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WORLD BASEBALL CLASSIC: ROUND ONE


March 10, 2006


Jon Deeble

Bradley Harman

Damian Moss


POOL D: ORLANDO, FLORIDA

THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Australia. Jon Deeble is the manager, starting pitcher, on the near side, Damian Moss, and also Brad Harman on the far side. In addition to these three we have Brendan Kingman and Justin Huber in the adjacent room.
So we'll start with an opening statement, coach. Perhaps you could start us and just let us know what did you tell your guys? Tournament's concluded now, what did you tell your guys, kind of closing words to the team?
COACH JON DEEBLE: We come here to gain respect and credibility. And we struggled the first game and we hadn't played a whole lot of baseball before we got here, so I thought our last two games, 2-0 and 6-4, we got the tying run to the plate in the ninth inning.
So I think we got respect and credibility, and it can only help our program in Australia. And we're young in this game of baseball, but I think our guys really took it up -- that's an All-Star lineup out there. And our guys really took it up to them. And I thought we competed very, very well.
Q. You made it quite interesting, all of you, right at the end there. What do you do with this momentum? You seemed to get better and better as the tournament progressed. Where does it go from here for baseball in Australia?
COACH JON DEEBLE: Gee, we would like to play an eight- or nine-game series. But again, we just haven't played a bit of baseball.
And so Moss was out there, he only pitched one inning since August of last year, which is tough. But we talked last night, we need to get a professional league in Australia, which we don't have. I think we got a chance to compete in this down the track. I think we showed that tonight. We got to get better offensively and you're not going to get better unless you play games. So hopefully the with the help of Major League Baseball, we'll get a league in Australia. And I think we proved tonight that we can compete with probably the best team in the world.
Q. Bradley, how would you compare the pitching that you saw from Venezuela and the pitching that you saw tonight?
BRADLEY HARMAN: I think they're both equally as tough. The last few days have probably been the best pitching that I've seen in my career. So being able to face these sort of guys, I would say they're both up there with each other.
But it was an awesome experience facing that quality of pitching. But I think that they're both equally as tough.
Q. Jon, now that you faced both teams, the Dominican Republic and Venezuela, and based on what you knew coming into the tournament of those two teams, which would you say has a better chance of winning the whole thing?
COACH JON DEEBLE: That's a tough question. As we know on any given night we saw some outstanding pitching, and pitching is probably going to win this tournament early in the season. But they're two All-Star teams, as far as I can see. I don't know if they get the chance to play each other, they might. But between them, USA, those two teams and USA, I think that it's going to be pretty tough. I don't know.
Q. John, as a past participant in the Olympic games and this tournament, what is the biggest difference after these three games?
COACH JON DEEBLE: The biggest difference from the Olympics?
Q. From Olympics and this.
COACH JON DEEBLE: The biggest difference, well, to me this is another step from the Olympics. You're out there facing Ortiz, Tejada, Pujols, these guys. We didn't see them at the Olympics. And as good as Japan was, and Cuba, this is another level. These guys are running guys back to back to back, 95 96, 97, 98 miles an hour. And this is another level from the Olympics.
You don't get the best players at the Olympics. I would love to see the best players in the world over an eight-game tournament in the Olympics. That would be fantastic to see, because there's a lot of pride out there with these countries, and you can see how much pride the people that have got in their countries, including us. And the fans here. It was awesome for us.
But I think it's tougher to win games here than it was at the Olympics.
Q. Damian, quite a stage to pitch at. Did you feel a certain amount of added pressure trying to get a big league contract, did you feel like this was an opportunity to make a name for yourself?
DAMIAN MOSS: Yeah, I definitely think that there was a little added incentive. I really don't think that it mattered that much how I did out there against a lineup like that. One through seven, they are clean-up hitters on their own teams.
So I was satisfied with what I did when I went out there today. That's the second time I faced hitters in about six months. So to go out there and face a lineup like that, you know, you want to face the best, so I was happy.
Q. This question for any of you. You lose by two with Venezuela and by two with Dominican Republic. What do you make of this last two games except the first one?
DAMIAN MOSS: I just think that the first game was, you know, these guys hadn't played in I don't know how long it was, but you kind of getting your feet wet. You got some young guys on our team versus Venezuela and Dominican Republic, where they're veterans and All Stars. And I'm sure there was a lot of nerves, and that probably played a little bit of a part as far as Italy was concerned.
But I think that the two games against Venezuela and Dominican Republic, that's, I think that's Australian baseball to a T; we're going to go, we're going to fight and we're not going to give up until the last out.
Q. Bradley, we talked yesterday and you got your first hit, one of the youngest players in the tournament, and now finishing the tournament going 3 for 7, one of the better batting averages out here. How does it feel to have this much success against talented players?
BRADLEY HARMAN: Well, it's awesome. Like coming into the tournament, I sort of told myself that this was an opportunity to see what I was going to go up against sort of in the next few years of my career. And to be able to swing the bat the way I did, it was only three hits but I felt comfortable the whole tournament up at the plate. So I'm very happy about the way I swung the bat.
THE MODERATOR: Other questions? Any closing thoughts on your experience here with the World Baseball Classic? Maybe from each of you. Then we'll wrap it up.
COACH JON DEEBLE: Again, from our point of view, I think this was great for Australian baseball. It's another step from the Olympics. We keep going back to that, but you win a silver medal there from a country that's very new in baseball in terms of what we have achieved. And so hopefully we get invited back to the next one and hopefully we can, instead of losing by two, maybe we can win by two.
But it's tough because these guys, the Pujols and Ortiz and those guys, they have got that much respect that they get calls and we need to earn that respect, too. And from playing better and playing in and getting better we're going to get that, too. So kids like Brad, and we threw some good arms out there, in four years' time these kids hopefully are all going to be in the big leagues, so we're going to be in the same situation as where these other teams are.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you all for your time.

End of FastScripts...

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