MACHO, MACHO MAN
“I like macho… But I don’t want macho lies. I want macho truth.”
—Dusty Baker, Cubs manager, on how he likes his pitchers (Chicago Sun-Times)
“A.J. (Burnett) goes down with his elbow and has to have surgery. I guess there’s nothing you could do about that.”
—Dale Torborg, former Marlins strength and conditioning coach, and son of former manager Jeff Torborg (Wrestling Observer)
“My dad is so in tune with everything and so focused that he knows what’s going on. He has been around baseball for 40 years, so he got a feeling.”
–Torborg
LEADING THE WAY
“The first thing is I’m an American… I’m proud to be a Mexican-American, but as far as being the first minority, I think most of us are immigrants from some place, and I think we always try to do our best to be Americans.”
—Arturo Moreno, new Angels owner and fourth-generation Mexican-American, stating how he wants to be viewed as an owner, not a minority owner (ESPN.com)
“It’s a learning process… I’m going to sit back and listen. I’ve been very successful by surrounding myself with good people and keeping those people in place.”
–Moreno, on how he plans to initially run the Angels
GETTING TOUGH
“I thought it was the normal soreness that you can play with. When I tried to swing, it wasn’t good… I just have to try to strengthen it. That’s all I can do. Maybe drink some milk. I don’t know.”
—Nick Johnson, Yankees 1B/DH, on the recent injury to his wrist (AP)
“I’ve got to tighten my belt and say, ‘Here it is, man. Be aggressive. Screw it. If you’re going to go down, go down being aggressive. Don’t go down being a girl.'”
—Juan Acevedo, Yankees pitcher, on his recent struggles on the mound (New York Post)
SEVENTEEN INNINGS AND TWENTY-FOUR STRIKEOUTS
“I wish we wouldn’t have done that. I’d rather it happened in regulation.”
–Baker, on the Cubs 17-inning win against the Brewers (AP)
“Who cares? It’s just a win or a loss. It doesn’t really matter about the punchouts.”
—Geoff Jenkins, Brewers outfielder, on the 17-inning loss to the Cubs (AP)
“That was two games, basically… I mean, I’m not really paying much attention to setting a record. Yeah, the strikeouts loom big, but Kerry Wood got a lot of them and they have a good bullpen… And it wasn’t like they were throwing out a bunch of hits, either.”
—Royce Clayton, Brewers shortstop (AP)
NOT GETTING IT DONE
“You don’t get those tags off potential… You earn that distinction. This game isn’t based on potential, it’s based on results. There comes a time when you’ve got to go out and get it done.”
—Lloyd McClendon, Pirates manager, on No. 1 starter Kris Benson (AP)
“When you get a couple of runs, you’ve got to go back out and go 1-2-3 in the next inning… You’ve just gotten two runs off one of the best pitchers in the league (Roy Oswalt), you can’t give those runs back.”
–McClendon, on Benson
“You’ve got your No. 1 starter against their No. 1 starter. Sometimes you’ve got to step up, execute, make your pitches. Sometimes you’ve got to win a game 2-0.”
–McClendon
“Giving up two runs there is definitely not what I wanted to do.”
—Kris Benson, Pirates pitcher, in response to McClendon (AP)
THE REST
“I’ve always been a guy who said that hitting solved all the world’s problems. When you hit, there’s no Middle East problem, there’s no crime problem, the problems all disappear.”
—Mark Grace, Diamondbacks infielder (ESPN.com)
“Slugging percentage… I don’t even know how to calculate that. That’s not important to me. I just do what I do.”
—Carl Everett, Rangers outfielder amd AL-leader in slugging percentage (Fort Worth Star-Tellegram)
“In my mind and in my body I can be an everyday player for a long time, and I know I’m not going to be an everyday player here… So hopefully they’ll trade me and let me go somewhere else where I can play every day.”
—Jose Guillen, Reds outfielder and a career .260/.305/.398 hitter before 2003 (AP)
“That’s the best at-bat I’ve ever seen, swear to God.”
—Tim Hudson, A’s pitcher, on Craig Monroe’s 13-pitch at-bat which ended in a solo home run against the A’s (AP)
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