Like [trainer Rick Smith] said, there was a lot of old leather out there. |
Look at him. He's the first one on the field, just a total pro. From the day he got here, he didn't have a big-league attitude. I expected maybe a Barry Bonds kind of scene, with the hype and the entourage, but Vlad is all about business. He would have fit in perfectly in that clubhouse over there. |
Since then, I've dealt with it and if I have to move on, I'm ready. It'll be sad to leave the comforts of home out there, all the family and friends, the fans, the community, but from the standpoint of playing, you have to realize people move on. |
That's our race. That's our playoffs. |
The Angels basically told me there's not a job to win. The team is moving on without Tim Salmon. I understand it. I don't blame them. I look around and, yeah, I'd like to think I fit into their plans, but from their standpoint, I'm probably not the first guy they're going to plug in. |
The difference is that I'm on the back end of this (career). I've been fortunate. If I have to go home, it's not a bad thing. I try to balance it with that, too. |
The last couple years for them to be in the position they've been in winning wise, it's been tough on me being injured, ... You want to be part of that. At the same time, it's a family in here and I'm still part of it. You don't have that emotional attachment, you haven't spent that time grinding it out. It's kind of like I've been the long lost relative, kind of been out of the country for a while. |
They said they hadn't been out together this year, ... When I'm playing, we'd do that every other road trip. The guys said, 'That was awesome.' I said, 'Oh, you haven't been doing that?' The team dynamics are just different than in the past. |
We were totally in Chicago's position. We led the whole way, and for a long time, it was just assumed that we were going to play in the postseason. |
We've always been able to bounce back. |
When we were coming up, it was kind of a retooling thing and we were filling in with whatever you could fill in with. (Now) you've got a good ownership that's not only going to allow those guys to play, but they're going to bring in the pieces and make it competitive and allow them to win. |
You kept telling yourself to not look over your shoulder, but the Mariners were making so much noise. That's how Cleveland is right now. Everybody is talking about them. You've got to find a way to stop it -- whether that means taking the televisions out of the clubhouse, stopping newspaper delivery, whatever. You've got to do it. |
You run out of adjectives to describe him because he does things you've never seen before. |
You run out of adjectives to describe him because he does things you've never seen before. He is one of those guys in the game you just don't miss his at-bats. You stop whatever you are doing and just watch because he's bound to do something you've never seen. |
You've got to do what you can each day. I don't have any problem [with playing time]. It's enough to keep me going. |