LIVE TO SEE ANOTHER DAY…
“We are 3-1 right now…. You never know what can happen but we’re going to keep playing the game.”
—David Ortiz, Red Sox designated hitter, after his ALCS-extending walk-off home run (ESPN.com)
“He came back to the dugout after the strikeout and he was beside himself…I told him, ‘David, don’t worry. You can’t physically get a hit every time up against pitchers that good.’ It just eats at him.”
—Doug Mientkiewicz, Red Sox infielder, on Ortiz (ESPN.com)
“Seeing him a lot definitely helps…but he still has overpowering stuff. If he’s off a little bit against us, we have a chance but the chance is pretty slim.”
—Johnny Damon, Red Sox center fielder, on Mariano Rivera
(ESPN.com)
CHA-CHING
“It was hard for me to see the way we were playing…. We weren’t playing good at all, and we were like 10 games behind in the wild-card standings.”
—Carlos Beltran, Astros center fielder, on coming to the team before the trading deadline (Los Angeles Times)
“Obviously, one can take a look at their record since they got Beltran to where they are now. It’s amazing, the turnaround they had…. He was the missing piece they were lacking.”
—Woody Williams, Cardinals starter, on Beltran (Los Angeles Times)
“I just feel like this is a dream.”
–Beltran, who tied the record for home runs in the postseason, with eight, on Sunday (Los Angeles Times)
“He’s been as good as you can be…. Take a look at [Monday] night. Now, that’s a great game, but he’s done that a couple of times.”
—Phil Garner, Astros manager, on Beltran (Los Angeles Times)
“I think now the word’s out. I think the world knows he’s one of the greatest players in the game. There isn’t anything he can’t do, including throwing the ball. We’ve seen him throw guys out from center field. You don’t see that very often in today’s game.”
–Garner
“He can play defense, he can run, he can hit, steal bases. For guys like me who haven’t seen him much until he came over here [to the National League], you really appreciate his ability.”
—Tony Womack, Cardinals second baseman (Los Angeles Times)
“I don’t know if the Yankees will be coming up to me…. Like when I see an owner that cares about winning-I like that…. He’s a guy who cares about his players, and I think every owner should do a little more to put
[together] contending teams.”
–Beltran, on Yankees owner George Steinbrenner (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)
LIGHT UP THE STOVE
“I was absolutely exhausted at the end of that season, just drained…. But I’ll never forget the next day, when [then-Indians GM] John Hart said, ‘Today is the beginning of our season,’ meaning the front office.”
—Paul DePodesta, Dodgers general manager, on the offseason (L.A. Daily News)
“This is just baseball operations in general…. Everybody’s contract runs out on Oct. 31, and I would like to have our entire baseball operations team, from scouting and player development to our major-league staff, in place by the time I go to the GM meetings. I don’t know if that’s realistic, but that’s the goal. That way, once we get to the GM meetings, we can focus totally on building our 2005 club.”
–DePodesta
MMM…BILE
“Looking back now at some of the things [Colangelo] said, I think he knew more than he was able to let me know, what was going to happen with his situation…. He assured me if a decision was strictly up to him, it was a decision not to be made.”
—Bob Brenly, former Diamondbacks manager, on his midseason removal (Arizona Republic)
“As we found out later, there were other people involved in the [firing] decision, and they had other ideas. As for some of the things said on the day I was fired, I now understand where Jerry was coming from.”
–Brenly
“You’d like to believe as the situation changed, expectations should have changed…. With the injuries and force-feeding the young kids into the lineup and the other factors that went into it, we couldn’t realistically expect to win our division with the team we were running out there on a daily basis.”
–Brenly
“And it would have been nice to have the opportunity, not necessarily to turn it around, because we saw it didn’t turn around, but at least to be able to have the organization have enough patience to allow me to fail.”
–Brenly
“People were saying I couldn’t work with kids, but the year before we had a 12-game winning streak with a bunch of kids who were fresh off the freeway…. I didn’t feel like there was any problem with the young players. I actually enjoyed working with those kids. It was fun to see them start their major league careers and see them learn on a daily basis and see them get better. There was some information or misinformation out there that kind of painted the thing differently than it was.”
–Brenly
“We won the World Series in 2001, we won the division in 2002 and of course all the injuries in 2003 with the two big guys, that killed us…. The first time there’s the least sign of adversity, I got flushed. That was a little frustrating. I would have liked the opportunity to try to do the best I could to reassemble the team and start over again.”
–Brenly
SEARCHING IN SEATTLE
“I have pinpointed certain teams that I would like to manage, and that is one of them.”
—Don Baylor, former Rockies and Cubs manager, on taking charge of the Mariners (Snohomish County Herald)
“I would talk to people, let’s put it that way…. But to be honest, they’d really have to sit down and talk turkey.”
—Whitey Herzog, former Cardinals manager, on the Mariners (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)
“If a team’s got a chance to win, I’d have to look at the whole situation. I might have to try it. It wouldn’t have to be a lifetime contract. Maybe it would have to be a day-to-day deal.”
–Herzog
“I guess I’m not in their plans…. But I don’t know. Maybe they want me to contact them, but I’m not going to do that.”
—Art Howe, former A’s and Mets manager, on the Mariners (Seattle Post-Intelligencer)
BELATED TWINS/YANKEES QUOTES
“I thought the Yankees did well…given their financial constraints.”
—Terry Mulholland, Twins pitcher, after losing to New York in four games (Minneapolis Star-Tribune)
“I only remember once this season when Juanie really gave it up. It was a game with Tampa Bay weeks ago [July 22]. And, unfortunately, again today.”
—Ron Gardenhire, Twins manager, on reliever Juan Rincon (Minneapolis Star-Tribune)
“That was his inning…. Rincon has done that all year for us-been there all year for us. It’s a little unfortunate tonight, but that kid has busted his tail for us all year.”
–Gardenhire
“I thought Juanie was going to be OK then…. We wanted him to keep pumping fastballs away to Sierra. Ruben wasn’t going to catch up with a fastball out there.”
–Gardenhire
“No one wants to be in my pants right now.”
—Juan Rincon, Twins reliever (Minneapolis Star-Tribune)
THE REST
“I don’t really believe in momentum to begin with…. We came into this series and everyone was saying Boston had momentum. We won the first two and now we have momentum. You just throw that out the window.”
—Derek Jeter, Yankees shortstop (The New York Times)
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