I never saw a problem with it being a tie. I saw one of the best games I've ever seen.

Those two games down there definitely helped. It was good to go out there, because you have to test it in a game situation. When you get into this environment, you can't simulate the game. And if I test it here and have a setback, that kind of hurts the team as well. So I didn't want to do that. It's not 100 percent, but I didn't expect it to be.

You'll have games where you're out there a long time. Being able to go through that and not get stiff was a good thing for me. As I went along, it felt better, and on that last play [a nifty move to his right and a throw across his body for the final out in the seventh] had a lot of body torque to it, and no problems.

What was big was Kenny Lofton getting that triple to start it off. To a pitcher, that's big because he knows the tying run is 90 feet away. Then J.D. [Drew] and Jeff Kent walked and that set it up. I just threw the barrel at it and got lucky.

Back then, my idol was Bugs Bunny, because I saw a cartoon of him playing ball - you know, the one where he plays every position himself with nobody else on the field but him? Now that I think of it, Bugs is still my idol. You have to love a ballplayer like that.

God, Ted, I knew I liked you!