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I’M SORRY FOR ALL THE LIES I TOLD YOU, I’M SORRY FOR THE THINGS I DIDN’T SAY


“I can’t get into specifics. Someday, hopefully, I’ll be able to.”


Jason Giambi, after apologizing, but not specifying for what (New York Daily News)


“I’m sorry I can’t be more candid with you guys about these things. I know the fans might want more.”


–Giambi


“If it were up to Jason, he’d tell you everything.”


–Giambi’s agent Arn Tellem, on Giambi’s evasiveness


“I think it’s kind of sad that Jose is that desperate, I think, to make a dime.”


–Giambi, on Jose Canseco’s allegations


“I’m not a bad person. I’m a man…and that’s why I’m sitting here today.”


–Giambi


“You used to think of Giambi as a middle-of-the-order, a No. 3 or No. 4 guy. But since then, you got A-Rod, Sheffield, Matsui. That certainly makes it more complicated. Right now, I don’t know where he fits in our lineup.”


–Yankees manager Joe Torre (New York Newsday)


“The one thing we don’t want him to show right now is ‘I can hit home runs.’ That takes away from the hitter he is. The approach he has to take is go back to basics and hit line drives. We’re not concerned with home runs. I cautioned him.”


–Torre

HE DOESN’T LIKE YOU


“If you look at his track record and what he has done the last five or six years, you shouldn’t be surprised he’d do this type of thing.”


–Jose Canseco’s former teammate Terry Steinbach, commenting on Canseco’s steroid allegations (Contra Costa Times)


“I never saw syringes. I never saw guys shooting up. I was lifting like all our team was. If you assume what Jose says is true, there must have been syringes and bottles all over. I never saw it. I don’t know where Jose is coming from.”


–Steinbach


“Doesn’t he have any respect for his teammates, for the game, respect for anybody? He’s defaming the game. Wasn’t there anybody in baseball who made a difference in his life?”


–Steinbach


“Mark wasn’t one of those guys who all of a sudden one offseason got so big you couldn’t recognize him, like they say about steroid users. He was in the gym regularly. Jose? No, at least not in the gym at the Coliseum or the gyms set up for us on the road. [After 1988], all of a sudden, he didn’t do the extra work in the outfield, and it showed. It frustrated us as teammates. It was frustrating that 24 guys marched to the same beat and Jose didn’t.”


–Steinbach (San Francisco Chronicle)


“I’ve seen [McGwire’s] workouts and I’ve seen what he went through. I shake my head at Jose taking a personal thing and…making excuses for himself by demeaning someone else. It reminds me of when he was trying to come back with Montreal and he got cut. He claimed baseball was trying to blackball him. This was a time when baseball was looking for players all over the place, and they’re blackballing Jose?”


–Canseco’s former manager Tony La Russa (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)


“The biggest key for McGwire is that all of his strength and size gains came from five or six days a week of hitting the gym with a very disciplined workout, his protein intake and careful dieting. He was probably in the gym 10 times more than Jose, and Jose was bigger.”


–La Russa


“The more sensational the actions, obviously the better chance he has to recover some of his money. My guess is that he’s in dire straits for finances. And it’s almost a human condition that he’s probably jealous as hell of Mark–that Mark’s kept his life together instead of what Jose did to himself. I think it’s a matter of needing money and being jealous.”


–La Russa

I DON’T LIKE YOU, EITHER


“Jose Canseco is an embarrassment to baseball and an embarrassment to his family. He’s become nothing more than a caricature, and he’s just giving a better example of it by bringing the President into this and by trying to expose well-respected players who don’t deserve this.”


–Texas Rangers color analyst Tom Grieve, on Canseco’s steroid allegations (Fort-Worth Star Telegram)


“You’ve got a guy who has squandered a fortune, his personal life is an embarrassment and he probably has no way to earn an honest living. He’s a joke.”


–Grieve


“I might have had some suspicions about [him] based on his background. He was a lower-level draft pick out of high school. In retrospect, I’m convinced he would have been nothing more than a marginal utility outfielder if he had not used steroids.”


–Grieve (Dallas Morning News)


“He’s a known jerk who didn’t take a note in his life, I’m sure. He had a chance to say something while he was playing. I wrote while I was playing ball. If he had something to say, say it then.”


Jim Bouton, author of Ball Four, on Canseco (Tampa Tribune)

YES, IT’S A BAD CONTRACT, BUT AT LEAST CANSECO HASN’T FINGERED ORDONEZ, TOO


“This is a good team. I think it’s the best team in the division: I know we can win the division.”


–Detroit’s new right fielder Magglio Ordonez, (Detroit Free Press)


“They want to win, and I think we can do that here.”


–Ordonez


“When you bring in a player like this, I believe the process of getting better can happen quicker. But how many years has it been since we’ve even been at .500–12? I’m confident this is a much-improved ballclub, but at this point predictions are nothing more than just talk.”


–Tigers manager Alan Trammell, on adding Ordonez to his lineup


“When you have an owner that’s committed to you and respects and believes in you, it really feels good. I’m really excited to get going now.”


–Ordonez (Chicago Tribune)


“I don’t think someone would sign me for seven years if my knee wasn’t all right. That’s one of the reasons I didn’t sign back with Chicago. Kenny [Williams] was burying me, saying my knee was not OK. It feels good to have an owner and a general manager who treat you like this.”


–Ordonez


“After our disastrous season [43-119 in 2003], I made up my mind, we’ve got to build a championship team. The farm system still isn’t developed, but I can’t wait around. The city doesn’t want to wait around, either. I’ve got to do everything in my power — I have to extend myself, and keep extending myself.”


Mike Ilitch, owner of the Tigers, on why he outbid himself for Ordonez (Detroit News)


“You don’t make this move if you’re just trying to take a little step. We’re trying to win. I’m not sure if we’re ready to do that, but our lineup is going to score runs.”


–Tigers GM Dave Dombrowski

THE REST


“We’re still in the initial negotiating process, talking about the market, having dialogue, exchanging proposals. Everyone wants to get this resolved. Certainly, we’re trying to move this forward, but you have to understand, Jered is not your typical draft pick. He’s major league ready.”


Scott Boras, on his unsigned client Jered Weaver (L.A. Times)


“There’s nothing better than taking the mound knowing that your team can score five or six runs for you. Every pitcher wants to be in that position. The more hitters we can add to the lineup, the better.”


–Mets pitcher Tom Glavine, on the team’s new offense (New York Newsday)


“This is my last year. I’m going to be 64 this year, and it’s time for me to cut back on the travel. I want to remain in baseball, but in another capacity.”


–Yankee pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre, on retiring after ten years on the job (New York Daily News)


“We told him he needs to work on his plate discipline to make his speed an asset. He agreed to do that. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have signed him.”


–Royals GM Allard Baird, on Brian L. Hunter (the fast one), who he just signed to a minor-league contract (Kansas City Star)


“I’m never going to demand that a pitcher, whether he’s 42 or 22, throw the pitch I call. If he says he can throw another pitch, even if I know it’s not the one he should, I go with it. If he threw what I wanted him to, he might not throw it with the same conviction…and it may work. But generally what happens if it doesn’t work, I give him a day to stew over it, and then I talk to him about it.”


–Astros catcher Brad Ausmus (Houston Chronicle)


“I think some of the players took advantage of what we offered them and used it as leverage with other clubs. I think it’s kind of a slap in the face at us.”


–Tigers third baseman Brandon Inge, on why many free agents spurned the Tigers’ offers (Detroit News)

John Erhardt is an editor of Baseball Prospectus. You can contact John by clicking here or click here to see John’s other articles.

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