REPEAT OFFENDER "As an organization, we’ve always been big supporters of Mark Quinn, but both Dee Brown and Raul Ibanez had great camps and we needed to make room. By trading for Jason Isringhausen and Frank Menechino, we now have the best bullpen in the league and a veteran utility player who can provide offense…
PITCH THROUGH THE PAIN "If you’re a young guy trying to make the ball club and you go ahead and see a doctor, that’s not a good sign. You either want to play or you don’t. —Oscar Acosta, Cubs pitching coach, on reliever Will Ohman‘s complaints of shoulder stiffness returning from his injury "I think…
Part One Part Two Part Three On my last day in Arizona, my brother and I decided to see a game in Tempe, which would let me catch a fourth game and still make my flight out of town from Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport ("The Airport With the Needlessly Long Name"). Phoenix is about…
Part One Part Two The sky in Tucson was filled with choppy clouds with dark grey undersides, an appropriate a reflection of my mood, when I walked outside to gauge what we’d need to pack for the day’s Diamondbacks-Cubs game. It was the only game in town today, the best advance tickets I could get…
Part One Last night I was in a bar in Tucson that my brother works at called the French Quarter, which is a nice place with a bunch of cool people. One guy stuck out to me. He was drinking a water at the bar, taking up two stools in turning sideways, and looking around…
Tucson is a sprawling city with wide streets built on a grid, featuring the University of Arizona. It has a crime problem and a ton of those annoying street kids who panhandle all day to buy high-end hiking shoes, skateboards, and nice second-hand clothes they can wear in hip bars as they nurse premium beers…
SUCKERS "This is not a money story. What this is is a human interest story about the character of a bunch of guys who were willing to make sacrifices." — Jerry Colangelo, Diamondbacks managing general partner, on convincing 10 players to defer portions of their salaries for the supposedly cash-poor franchise "You can talk about…
DUE DILIGENCE "Clearly some compensation is in order. This tear is categorically old." —Gord Ash, Blue Jays GM, after getting a doctor’s report on pitcher Mike Sirotka‘s torn rotator cuff and labrum "Both sides have assumed a certain amount of risk in making this trade. Ideally, both teams are satisfied by a trade. Obviously, pending…
PEOPLE SKILLS "I can’t be satisfied with coming back to the Pirates and being a bench guy, not after what I did last season. I think the Pirates have to realize that. I’m not asking the Pirates to give me anything. I feel you should earn everything you get in this game. I feel I…
Mike Neill was a key player on the United States baseball team in the 2000 Olympics, the team that defied most predictions by beating Cuba to win the gold medal. Neill led the competition in runs scored (11), walks (eight), and home runs (three), including a dramatic game-winning home run in the 10th inning to…
The Damon-Grieve-Hernandez trade "That’s part of the risk you take when you go into something like this to make us much better. This is a dimension that this team hasn’t had for the last two years. We haven’t had this type of player probably since Rickey (Henderson) was in his prime." — Billy Beane, Athletics…
PIRATES "We’ll be better than we were last year. Terry Mulholland is a proven warrior who has pitched in big games and has helped his clubs get to the playoffs and succeed. He has the ability to start and relieve, which gives our club some real flexibility." — Cam Bonifay, Pirates GM, on signing pitcher…
After Alex Rodriguez and Manny Ramirez signed megadeals at the winter meetings, there was more than the usual amount of hand-wringing about salary insanity and how fans are turned off by the amount of money changing hands. I wondered, as I always do when I watch this sort of thing between highlights of boring NBA…
ROCKY MOUNTAIN HIGH "We added a horse. His leadership in the clubhouse will be very important for us in the next eight years. It’s a tough place to pitch. We didn’t come in there and sell Mike Hampton how it was pitcher’s heaven." — Dan O’Dowd, Rockies GM, on signing starter Mike Hampton to an…
NEW HARDWARE "It hasn’t sunk in yet. I don’t have trophies up in the house. I don’t keep pictures of myself. I don’t brag about my accomplishments. This is something that is a fantasy." — Jeff Kent, Giants infielder, on winning the NL MVP "I wanted to thank [Mark McGwire] first before anybody else because…
PLAYOFF SWEEPS "I can’t tell you exactly what he said. It’s a secret we have to keep under the sheets. I guess it was a moment of truth. He wanted to shore things up and make sure I was comfortable." — Mike Cameron, Mariners outfielder "I told him the Nasdaq was down 113 points and…