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DIAL ‘M’ FOR JIMY



“We have tried almost everything-except firing the manager.”

Drayton McLane, Astros owner (Houston Chronicle)



“That was just a joke…It’s absolutely not an issue. If we were
winning, he’d be a great manager. We’re not winning. We won in April,
and certainly (there was) no criticism there. Now that we’re not
winning like we’re capable of winning, everything can be
second-guessed.”

–McLane



“We certainly are looking at everything, but that is not anything I can
tell you from the bottom of my heart that is being considered. Between
Gerry and Tal and I, (firing Williams) has never been in any serious
discussions.”

–McLane



“From Sports Illustrated to the Houston Chronicle, people all over the
country have said this is one of the best teams in baseball and
possibly the best team in the National League…These are struggles
that good teams go through at times. If you look at the Florida
Marlins, they struggled at the first half of (last) season, and they
really got it right and won the World Series going away. So there is
certainly time. We still have about 100 games to play, and there is
time for this.”

–McLane



“I think sometimes decisions like that, I guess you get to a point when
you have to think about them…The overwhelming majority of times when
you make drastic changes like that, it doesn’t get the desired result.
I think that to think that you can trade somebody or fire somebody and
all of a sudden have the clubhouse wake up and spur them on to new
things or higher levels, I just don’t really put a lot of stock in that
particular argument.”

Gerry Hunsicker, Astros general manager (Houston Chronicle)

LET THE BIDDING BEGIN…



“There are four teams that we’ve identified that have the combination
of the young catcher and third baseman we’re looking for.”

Allard Baird, Royals general manager, on the prospect of
trading center-fielder Carlos Beltran (ESPN.com)



“Those are our biggest areas of need. What we’re doing is moving on to
2005. We’ll put David DeJesus in center field. Our pitching should be
coming along; Jimmy Gobble has been good, so has (Zack) Greinke, we’ll
have Runelvys Hernandez back for Opening Day (in 2005), Miguel Asencio
in May (of ’05). So we’re hoping to get a third baseman who can play
next year and a catcher who can break in with Benito Santiago. We’ll
see how it plays out with those four teams.”

–Baird

SOME THINGS NEVER CHANGE



“Boston is too racist for me. I couldn’t play there.”

Barry Bonds, Giants outfielder (Boston Globe)



“Only what guys have said…but that’s been going on ever since my dad
[Bobby] was playing baseball. I can’t play like that. That’s not for
me, brother…It ain’t changing,” he said. “It ain’t changing nowhere.”

–Bonds



“Nothing, man…I’m black. They don’t build stuff for blacks.”

–Bonds, on whether a monument would ever get built in honor of his
accomplishments



“All I want you to do when you write your story…is list all the white
athletes that they say things about, and then list the black athletes
that are talked about in a positive way.”

–Bonds



“Ted Williams will always be positive. Babe Ruth will always be
positive. They had a ceremony here at the World Series [a credit-card
sponsored “most memorable moments,” as chosen in fan balloting] and
Willie Mays wasn’t even in it. How can you not have one of the best
baseball players to walk on the planet not there?…He was downstairs
here, with me.”

–Bonds



“How can 70 home runs [the number hit by Mark McGwire, the first player
to reach that number] outdo 73? And don’t blame 9-11 for nothing, dog.
Don’t try that. You know what I mean?”

–Bonds

WHAT YOU GET IS NO TOMORROW



“I ain’t never played baseball for fame. I just play to play. I ain’t
never liked fame. I don’t need that [expletive]. I don’t need fame.
Fame is taking care of your bills, your kids, and your household and
having respect, that’s about all. That’s famous to me.”

–Bonds



“I wasn’t getting any of that stuff when I had six MVPs, five MVPs,
four MVPs, three MVPs. Why would it be any different now?”

–Bonds, on his lack of product endorsements



“Sure, we make a lot of money. So? That’s the only thing I do. If I
could do something else better, I already would have done that. This
was my skill.”

–Bonds

THE REST



“For me, I was…I don’t like a long, drawn-out 45-minute yelling
session. That doesn’t do much. But after that game, I felt some things
needed to be said, and I said them.”

Bob Melvin, Mariners manager, on his tirade after last
Thursday’s loss (Seattle Post-Intelligencer)



“I was thinking, what took him so long?”

Eddie Guardado, Mariners reliever, on Melvins’ tirade (Seattle
Post-Intelligencer)



“That’s his game…I was talking to him today, and he’s got to stay
aggressive. When he tries to back off a little bit and get a really
good pitch to hit, there’s no chance for something spectacular to
happen. If he’s aggressive, gets his front foot down on time, good
things will happen more often than not.”

Terry Crowley, Orioles hitting coach, on Miguel Tejada
(Baltimore Sun)

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