NL DIVISION SERIES: BRAVES v CARDINALS

October 5, 2000

Will Clark

WILL CLARK: Going from two extremes, I go from being booed in 1987 to being cheered here this year. It has been pretty special since I have been here, ever since my first at-bat. Believe it or not, it was off of Glavine, my first at-bat here this year, to where we are now, and the ovation that the fans give you and the warm reception every day, it is pretty amazing. All it does is just make you want to play harder and harder and do well for the fans.

WILL CLARK: That was pretty special. The one that I got in Wrigley, sort of broke the game open, but the one today reestablished the momentum. We had gotten down 2-0 and you know we needed to find a way to get the fans back into the game and all of a sudden you look up, with one swing of the bat, not only do we have the lead, but then the fans are back into the game, we have that momentum again, that is the one thing everybody in the dugout kept saying, each and every time we came in there, keep the pressure on, keep it going. We have been scoring runs almost every inning.

WILL CLARK: What you are seeing right now is the reason that you have 50,000 people screaming MVP, there is a reason behind that. Jimmy Edmonds has been this team's MVP all season long, he carried the load. And, what you see and hear in these first two games, he stepped it up. He really has stepped it up, not only offensively but defensively. That catch over the shoulder was incredible, not only was he running away, but the ball was hooking on him. He is our MVP. There is no doubt about it. And it is my pleasure to hit behind him in the lineup. Any time you see a gorgeous left-handed swing like that, believe me, it is a tip of the cap and just say, hey, there is a reason why you are a great player.

WILL CLARK: Hitting is hitting. When I was in the American League, I did the same thing I am doing over here in the National League. The two Playoffs I went to in the American League, the only problem was, I ran into a juggernaut called the Yankees for two years. You have to tip your cap to them. Listen, when it crosses that little white dish, you have to let it fly and hack at it, that is what I have been doing my whole career.

WILL CLARK: Tom Glavine battles you every time out there. He changes speeds all the time; that is one of the reasons why he won 21 games, he never gives you the same thing twice. I fouled off some off-speed pitches earlier, I battled as much as I could to get back to 3-2, I got 3-2, and he wound up throwing another off-speed pitch up there and I got a hold of it.

WILL CLARK: You know, Mark is the heart and soul of this organization, not this team, but this organization. And for him to be sort of relegated to the role that he is relegated to, I think he has accepted it. It is very special for him to be able to go out there and in one at-bat participate in the game and contribute to the team. All that does is just give him more confidence, it gives the team more confidence to know that, hey, he is on the bench, and he can go up there and in one swing of the bat put a run up on the board.

WILL CLARK: We have taken these first two games, the old cliche, one day at a time, and it has worked. When we had our hitters meeting, the first day here, we talked about Maddux; when we had our off day workout yesterday, we talked about Glavine. So, we will go into Atlanta tonight, we will have a workout tomorrow and talk about Millwood; that is exactly why this team is 2-0 right now, is because they are very, very good at separating what they need to do.

WILL CLARK: You do not want to do that. But, knowing that if something does happen and we do come back here, knowing that we have 50,000 screaming Cardinal fans, that is definitely a positive. So, what we will do, like I said, we will take our off day tomorrow, have a workout and we will come out on Saturday and give it all we can, just like we have the last two ball games here.