The effort is there. The effort is always there. Everyone is a professional. If you played against us on a Sunday in a park with our families, you're going to see effort there. That's the nature of us. None of these guys would be here in the big leagues if they didn't have that attitude every day. |
The reward is just being able to play again, ... I want to be back to play with these guys. |
The three of us just want to be back and be a part of it and hopefully help in any way possible, ... I think that's our mentality. |
Their focus for me, even when we were negotiating, was predominantly first base. Learning first base, at least it's the infield. The outfield is totally different than the infield. I knew [first base] would take a lot of work and not be easy. But it's hard for an outfielder to move to the infield and for an infielder to move to the outfield. Everything is different. It's not as easy as it sounds. |
There's a month here, ... Do we realize what our fate kind of is? You do, but at the same time, it's not respectability for ourselves but respect for the game. There's a month left in the season. If you don't get [to the playoffs], fans are still coming out there watching you, and you respect the game because they coming out to watch. |
These guys never give up, ... Guys are going out there, and they care. We're just playing pretty well right now. |
They'll always be in my heart. That's probably what I miss most are the people. I think they know I gave everything I could. I tried both on and off the field as best as I could because I appreciated them so much. |
This is definitely a place I will consider. |
Those two games down there definitely helped. It was good to go out there, because you have to test it in a game situation. When you get into this environment, you can't simulate the game. And if I test it here and have a setback, that kind of hurts the team as well. So I didn't want to do that. It's not 100 percent, but I didn't expect it to be. |
We're going to be smart, |
What happened is part of the game. I'm not going to sulk about it. I'm glad to be playing the game that I love. |
What was big was Kenny Lofton getting that triple to start it off. To a pitcher, that's big because he knows the tying run is 90 feet away. Then J.D. [Drew] and Jeff Kent walked and that set it up. I just threw the barrel at it and got lucky. |
You ever played Major League Baseball? |
You go out there and play hard and make plays. That's what this team is about. |
You'll have games where you're out there a long time. Being able to go through that and not get stiff was a good thing for me, ... As I went along, it felt better, and on that last play [a nifty move to his right and a throw across his body for the final out in the seventh] had a lot of body torque to it, and no problems. |