[The Yankees had expected a difficult night against Wells, a free spirit who used to work in the Bronx, and has reputation of thriving under duress.] We know he just lives for this type of situation, ... You have to be born with that need to compete. |
[The Yankees have 26 games left, all of them against AL East teams. Only the Red Sox, whom they play six times, are above .500.] We have confidence in our abilities, ... Now it's just up to us to play well. |
[The Yankees have been on the road for seven days and seven games, but now face a coast-to-coast trip. Maybe three, before the first round is over.] We've never been intimidated by the road, ... We're as set psychologically as we could be. |
[The Yankees were impressed with how Small stayed composed after falling behind 3-1 in the second.] This is what we know of him, and that's why we didn't hesitate to schedule him for tonight, ... But you never know until you get into a situation like this how someone is going to handle it. We couldn't have been more pleased. |
[Torre said he was frightened when he saw Sheffield on the outfield grass.] When I went out there and he was laying there, I thought it'd be worse, ... We'll see what it's like (today). When he got up, you could see he was laboring and the last thing I wanted to do was have him trot around the outfield. We have too many important games coming. |
[We realized] that in spite of all the sadness and devastation, people were looking to us for ... I wouldn't say relief, but a distraction, a support system. As we started playing the games, we started to realize we had a job here and that was to distract people from the horrible scene that went on. |
[Wright] is fine and understands. He was wondering when we would need a fifth starter, and I told him that [his being the long man for now] was as much information as I had. Our plan with the long man is to not bring him in to get out of trouble. I'm not saying he won't come into a game in the middle of an inning, but basically, he won't come in to get an important out. |
[Wright] really pitched some big innings. He hung in there. |
[You don't even know what you would call this grammatical two-step. (Fourth person? First person once removed?) But you hear coaches and player do it all the time. It's a subtle way for them to keep from owning up to what they think and letting us inside their heads. So a few weeks ago, instead of saying] I really want to kick Boston's ass ... You're looking forward to winning games. |
A batting title would be great, ... Especially with that big number of RBI, for me that's the more important category. |
A catcher and a left-handed pitcher, ... Those are the no-brainers. The rest of it, we'll figure out. |
A flag goes up after three days in a row. |
A lot of times I shake my head. I never in my wildest dreams — and I'm sure George feels the same way — could have envisioned my being here this long. |
A week from now, when the smoke clears, hopefully we'll be standing tall. |
A-Rod is pretty special, |