The Week in Quotes: September 23-October 12

THERE’S NO LOVE LOST…

“I’m embarrassed for what happened last night… I’m embarrassed for the
Yankees, the Red Sox, the fans, the umpires and my family.”
—Don Zimmer, Yankees bench coach, after the benches-clearing
scuffle in Game Three against the Red Sox (AP)

“Was anybody right at any point yesterday? Probably not. Was anybody wrong,
who knows?”
—Jason Varitek, Red Sox catcher (AP)

“I think when this series began everyone knew it was going to be a battle,
it was going to be emotional, a lot of intensity… I think we’ve upgraded
it from a battle to a war.”
—Grady Little, Red Sox manager (AP)

“Great theater, whatever you want to call it. I think it’s great baseball.”
—Roger Clemens, Yankees pitcher (AP)

“I think Zim is a little bit old for that.”
–Little, on Zimmer’s charge of Pedro Martinez (AP)

“I could never hit him. I would never do it… I was just trying to dodge
him and push him away, and too bad his body fell. I hope he’s fine.”
—Pedro Martinez, Red Sox pitcher, on Zimmer (AP)

“Maybe it knocked some sense into him… It’s pretty hard to grab a bowling
ball by the ears.”
—Bill Lee, former Red Sox pitcher, on Zimmer (AP)

“What amazes me is that he didn’t bounce… I would have been sure he was
full of helium.”
–Lee

“I was very proud of my team… They certainly acted like a team.”
—Joe Torre, Yankees manager (AP)

THE SCIENCE OF THINGS

“They have a pretty good team, but you got to think about the fact that
they are a team that recruited players from different teams during the
season. It’s not like this team that has been together since Day 1. There’s
no way they can beat us as united as we are. Our chemistry is totally
different than theirs. There’s no doubt they have a great team. Their
pitching speaks for itself. But it’s all about teamwork.”
—Javy Lopez, Braves catcher, on the Chicago Cubs (Chicago
Sun-Times)

“I think character is important, but you still have to score runs. You
still have to pitch and you still have to make plays… You can have all
the character you want, but if you don’t do those things you’re not going
to win.”
—Larry Bowa, Phillies manager (Philadelphia Inquirer)

“I was listening to David Justice on TV last night… and he said the key
to pinch hitting is being ready to swing early in the count. I put that
thought in my head.”
—Trot Nixon, Red Sox outfielder (AP)

WALK THIS WAY

“We’re not going to let him beat us.”
—Jack McKeon, Marlins manager, on Barry Bonds (AP)

“We’ll pitch to him if we’re way ahead… We might even pitch to him the
first time up in a 0-0 game. Might.”
–McKeon

“With people not pitching to Barry, we won it by how many games? …Fifteen
and a half. So I believe people should change their strategy-next
year.”
—Felipe Alou, Giants manager (AP)

“I believe that all teams fell into a pattern, or sort of a compromising
written rule, that they were not going to pitch to him. I know a lot of
times it hurt because the majority of the time he wound up scoring, which
is the same thing as if he hit a home run.”
–Alou

STAND PAT STEPS DOWN

“We wanted Pat to stay on board as our general manager, but we respect his
decision to step back and serve as a consultant… We are pleased he will
still be connected with the organization.”
—Howard Lincoln, Mariners CEO, on former-GM Pat Gillick (AP)

“After much thought I’ve decided to step away from my current role with the
Mariners… I’ve had four chances at the brass ring here and think maybe
it’s time for someone else to take a shot at taking this team to a higher
level.”
—Pat Gillick, former Mariners general manager (AP)

“It’s difficult year after year to watch this team never make moves to
better themselves… I have never seen an impact player come to this team
nor have I ever seen them try to go out and get one. Every year it’s ‘we
tried to make moves,’ but other teams seem to do it. It’s disappointing.”
—Jeff Nelson, former Mariners reliever (AP)

AVOIDING INFAMY

“We’re not the worst team in baseball, no matter what… We’re going to
have a better winning percentage than the Mets, and we won’t beat their
record. You’ve got to compare apples with apples, not apples with oranges,
OK? They played 160 games and we’ll play 162.”
—Carlos Pena, Tigers first baseman (AP)

“We’re not going to worry about what people say about our record… We got
it together down the stretch and played some top-notch baseball. I’m
leaving here happy. The only sad thing is we finally got rolling as a team
and now we are breaking up for the winter.”
—Dmitri Young, Tigers outfielder (AP)

“Believe it or not, I can look back on this year with a smile on my face
because of how this season ended.”
—Mike Maroth, Tigers pitcher (AP)

“Not too long ago, everybody thought we were going to break the record, but
we showed what we were made of as people and players.”
–Maroth

THE REST

“He overreacted a lot. I don’t know if he was trying to pull a Boston Red
Sox-Yankee thing… It was pretty ignorant. I’m not trying to hit him.”
—Josh Beckett, Marlins pitcher, after coming close to hitting Cubs
outfielder Sammy Sosa on Sunday (Chicago Sun-Times)

“I’m excited about where we finished… This was a team that was in
question when we began the season. Both St. Louis and Chicago spent a lot
of money in this offseason, and we’ll finish ahead of St. Louis and just
behind the Cubs.”
—Drayton McLane, Astros owner (Houston Chronicle)

“Baseball is littered with the carcasses of managers who are too intense or
too hands-on or who micromanage too much, and Grady has a real good touch
to manage over the course of 162 games.”
—Theo Epstein, Red Sox general manager, on manager Grady Little
(AP)

“Look, everyone has a history… The last thing on our minds out there was
history. We have a history. They have a history. It doesn’t make a
difference. We played hard. We never rolled up and gave up. We just came up
short and came up short again, and just couldn’t pull it out.”
—Scott Hatteberg, A’s first baseman, on losing to the Red Sox in
the ALDS (AP)