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WORLD BASEBALL CLASSIC: CHAMPIONSHIP ROUNDMarch 17, 2013Tony PenaJose ReyesSAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA March 17, 2013       An Interview with: TONY PENA JOSE REYES THE MODERATOR: We'll get started with the Dominican Republic. Take questions for Tony and Jose. Q. We talked about this a little bit down in Florida, but a lot people are now talking about your game with the Netherlands as a grudge match because of what they did to you last year in the first round. Can both of you address that. Is there any resentment from you guys or was it just something that happened last year that you don't have to redeem yourself from, you just want to win tomorrow? TONY PENA: You said it. What is in the past, is in the past. I think we are here to play a game. They beat us. I was no part of it. Like I told my boys, I don't even want to talk about it. I want my team to concentrate on where we are. And whatever is in the past is in the past, and there's nothing that you can do. The only thing you can do is learn from what happened in the past. And don't let it happen right now in the present. It's one thing, this is a group of men that they are concentrating on one thing, and I think that's one of the stronger points for us to be where we are today. JOSE REYES: As a player, like Tony said, what happened in the past, it's already in the past. We know we have a disappointing tournament in 2009, but this is 2013. This is a new tournament for us and we're looking forward to this game and continuing to play the way that we're playing and don't worry about what happened in the past, because this is the present and we are here now. Q. You guys have played extremely well to get to this point, and to win the whole thing, you're going to have to basically go through WBC undefeated. Have you thought about that? Do you feel any pressure at all now that you're here in the final four? Does it get easier or harder for you? TONY PENA: I don't know if it gets easier or gets harder. It's only one thing that I know, the only thing I know is that we're going to go out and we're going to play. We're going to play hard, and we're going to play the same way we have played through the tournament here. Q. (Not in English.) Have you studied the Netherlands team? There's aspects of the Asian teams. Do you have the qualities to overcome them? What do you have to watch out for with the Netherlands? TONY PENA: (Not in English.) We don't know a lot about them. They have a lot of guys, they have a great talent on that team. It's a very talented group. They have a great team. I touched bases with some of the scouts, but that's the only thing that we have. We're going to go out and we're going to go out and play, and if I can find out something, some information from anything else, I will. We will do our homework. Q. With the additions of Jurickson Profar and Andrelton Simmons, the Netherlands are really stacking up against you guys for this final round here. Have you had much of a chance to scout this team? TONY PENA: This is what I said, we didn't have too much. We're going to do some research.  We're going to see. I know everybody wants to be in the same scale that everybody else is. And when those players got hurt, you have a chance to replace those players for somebody better, and that's what they did. Somebody got hurt and they replaced somebody. We cannot think about it, what they have done roster‑wise. We have to think about what we have to do. If we have a report or not, we have to go with what we have. Our bullpen is the root of this team and it's not my role to go through my bullpen tomorrow. Q. Jose, same kind of question to you. Do you look across at the other players on the team? During the regular season you guys get tons of scouting reports. Do you focus more on your play? JOSE REYES: I think they have a better team than 2009. They have some guys with a lot of talent offense there. But we don't worry about that. We just want to continue the way that we played so far. Worry about our ballclub. We feel very comfortable when we take the field. And we want to continue to play hard, give everything on the field and try and go from there. Because we know that they got a good team. We have to come out and play the right way if we want to win. Q. For both of you, Robinson Cano. Tony, he's had a tremendous classic. He has been the MVP in both first and second round. You know him well from the Yankees. I would like to talk about him. And also, Jose, what it means for you to play side by side with such a great player? JOSE REYES: I have to feel blessed to get to play in a combination with Robinson Cano. He's a superstar, great player. He makes me better. He makes everybody around him better. It's a good preparation for me. Hopefully we can win the trophy for our country, because that's going to mean a lot for us and for the Dominican Republic. TONY PENA: Cano is one of the better, if not one of the best players in the Big Leagues. To me, he's a complete player. He's a total package. If you had to take something off, it might be the speed when he's running the bases. But if you're looking around at Robinson Cano, we're lucky. We're lucky to have player like him. He can hit, he can field, he can hit for average, he can hit for power. There's some things that he can do. Now Robinson Cano is starting to see himself like a leader. He's starting to see himself like giving direction to all the players and talking to the young players. Whenever young players make a mistake, Robinson will be talking to them and this is the way he leads us. And this one thing is going to help him and our ballclub, and the Yankees, taking leadership and taking it upon himself to help us out here. It's great. But no question that Robinson Cano is one of the best players in the game today. JOSE REYES: And he's a great person, too. Q. Supposedly Markwell will be the starter tomorrow. What do you know about him? TONY PENA: I don't even know the name. JOSE REYES: I don't know either. TONY PENA: Sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I haven't ‑‑ I am not familiar at all.  We are not familiar at all. And that's no joke. I know Andruw Jones, I know Simmons, I know Balentina, some others, but I don't know too much about him. And it's not to be rude. I'm sorry. You asked me a question. You will probably say, you should know this. But we didn't have no time or chance to check the roster yet. Our concentration is to go out and play one game at a time. We play against one team. We prepare ourselves to play that team. The next day, then we play another team and then we prepare ourself for this team. We played a game yesterday, we finished the game, and it was against Puerto Rico. We were prepared for Puerto Rico. So we flew in the whole night. We arrived. We got into bed. We got out of bed. We are in the ballpark. I mean we do not have any chance to check anybody. But we will do our homework. I promise you that. We will do our homework. Q. For Jose, about 10 years ago you played along with Kazuo Matsui who is on the Japanese team currently in this tournament. Could you talk about what kind of player he was? What kind of player he was through your eyes and how special would that be to play against your former teammate in the WBC finals. JOSE REYES: I'm looking forward to see Kazuo. We developed a great relationship there in New York, and I played for a little while with him. He's a good person. Hard worker. He always tried to get better every single day. When he went to New York, I mean you guys know, New York's a tough place to play, but he's a great human being, too. Q. I would like to know, how do you think about the other three teams that come up to this semifinal? TONY PENA: What was that question again? Q. How do you think about the other teams, Japan, Puerto Rico, and Netherlands, those who come up to this semifinals. TONY PENA: I know there's been a lot of surprises, because everybody, whenever we start the tournament, when we began the tournament, obviously everybody has a chance to win and to be in this. But it would surprise me that it's something that some came to the tournament and played so well, like Italy and Spain, they gave us a very, very tough time. And today there's four teams that maybe everybody around the globe took two teams to be the finals, probably a lot of you guys picked Dominican Republic and a lot of you guys picked Japan. I don't know if too many people picked Netherlands. I don't know if too many people picked Puerto Rico to be in the final. They have done a great job. It's surprised me that the UnitedStates is not in, surprised all of you, but that is baseball. And there's not a weak team, there's nobody that's weak. In baseball, nobody is weak. The team that you go around when you see a team and you say, Oh, we're going to go all over this guy, those guys are going to play you tough. And whenever you open your eyes, you're going to be in deep, deep, deep trouble. And that's one thing that we have concentration on and we are not a going to allow that to happen. We are very, very aware that anybody can surprise anybody. I think the four teams that they have right here, they are well deserved to be here. Q. Jose, having covered another bracket four years ago, you were there, did you guys underestimate the Dutch four years ago? What happened there? JOSE REYES: Well, you know, like I always say, in baseball, anything can happen. Any team can win. Not only the team that has the most talent wins. You have to stay together as a team with good chemistry. I think that this team now, we don't feel too over confident. I think then we had too much confidence. We took the field with too much confidence. Like I say, not always confidence wins. We had to go out there and give everything that we have, don't take it easy, because in baseball, like I said, anyone can win. THE MODERATOR: All right. Thank you very much. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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