The anticipation and the atmosphere of the game was unbelievable. We worked a little bit harder at practice last week and we have some heavy hitters who came through.

What's good is to see how a team responds to a challenge. We'd just given up the lead, and they turned around right away and put it behind them. I always preach that, and I'll remind them again when I talk to them [today] how important that was.

We like [Holden] on our team, too. We just have to keep him on track. The two games we lost in the playoffs the past two years were the two games he was supposed to pitch but couldn't because he was sick.

We played real physical with a lot of intensity. We left practice bleeding a lot. If there was a loose ball on the floor, we went after it. And if a ball went up in the stands, we went after it up there. There was just the attitude that we practiced with the attitude that we played with.

When Well Mara stood to speak at a league meeting, the room would become silent with anticipation because all of us knew we were going to hear profound insights born of eight decades of league experience.

This is the worst part of the year, ... The anticipation, the monotony of working out, going against the same guys over and over. You don't really get to play football. You get anxious for a real game.