MLB WORLD SERIES: INDIANS v MARLINS

October 19, 1997

Mike Hargrove

MIKE HARGROVE: Dennis, I think as much as anything, Omar has been aggressive at the plate, a little more anxious swinging at pitches that normally he doesn't swing and so I think that that's it as much as anything. Omar makes the pitcher get the ball down, and Omar is a very effective hitter.

MIKE HARGROVE: Yeah, I have, and I have moved him at times, there's been times this year he's hit 5th and 6th, but he's been good hitting 6th, 7th and 8th. So I almost go back to the old theory, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. And Sandy, I want to feel comfortable, I want him to feel comfortable hitting where he's at and so consequently I've left him pretty much in one of those spots all along. But, yes, I thought about moving him up.

MIKE HARGROVE: This team pays a lot more attention to the little things. I think it fundamentally is much more sound. I don't think it knows the game any better, I don't think it plays the game any harder, but I think that they realize that for this team to be successful we have to be fundamentally sound. The '95 team, while they knew the fundamentals were important, they also knew from experience that if they missed a cut off man or didn't turn a double play and allowed two runs to score, they hit a homerun and made up for it. That was the mentality of that ball club, and it's hard to change that. This ball club, while it's a good hitting ball club, it doesn't have that mentality, and they play the game very well.

MIKE HARGROVE: Taking into consideration the character and the heart and the talent of these people, it was not as -- it wasn't easy, but it wasn't an impossible task, obviously. These guys, the guys on this ball club are, as I say, good people with a lot of talent, but they also have a lot of character and a lot of heart and they enjoy playing the game of baseball and they play it very hard. And I've found you can do a lot of things with people like that. And I think that's probably the biggest reason we've been able to do this. The front office did a great job getting the guys in, and my staff and I've worked very hard at trying to get them together to where we could do this. But a lot of the credit goes to those guys, the guys on the team, the players themselves, because they're the ones that do it.

MIKE HARGROVE: You make it sound like the Middle Ages. Gosh, the fans that we get there now, there's 43,000 of them now that yell as loud as they can, before there was only 10,000 that yelled as loud as they can. That's about as basic as you can get. The feeling is night and day. I don't know exactly how to describe it other than that, it's the opposite ends of the spectrum -- to where people were at times fearful of letting other people know they liked the Indians, now people at times fall over themselves trying to get the last Indian T-shirt or baseball hat. And I first started noticing that changing in '94 when traveling around the country, we would play in other towns, you saw more people with Indian paraphernalia on it, so that was fun. There are a lot of differences as you've gone along, but our fans are just as loyal and just as loud as ever. We've just got a lot more of them now.

MIKE HARGROVE: Not very long. Kenny Lofton was and is a very good player. I think Kenny is by no stretch of the imagination toward the end of his career. He's a very special player. And Kenny was -- this spring Kenny was very good for our club, he really, really was, and a big reason why Cleveland -- we'd been able to get to where we were. But it was real obvious that Kenny was -- it was very unlikely that Kenny was going to sign back with Cleveland. John Hart made the decision, after talking to a lot of people that we would try to move Kenny if we could, and the Atlanta deal came along, and when John first mentioned that that was out there and asked me if I would do that deal, I was -- it was a very exciting prospect to tell you the truth, because not very often do you lose a player of the magnitude of Kenny and get two players back like Grissom and Justice. And those guys have been golden for us all year long by the attitude they've brought to the ball club, in the office and on the field. Those two guys are winners, and they make the people around them better.

MIKE HARGROVE: We were aware of it coming in. And I think the only time -- Eric Plunk tripped or fell on his first slip -- on his first delivery to home. And that's the only evidence we saw of it. The pitchers didn't say much about it, but it's -- it looks like a high mound, it really does.

MIKE HARGROVE: We haven't had any complaints.

MIKE HARGROVE: You know, I really -- it's hard for me to tell you that because it's not all just one or two guys, really the entire group keep each other going, they really feed off each other, but if I had to point to one or two guys, probably David Justice, Mike Jackson, Omar Vizquel, they believe in themselves and believe in each other. And they really -- they feed off each other. It's difficult to just single one or two guys out, because the whole group stays pretty much in focus and with each other.

MIKE HARGROVE: You know, I don't think -- I think we've lost six of the last seven of the series. We don't try to do it. I don't think that's any confidence to us, going into situations in that regard. But we know how far we've come against what odds this year already. And we know that we've gotten to where we've gotten by believing in each other and by believing, we stay focused and stay directed, stay concentrated on what we're doing, then we have a chance for our talent to help get us where we want to be. And that formula has worked all year long, especially in the postseason, and there's no reason to change it. And there's no reason in panicking over something that you can't control, because it's already over with. We've already lost Game 1. It doesn't work to sit and stew over Game 1 when you've got Game 2 facing you. Really the old cliche, you take it a game at a time, and this ball club has been good doing that this postseason.

MIKE HARGROVE: I don't see how. Baseball is meant to be played in warm weather -- meant to be played in warm weather. Our guys like to play in warm weather, just like anybody else does. I don't know that it's an advantage or disadvantage for anybody. The Marlins have played around the country and played in cold weather this year, also. So we just have to wait and see.

MIKE HARGROVE: Sandy -- the old saying that the teams that are strong up the middle are the teams that have a chance to win, to paraphrase it. And Sandy certainly gives us that at the catching position. This is really the first year that Sandy has been healthy. He spent a lot of time and effort this last off season in gaining strength in his legs and his upper body and I think we've seen that pay off. Because he's been stronger longer this year than he has in the past. Sandy has come up big for us all year long. I was talking to somebody this afternoon, we were talking about when Powell came in the game last night and Sandy swung at a questionable 0-2 pitch leading off from the beginning. They said would you rather have him take there, Sandy has been good all year long, it's difficult for me to second guess him in any situation, and I'm not going to start doing that, because Sandy has really been a big reason why we've gotten where we are. And he's one of the good guys. He's gone through a lot, and has still stayed with it, and I think one of the top overall catchers in the game, offensively and defensively. It would be very difficult for us to have gone anywhere without Sandy Alomar.

MIKE HARGROVE: Well, I don't know that I've seen anybody throw the ball any harder than Nolan Ryan, and I'm not sure he threw it more than a hundred miles an hour. I know Robb Nen throws the ball hard, but I don't know about 102 miles an hour. Benitez in Baltimore throws the ball as hard as I've seen, and they had him at over a hundred to answer your question, I don't put a lot of stock in it.

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