Marty Lurie here on Right Off the Bat today with Eric Gagne of the Los Angeles Dodgers, now a closer in baseball. That is a rare bird, and it takes a real professional to get the job done. This year you’re the closer for the LA Dodgers. L: Eric, being a closer, when they give you the ball in the 9th inning, you’re the guy that’s gotta get those last three outs – 25, 26 and 27 – and pitchers have always told me those are the toughest outs in baseball. What’s it like mentally for you when you get the ball in the 9th inning?

G: Well, for me it’s not easy. It’s never easy to pitch. But it’s easier for me because I don’t have to make that much adjustment mentally, because I’m really an aggressive guy and I like to go down there and I like to be on the field when the game’s on the line. You say 25th, 26th, 27th out, they’re not the hardest ones, they’re just the ones that you remember the most. I think that’s the difference.

L: Yeah, when you don’t get ‘em they remember ‘em as well. Now, you haven’t had any bad 9th innings yet, but if you do, how will you approach it? Have you talked to people who have been closers before and learned about that aspect of the game?

G: Yeah, we’ve got a pretty experienced bullpen here. We’ve got Jesse Orosco, Mulholland, Quantrill, Omar Daal, all these guys, and I think it’s just such a great mix over there. There’s a lot of young guys, a lot of older guys, and you can learn so much from these guys. It’s not that they’ve been a closer, but they know when one day you do bad and the next day you gotta come back, be strong and forget about the outing the night before. And for me, I feel good about it. I feel confident I can do it. Because for me, just to go out there every day, it’s just a big plus for me just to go out there and don’t worry about it, just go out there and give it 100% and we’ll see what happens, then come back the next day.

L: Eric Gagne, our guest on Right Off the Bat. Bullpen life is always interesting. You just named some guys who’ve been in the bullpen for a number of years. They must carry on a little bit during the game.

G: Yeah, you know, it’s always interesting with the kind of bullpen we’ve got. And we’ve got a lot of guys who have been around the league for a while, so we have good stories, great stories in there. And the thing is, you can learn so much from these guys. They’ve been around the league, they’ve been around the bullpen, and every time they talk you try to listen because you can learn so much from these guys.

L: Eric Gagne, our guest on Right Off the Bat. Now, you grew up in Canada. Hockey country. How did they let you get away and become a baseball player?

G: You know, I’d never been a baseball player, I’d always been a hockey player, a hockey mentality, and I just happened to be a better baseball player than hockey player. But I always played hockey, always played baseball, you only play two months a year, but I got lucky playing baseball and now I’m here and happy to be here.

L: What position did you play in hockey?

G: Well, I was a right winger when I was younger, then I became a right defenseman when I was older, about a junior or junior Triple A. So I’ve always been bigger than everybody else, so that’s why they put me at defenseman.

L: You have the mentality on the mound, and people can look in your eyes and see it, you’re a bulldog on the mound. You come to the mound with an attitude. Is that something that you’ve developed? Is it conscious? How do you approach it?

G: The adjustment was easier for me because that’s me out there. It’s not something I’ve gotta try to do, gotta try to be, that’s the way I am right now and that’s the way I’ve always been. It’s not something that I’ve gotta learn. I’ve always been real aggressive, real intense on the mound, and from starting that was a little different for me. I had to make an adjustment. I had to be more relaxed, more calm on the mound, and that’s something I don’t really like to do. But as a starter you’ve gotta do it because you go for 7, 8 innings and as a closer or short relief you don’t have to do it.

L: So you’re made for the closer’s job.

G: I guess so. I’m made to be a reliever, I guess. I like to do anything. I love to start, I love to be in relief, I just love to pitch in baseball games. I love it when we win.

L: You grew up in the Montreal area. Who did you root for as a kid? How did you get your baseball roots?

G: I was a huge Expo fan. I’ve always been. Guys like Tim Wallach, Andre Dawson, Tim Raines, Ellis Valentine, all these guys were unbelievable. They’re idols. And when I was a third baseman on the national team, Tim Wallach was my idol.

L: So why is baseball having trouble making it in Montreal?

G: I don’t think baseball has any trouble. It’s just that the fans got tired of losing their players, I think. And then, they are hockey fans. They want to win. If they don’t win, they’re not gonna go to baseball games. In ’94 it was packed, when they were in first place, I guess. There was, like, 40,000 people at every single game. And that’s something you don’t see at any stadium, almost, right now. You go to Dodger Stadium, there’s like 40, 50 thousand people maybe once a week, twice a week. And the other nights there’s like 30,000. But in Montreal, in ’94, there was 40,000 every single game when they were in first place. And there’s a lot of baseball fans there who just got tired of what happened on the field.

L: All right. Eric Gagne, our guest on Right Off the Bat. This winter, every time we opened the paper you were going to Toronto, you were being traded back to Canada for somebody in some three-cornered deal, usually involving the Athletics as well. Did it bother you, or maybe did you want to go back to Canada?

G: No, I didn’t want to go anywhere. I’m happy to be a Dodger. I’ve always been a Dodger, so I don’t know any better. I have a lot of friends here, my family is real comfortable here. The comfort level right now…I feel good, I feel at home right now. I’m home here in LA and I want to stay here.

L: Eric Gagne, our guest on Right Off the Bat. What is your pitch now? When you’re in the closing role and you’ve got the game on the line, and you may be facing a tough hitter, a Scott Rolen or someone like that; what is your best pitch?

G: Well, I don’t really have one best pitch. I have four pitches, and I might use two or three of them in the game. Especially as a closer, it’s still different; you’ve gotta use two or three pitches because you have less pitches to make. But I think my best pitch is my fastball, and my second best pitch is my change-up. And the curve ball and slider are pretty much third pitches for me.

L: All right. Well, I say he’s made to be a closer. He looks like one. Thanks for being on Right Off the Bat.

G: Thank you. Nice to be here.