This is a very good team. Everyone has done what they needed to do to get here.

We needed to get over this slump, and we needed to do it against a good team too. Everyone's competitive in our league, but this was definitely a challenge for us. It was nice to stop our losing streak.

Rule No. 1 is you don't make the third out at third base with Mike Piazza coming up.

It stuck with me for quite a while,

When I had the opportunity to talk to people from those organizations, we were in the Asian Series [which the Marines also won]. When decision time was coming for those teams, without leaving them hanging, I was in a parade with my owner. It wasn't a situation I could actually remove myself from.

If the people making all the big decisions in baseball don't know the difference between all-star exhibition games and a competition between true champions, they shouldn't be in the decision-making process to begin with.