Not unless the defense decides to let it return. |
not what I wanted to hear. I would've wanted to hear him say he was ready to do whatever the team needed him to do in this situation. |
Now you want a fight to the death, you tell me that David is not taking his best shot. Jimmy has been in that two hole. I think it's just part of how the game has been played. |
Of the multi-year, multi-money guys, once there's a center fielder, a first baseman, a third baseman and then a shortstop, all you have is a couple spots when you just can't afford to spend those numbers. That's what it comes down to. You want to talk about catcher? The system produced a catcher. It really comes down to there's not a lot of money left. That why those guys are here. That's why we didn't bring Mark back. That's why Tony left. |
On the field, it's a classic. We play the game the same way. |
On the plane ride home, you're trying to pinch yourself . . . It was kind of magical, |
One of the great things about this is that it brings attention to a great, great man in Sparky. To be honest, I've never been in a situation that hasn't been ideal for generating wins. |
One thing about him, when he struggles, he's very honest with himself. He's been working on it, working on it, and at some point, something clicks. |
One thing he always told me was that your and the coaches' major responsibility is to try to figure out what your guys do well and where they struggle and try to play one away from the other, |
One thing we were taught and do really well, I think, we don't play the umpires. We play the other side, and if they get a call you disagree with, whether they're right or wrong, you turn the page. I thought yesterday was a key miss, but what did Chris do? He went out and pitched and our defense played. If it goes wrong, it's like a bad-hopper or the wind's blowing in. |
One time in '92, we went through an important stretch without our three outfielders, and we played Randy Ready, Eric Fox and Jerry Browne and climbed into first place. But this is more guys and more time [missed]. |
One way you win a lot of games is you get a lot of guys producing. You don't just build it around four or five guys that are or are not playing. We want eight tough outs, plus our pitcher. |
Our Bonds treatment was we challenged him when they're playing. We don't like telling our players they're not good enough to get hitters out. You treat him with respect. Also, if you look at what's happening behind Beltran, there's a lot of reasons you have to pitch him tough and pitch him careful. You have some very tough outs, a lot of producers behind him. |
Our guys who are core guys just have to have solid seasons. They don't have to be superstars. Just be solid. And then the other guys can compliment them. |
Our guys work on the little game, ... He's worked hard. Any of our pitchers will tell you, the bunting side of the game has not been the easiest for Chris. He's really worked hard and laid down two perfect sacrifices. |