team that has a lot of power, they're a team that makes a lot of contact. They got here because they're a great team in the American League.

LIVAN HERNANDEZ: Yeah, I did get to see parts of the games, I didn't get to see them all because I had things to do. But I did see parts of them. I saw they didn't hit the Orioles very well, but you can't rest on that, because that's just false confidence.

LIVAN HERNANDEZ: No, they've given me the opportunity to pitch this game and I just need to go out and do my job, do my work. And they gave me the opportunity, I'm just going to go out and try to help the team.

LIVAN HERNANDEZ: I've changed a lot. I've changed physically, I've changed my pitches, I've changed my outlook, I've changed my technique, I think I've changed a lot.

LIVAN HERNANDEZ: Last year there were a lot of things affecting me, that's one of the reasons I had a lot of problems. All those worries have been going away slowly, they haven't been as great, and that's probably why I've had a better year.

LIVAN HERNANDEZ: The preoccupations with adjusting to the American way of life, the worries about my family and how they were doing. Well, you know, the worries about the food and I ate too much and adjusting to the differences in food. I had no friends, I didn't know anyone really. It was a lot of stuff.

LIVAN HERNANDEZ: You worry a lot about it, it's your family and you left them there. And you have to worry a lot about it, it's probably the biggest decision I've ever made in my life.

LIVAN HERNANDEZ: I went to the stadium, and that's about it.

LIVAN HERNANDEZ: In Cuba I saw the '92, '93 World Series on video cassette.

LIVAN HERNANDEZ: In Cuba they don't put on the World Series. No, I never had the opportunity to see one, but now I'm getting the opportunity to not only see one but play in one.

LIVAN HERNANDEZ: Last year I saw the final game between the Yankees. It's very emotional and I saw how great it is to win.

LIVAN HERNANDEZ: It wasn't me who got it, it was friends who had family and contacts here in the United States and they were able to send it to Cuba and it got passed on to me.

LIVAN HERNANDEZ: The differences are great. The baseball in Cuba ask amateur baseball, and here we were playing the best baseball in the world. It's the best players in the world, the best batters. It's a lot more difficult here, but it's a lot more comfortable. Here it's a lot more comfortable in the methods and the way baseball players are treated. In Cuba you go to the baseball park on a bicycle in your uniform.

LIVAN HERNANDEZ: That's a question I can't really answer. I mean no one knows what's going to happen, and it's just a question I can't begin to answer.

LIVAN HERNANDEZ: The difference between playing for a team and playing for a country, here it's just a group of guys playing together for a common cause, playing for a goal, playing for a ring, playing for each other and something that years down the road you can look back at and be real happy with. In Cuba it's something that you were chosen to do, you were selected to do, and you basically just played it for roughly translated, for blind love, for something that you weren't even aware of what you were doing.

LIVAN HERNANDEZ: Yes, that is the last one and the only one.

LIVAN HERNANDEZ: Television.

LIVAN HERNANDEZ: In this country the first thing you've got to do is don't go crazy (laughter.) The things here in this country you have to work them very well; find good friends. At that time a lot of friends come up to you that know you and they want to get close to you and you don't know who they are, but they really want to get close to you at that time. And to come here and work, work hard and work at baseball as if it's the most important thing in your life, and your career is the most important thing. And to work hard, because this is the country of opportunity, like they say. Everyone comes with different qualities and qualifications in sport, but it's something you can't just say you have, you have to demonstrate them, you have to show them. And you can only do that by working.

LIVAN HERNANDEZ: My mind is still the same as when I came, I haven't changed at all. At times a person gets upset or mad, but that's the way things are.

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