SO GOOD IT’S SCARY
“Maybe there might be a league on another planet where he’s just another guy.”
—Felipe Alou, Giants manager, on outfielder/minor deity Barry Bonds (AP)
“We have a plan to pitch Bonds down… I don’t know what happened. It wasn’t supposed to be anywhere near the plate. I don’t know if it slipped out, or what. When I saw where the pitch was going, I knew where it was going (to end up).”
—Bobby Cox, Braves manager, on Bonds’ game-winning homer Thursday night off Trey Hodges (AP)
“I don’t care if I ever see Barry Bonds again, because I don’t care what anybody says, that guy is the man. He’s the best. I’m just so impressed.”
—Robert Fick, Braves infielder (AP)
“You always know the Braves can come back, but we had Barry in the back pocket… We know how good he is, and somebody upstairs is letting him enjoy something extra special. It’s unreal. I’m really happy for him.”
—Jason Schmidt, Giants pitcher (AP)
“Barry is so great you come to expect stuff like that… It’s amazing his ability to focus with all he’s been through.”
—Tim Worrell, Giants reliever (AP)
AND YOU KNOW, SPEED NEVER TAKES A DAY OFF
“I love speed, but we haven’t had much of it this year… It hasn’t been around until lately. But speed can make a lot of things happen, so speed is something I love.”
—Dusty Baker, Cubs manager (Daily Southtown)
“If we’re behind late in a game, I would rather have speed to try to score a run than power… You don’t have much of a chance to put the ball out of the ballpark when you’re facing somebody’s closer at the end of the game. But the chance of getting a base hit or bunting your way on is better.”
–Baker
“The defense can bobble a ball if you have speed. I remember talking to Willie McGee with the Cardinals a long time ago. Their whole slogan was ‘Speed kills.’ Speed makes you do things that you wouldn’t ordinarily do. Speed makes you rush throws. Speed makes you play shallow in the infield.”
–Baker
“If I’m behind in a game-unless you have Barry Bonds or Sammy Sosa up there-I would just as soon have a speed guy manufacture a run rather than count on a home run.”
–Baker, who’s spent his entire managerial career with either Barry Bonds or Sammy Sosa in the lineup
CRAZY TRAIN
“It was very interesting… I was looking around the crowd to see if anybody was actually following this, because there’s always somebody. Then I saw a kid who was singing right along, verbatim. So I talked to the kid after the game, and I said, ‘Where are you from?’ He said, ‘I should tell you where my parents are from. My mom was from the Western Milky Way, somewhere between Pluto and Neptune. And my dad is from the United States.'”
—Doug Glanville, Cubs outfielder, on the National Anthem, as sung by Ozzy Osbourne (ESPN.com)
“I asked, ‘What state?’ And he said, ‘West Southern Idaho. That’s kind of a new state.’ So we didn’t realize it at the time, but that language he was singing in was Plutonian-Neptunian-West-Southern-Idahoan. I think that explains it.”
–Glanville
“I saw it as a call of the wild… I was looking around to see if some herd of wild emu or wild water buffalo were coming to meet their master. But it never happened-because he was so off-key. But I’m sure there are probably many wild habitats where, if you played that, they would have really felt it. They’d have formed all kinds of mysterious formations, I bet. So we need to take this tape and play it in various habitats and jungles, wild-animal environments, and see how everything responds.”
–Glanville
“Or we could play it in space. Who knows-Jupiter might change colors. We might have contact with some other life form. This could turn out to be cutting edge. It could signal a sequel to ET because I do believe, somewhere in there, he was phoning home.”
–Glanville
THE REST
“I don’t know why we didn’t knock someone on their butt, I thought about it… Why I didn’t I don’t know. We let them get extended over the plate and they just kept driving balls.”
—Josh Towers, Blue Jays pitcher, on the A’s 17-run rout of the Blue Jays on Sunday (AP)
“It is kind of funny… It’s a 15 run lead, but that’s the way the rules are and I’m not complaining.”
—Mike Neu, A’s reliever, on earning a save with a 15-run lead (AP)
“Other than the grand slam and a few hits, I think I made good pitches.”
—Kelvim Escobar, Blue Jays pitcher, on his start against the A’s (AP)
“I’ve been the same guy all year. Just because it’s September and we’re one up or one back, I’m not all of a sudden going to put on a skirt and throw some pompoms out there. If guys started to see me get nervous and change what I wanted to do, I think that would be a bad sign.”
—Kevin Millwood, Phillies pitcher (South Jersey News)
Sometimes I might look smart, sometimes I look dumb. You think I’m smarter than I really am. I just want to win. When I play basketball with my kids in the driveway, I try to beat the … out of them. That’s what I am.
—Jeff Kent, Astros second baseman (Houston Chronicle)
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