I just wanted to make sure I was ready before I gave (WBC manager) Buck (Martinez) the nod. There's a pride factor. You never want to go out there and embarrass yourself. I'm going to be competing against guys half my age.

I'm sure we'll probably be an underdog. But we've been that before.

I just gave him a nod ... just acknowledged him. It's very nice.

I wish there was a bar I could send opposing teams to and get them hammered or something - I could tell my buddies in New York to leave their places open or something. Playing for the Yankees, guys come at you extremely hard. I have to be ready or I'll be embarrassed.

I wanted to be in a band that gave bang for the buck. I wanted to be in the band who didn't look like a bunch of guys who, you know, should be in a library studying for their finals.

We knew that (working in New Orleans) was going to be rough and we were all ready to buck up and do what had to be done. In all of our imagination, we had no idea (the city) was going to be such a disaster.