November 6, 1999 Glander Addresses the Press SALEM, NH - Mike Glander, manager of the one-round-and-out Salem Cowtippers, reluctantly emerged from his back room office in the Salem clubhouse to address the press following his team's crushing defeat at the hands of long-time rival Stamford. The following is an excerpt from that press conference: Glander: "I'm not sure why you all want to talk to me today. You're supposed to be news guys and there's nothing new to report here. It's the same tired old story it was ten years ago. Just go back and dig up your column from 1989, change the name of Teddy Higuera to Randy Johnson, Danny Jackson to Kevin Brown and Frank Viola to Rolando Arrojo and your work is done." Peter Gammons, Boston Globe: "Mr. Glander, on behalf of the entire New England region I'd like to first offer my condolences to you and your players. As a member of Red Sox Nation I have witnessed this same turn of events time and time again. I feel your pain." Glander: "Thank you, Peter." Gammons: "Now for my question. What do you think was the key to this series?" Glander: "Two words: Randy Johnson. We beat him like a dog all season but couldn't touch him in this series. I don't think he ever made it past the third inning against us during the regular season whether he was in a Blazer or a Zoots uniform. And rightly so, as our team does very well against lefties. But for reasons I will never understand, my players don't perform during the playoffs the same way they perform during the regular season. That's a well-known, documented fact. Marazita traded Jose Rosado and in return will likely get two free rides in a row to the BDBL World Series thanks to Johnson. In my mind, that makes him the GM of the Century." Mike Lupica, Daily News: "Mike, you've received some criticism for going with Dreifort in Game Two as opposed to Daal. What do you have to say about that?" Glander: "It's pretty simple, really. Zooterfield is a left-handed hitters ballpark and the Glanderdome is a right-handed hitters park. By saving Daal for Game Three, I not only minimize the chances of the Zoots' left-handers taking advantage of their home ballpark, but I also get bats like O'Leary and possibly Edmonds out of their lineup completely. Dreifort has done very well at home this season and he pitched a great game for us. Daal got his ass handed to him. I'm not sure what the controversy is all about. The decision seemed pretty clear-cut to me." Jimmy Olson, Daily Planet: "Mr. Glander, you pitched Greg Maddux THREE times in this series. Who do you think he is? Superman??" Glander: "The original plan was to pitch Maddux in Game One and if we were down 2-1 going into Game Four, I'd start him on three days rest. If not, I would have gone with Matt Morris. Unfortunately, we were down 2-1 going into Game Four, so I had to start him. In a way, we sort of lucked out when he stiffened up early in that game because that made him available for Game Five. At that point, it was sort of a no-brainer. Just as a pitcher never wants to lose a game throwing his second-best pitch, I don't ever want to lose a game throwing my second-best pitcher. If the option to use Maddux is there, I'm going to take it. Maddux got us into the playoffs; he should be the one to win it for us." Steve Lyons, Fox Sports: "You had a tie ballgame going into the eighth inning of Game Five, yet you left Maddux in the game instead of going to the pen. What gives?" Glander: "Maddux had only thrown 88 pitches going into the eighth. You have to realize that I have no experience whatsoever with using any starting pitcher two days in a row. Only Phil Geisel has experience in that area. Maddux threw only 24 pitches in Game Four, and we had a one- day break between games. He seemed to be as strong as ever going into the eighth. And like I said, if you're going to lose, you lose with your best. I have more confidence in Greg Maddux with 88 pitches under his belt than I do in Dreifort, an overworked Lowe or certainly Robb Nen." Jim Gray, NBC: "Is it true you bet on your own team to lose this series?" Glander: "I never bet on this series, but if I had, I certainly wouldn't have risked my own money on this team." Jim Gray: "So you're saying you never bet on baseball?" Glander: "Well, I wouldn't say never. I played in some roto leagues, so I guess it depends on your definition of betting." Jim Gray: "Do you want to take this opportunity to apologize to the city of Salem for betting on baseball?" Glander: "Huh? Well...uh...I just remembered that Chad Curtis told me not to talk to you. Next question." Geno Petralli, Stamford sports radio host: "How would you compare this series to the '89 series?" Glander: "Hi, Geno. It's been a long time. I wondered where you've been all this time. The '89 series was more of a Texas Rangers type of loss. This was more of a Red Sox loss. You know, they get your hopes up then crush you. I have more empathy for Red Sox fans today, that's for sure. I still don't like them, but I feel their pain. And Atlanta fans for that matter - all five of them. My '89 and '99 teams were very similar, actually. The '89 team dominated the league, scored more runs than any other team in the league and finished with the second-best ERA. Same with this team. But again, that's the regular season. In the playoffs, that '89 team scored a total of four runs in three games. This team scored a total of six runs in three games against Johnson and Arrojo. The only difference is our '89 team did not match up well at all against the Zoots pitching. This year's team should have done very well considering that Johnson can't pitch to righties and Arrojo can't pitch to lefties. We stacked the lineup with seven players with .800- plus OPS's against lefties and Johnson still beat us twice. Against Arrojo, we threw Olerud, Stevens and Magadan at him and he dominated us. Not only did we dominate the Zoots team during the regular season, but we absolutely murdered both Johnson and Arrojo all season long. That's what makes this loss a little more stunning than the one in '89." Pepe Roni, Lawrence Eagle Tribune: "If you had it to do all over again, what would you have done differently?" Glander: "As far as this playoff series goes, I don't think I would have done anything differently. I second-guess myself more than anyone else possibly could and I can honestly tell you I believe I made all the right moves at all the right times. There is not much you can do as a manager when your players fail to hit in clutch situations. Your hands are tied. It's a terrible feeling, but there's no way to avoid it. Unfortunately, in a short series random luck plays more of a role than it does over the long haul. It should be blatantly obvious by now that I don't have any luck when it comes to this ballclub. If we played 100 games against this Stamford team, I am convinced we would win at least 65 times. If this were a seven-game series, I'd like to think we would have had a very good shot at winning. Arrojo can only be so lucky so many times before that luck runs out, and Daal has to pitch better than he did. But in a five-game series anything can happen. We out-hit them, we out-pitched them, we had our best pitcher on the mound three times and we beat the tar out of their best pitcher. Yet we still lost. You can't win if you don't get the timely hits. And timely hits are based upon luck. They were lucky, we weren't. Simple as that. If I could change anything at all, I would have convinced our General Manager not to trade our future away for a shot at the World Series. It's clear to me now that no matter what team we put together we're going to lose in the post-season. We won 99 games this season and we'll be sitting at home watching Marazita manage in yet another World Series. It's a waste to trade away players like Ben Davis, Matt LeCroy, Robert Person and Roger Cedeno when we should have known all along it would all be for nothing. You trade away these long-term prospects and bargain players for immediate gain and you don't gain anything at all. That's why I don't understand the criticism our GM gets from you people." Bob Abooey, Salem Free Press: "What are our chances for next season, Skip?" Glander: "Not good, Bob, not good. This team lives and dies by its pitching and we don't have that next year. Unfortunately, I don't see another post-season invite for this team for at least another year. Which is why we put so much effort into winning this season. I know our GM will do his best to put a competitive team on the field next year because that's what the Salem fans want. But I think we might best be served by looking a little farther down the road. Thank you all for coming out. I'm done."