George Sherrill Los Angeles Dodgers (4/10/2005)

What’s your pitching philosophy, what got you so far?

Mainly just to come in and throw strikes. The key to pitching is strike one and as a reliever especially, just come in and throw strikes and take the umpire with you. If you got two pitches in a ballgame and if you consistently throw for strikes you’re going to do well. If you’ve got three you’re going to do even better.  It’s just coming in and throwing strikes. The big key for me is to get lefties and work on the righties. So I’d have to say the biggest is just throwing strikes.

What’s your strength right now as a pitcher?

Usually it’s the fastball but I’ve been struggling with the mechanics of the fastball a little bit earlier in the spring. So far in the season and late last season when I got called up and so far in the spring it’s been the slider. So if I can keep that going and get the fastball going then I can complement both off each other.

What would you call your out pitch?

The fastball, depending on how I get through the count it’d be a fastball, but if not it’d be a slider.

Do you pitch to your strengths or a batter’s weakness?

Kind of both if a guy can’t hit a slider at all then I’ll just keep throwing them and maybe catch him looking for the fastball every now and then. Usually it’s just to my strengths though.

Do you pitch to hitters individually or do you approach them with one basic style?

Individually, definitely individually.  Some organizations like Oakland, they take a lot, and you’ve kind of got to pitch them the same, but mainly it’s just hitter by hitter.

Everybody’s obviously good to play professional baseball, but you see guys like first round draft picks who people say have all the talent in the world but in a couple of years they get passed up by guys who people say have lesser talent?

I think the kind of guys that are first round picks have been brought up as being given everything. Guys like myself out of independent ball that have been earning stuff had to work for everything they’ve got and when we get our shot we don’t want to lose it. There are a lot of independent guys that are getting picked up these days and myself and Madritsch are two of them. We’re both pretty good stories that have had to work hard and here we are. It’s just a fact of doing everything you can do to get there and when you get your shot take advantage of it.

Do you think the first round draft picks get more chances though?

Yes, yes I do.  First round draft picks, I’d probably say the first five, five to 10 rounds, they’ve got a lot of money invested in them and they definitely favor them because they’ve got so much money invested in them that they don’t want to just give them up. They’re going to give them every shot to see if they can figure stuff out and if they don’t then they’re going to have to finally bite the bullet and let them go. But most of the time a guy first through the tenth rounds is going to figure it out eventually because they are very talented or these guys wouldn’t be spending so much money on them.  It’s just they do get a lot of chances.

Every organization every year draft more people, trade for people, all to take your spot, how do you approach that at spring training?

Well so far I’m 0-2 in springs and I haven’t done very well in either spring I’ve been in. It’s just a fact of pitching. If you’ve got something wrong you need to figure out what it is. I’m a guy that’s going to check video. I’m a guy that’s going to go out and work hard, do everything he has to do and see if I can’t pinpoint what it is I’m doing wrong, then go out and work on it. So far it’s worked and I think they think pretty highly of me now. Ever since I’ve got in the organization I’ve done pretty well. I think that I’m going to be given some opportunities to stay with this club and I just need to take advantage of them.

Was there a time in your career you wanted to quit baseball?

Never, never.

Do you read the sports pages or the scouting reports about you?

Yeah if something’s in there and you’ve got to have some reading material for the bathroom you’ll pick something up, but usually you don’t try and read any of the stuff because even home media doesn’t treat you very nice sometimes and you just don’t really need to read it. Usually if I know something’s going to be in the paper I’ll keep it for my Dad and let him or my Mom keep a scrapbook or something so I can show my kids down the road.  I think a lot of guys do read stuff but they don’t think anything of it because you guys have got a job just like we do and if we get blasted we get blasted and that’s part of your guys’ job. If we’re getting paid a lot of money and aren’t doing the job then we deserve it. I think the majority of the guys do read the stuff but I don’t really take the time.

How does the chemistry in the clubhouse affect the team?

A lot, a lot, it’s a big gig.  I mean we got a group of guys here that I’d rival against anybody and pretty much it’s been that way since I’ve been in pro ball. A bunch of guys that would do anything for each other on and off the field. You get a lot of those teams where it’s just “I’m looking to do this to get here and I’m looking to do this to stay” and all that type of stuff, and yeah there is that on every club and every AAA club. If somebody told you different they’d be lying to you.  But there is a fine line between rooting for yourself and rooting for your team and if you can do both then that’s somebody that I love to play with.

What are things about pro sports that you learned the hard way that nobody told you about?

Well I’ve come from 90 game seasons and it’s a lot longer with 140 or 162. I think we’ve got 144 now with AAA.  You might’ve heard it in passing, like 162 games or whatever but you don’t really think about it until you get there. Last year I had thrown for 16 straight months and I was beat and my shoulder just couldn’t take any more, it was just that tired. I think that’s only like the second time I’ve been through dead arm. Another thing is you can see any sport on TV and you can see that there’s not a empty seat. It’s completely different when you’re actually there and if the field’s just packed it’s completely different. It’s just awesome. It’s a great feeling that instead of five or six thousand there’s 40 thousand people to impress or to get on your back.

How do you handle the fans, people yelling, and the loudmouths screaming?

I’d say about 80 percent of the time you don’t even hear it. If you’re locked in you don’t even hear it and the other 20 percent it’s usually something pretty funny and you kind of laugh about it later, tell some of your teammates later. It’s pretty funny. Usually you don’t hear it but if I do then I try to zone in and concentrate more so I don’t hear it.

How do you handle the umpires?

I’d say kind of like we handle you guys. It’s their job and they’re not trying to go out and screw somebody over. That it’s just a part of the game. They’re going to miss their calls, we’re going to miss our spots, hitters are going to miss pitches right down the middle, it’s all part of it. It’s something that we’ve got to get through and like I said, they’re trying their hardest, we’re trying our hardest and they’re going to miss some, we’re going to miss some.

What about knockdowns, brush-backs and retaliation?

You can knock somebody down but stay away from the head. I mean if you chase somebody’s foot or if you throw one that’s somewhere inside that’s perfectly fine but you’re threatening somebody’s life because we actually are throwing a deadly weapon. I saw Jeter get hit the other day. I saw gosh, somebody else got hit in the head the other day and it’s not fun to see, and it’s not fun to do. Guys in the old days, they got into bean ball wars but they wouldn’t even go to the shoulder. They would go from the armpit and lower. If you start going knees and lower even then it’s threatening somebody’s career. So if you stay in the middle of the body that’s where all the meat is, so that’s okay. You’ve got to protect your guy that’s part of the game. If you’ve got a pitching staff that won’t protect your guys, guys don’t want to play behind you.

And every hitter knows the pitchers will throw inside ’cause it’s just a battle.

Right.  Yeah, everybody knows it’s part of the game. Everybody knows when something’s going to happen, that retaliation’s coming, and people know the exact guys who are going to do it. It’s just a fact and it’s part of the game.

Do you have any thoughts on being traded?

Every organization needs certain things and it’s kind of the same as treating you guys and the umpires with the respect that you guys treat us. You just do as much as you can. I was on the trading block last year, I think the Dodgers asked for me and the Mariners said no. It’s just a fact of what happens at any certain time. I could be with the Mariners for 40 years, or I could be gone tomorrow, you never know. I’d like to stay in this organization, it’s treated me well, given me my first chance, and I’d like to stay in this organization, play as long as I can and maybe become a pitching coach or a manager.

What would you tell a high school kid on down about professional baseball?

Whatever happens keep your head up, keep your confidence about you but don’t be cocky. Nobody likes a cocky guy being around. A quiet confidence people can tell the difference. Whatever happens you’ve got to take your lumps like you take your victories. Everything’s on an even keel.