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NO MAS



“Alex was kissing Latino people’s (butts). He knew he wasn’t going to play for the Dominicans; he’s not a Dominican!”


–White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen in Sports Illustrated, on Alex Rodriguez’s initial desire to play for the Dominican team in the WBC (New York Daily News)



“I hate hypocrites: He’s full of —. The Dominican team doesn’t need his (butt). It’s the same with (Nomar) Garciaparra playing for Mexico. Garciaparra only knows Cancun because he went to visit.”


–Guillen



“People say ‘Ozzie Guillen is a big mouth, he’s so controversial.’ No, people don’t like it when you tell the truth.”


–Guillen

YOU SAY YOU’RE GONNA MAKE IT OUT BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE



“I’m not playing baseball anymore after this. The game [isn’t] fun anymore. I’m tired of all of the [stuff] going on. I want to play this year out, hopefully win, and once the season is over, go home and be with my family. Maybe then everybody can just forget about me.”


–Giants outfielder Barry Bonds, calling it quits (USA Today)



“If I can play [in 2007], I’m going to play; if I can’t I won’t. If my knee holds up, I’ll keep on going. I’m playing psychological games with myself right now. I don’t want to set myself up for disappointment if things don’t work out this season. So I go back and forth. Back and forth every day. These are the things that are going through my mind. This is what I’m struggling with.”


–Bonds, clarifying his remarks in USA Today (MLB.com)



“All I can say is that I have a contract for this year, so as far as I know, I’m committed through this year. If my knee doesn’t hold up, then it’s over. But if it does, I’ll keep going. No one can predict what’s going to happen. Even I can’t speculate until I get out there. I’m going to be 42 years old. I’ve got to be realistic. Since I don’t have a contract for next year, then this could be my last year.”


–Bonds



“I went to the Bahamas for a vacation and I was walking down the beach with my wife. I slipped in the sand and my knee swelled up for two days. That’s the kind of thing I’m dealing with.”


–Bonds

THE LOW ARB DIET



“You have a three-member arbitration panel that considered all the facts deemed to be relevant by the parties, and they made this finding, that the amount that Mr. Lohse is due is at least halfway between the two numbers offered.”


–Minneapolis attorney Clark Griffith, who represented the Twins for ten years in arbitration hearings, on the Kyle Lohse arbitration case (St. Paul Pioneer Press)



“All the player had to prove was that he was worth $3.6 million to get $3.95 million. It’s a badly flawed system; it’s outrageous. But it’s what they have agreed to.”


–Griffith



“The worst thing about baseball arbitration is that it compels arbitrators to make mistakes all the time–they have to choose the wrong number all the time because the rules make them do it.”


–Griffith



“It was numbers. I lost on the numbers, just because I really don’t have any.”


–Devil Rays catcher Josh Paul, on losing his arbitration case (St. Petersburg Times)



“I get paid the least. I have that going for me. If I do well it’s, ‘Good.’ If I don’t, well, it’s, ‘We’re not paying him anything.’ They can chant my name easily. And they miss Lou Merloni. I swear, it’s because they miss Lou. They can’t chant ‘Louuuuu,’ so they chant ‘Youuuuk.'”


–Red Sox first baseman Kevin Youkilis, on his role with the Red Sox (Boston Globe)



“Last year, my first game starting at first base, I asked [Francona], ‘Am I supposed to go out there and yell and scream a lot?’ He said, ‘No, just go out and field the ball and throw the ball.'”


–Youkilis, on the stereotype of the chatty first baseman

JOE WHO?



“What’s your name?”


–Mariners pitcher Jamie Moyer, to new catcher Kenji Johjima (Seattle Post-Intelligencer)



“Johjima.”


–catcher Kenji Johjima, answering Moyer



“Joe? Joe mama?”


–Moyer

JOHN HENRY WAS A SELIG-DRIVING MAN



“Baseball has to address the disincentives created by large scale transfers of revenue from successful clubs to less successful clubs. At high enough tax levels the incentive is to invest somewhere other than in baseball. The disincentives are just as powerful for the lower revenue clubs as for the higher revenue clubs. The Red Sox have taken an aggressive stance in investing in all aspects of the franchise. But one has to wonder how many teams will do so when the financial risks often outweigh the potential financial benefits.”


–Red Sox owner John Henry, on the financial structure of MLB (Boston Herald)



“The commissioner and the union have radically altered the game of baseball for the better over the last few years by transferring enormous amounts of dollars. But as with all taxes, there is a point at which taxation discourages effort and investment to the point that baseball clubs one by one come to the same, unfortunate conclusion. Looking ahead the Red Sox have to take it on faith that investment in baseball on behalf of our constituency–the fans–will make sense. But we cannot ignore the fact that it is their hard-earned dollars we are sending to other cities.”


–Henry



“The continuing investments in Fenway Park help revenues but are not cheap. It is not a coincidence that the teams paying a lot of money in revenue sharing are investing substantial sums in ballparks because that is the only deduction available.”


–Henry



“(Selig) may have, in fact, saved the industry from itself by acting to limit debt. This is an untold story. Baseball teams by and large accumulated large, growing debts because owners are far more concerned with their win-loss records than their financial records. I know several owners who have lost more than $100 million over the last 10 years. These are real dollars. I lost about $50 million in three years of owning the Florida Marlins.”


–Henry, on Selig’s efforts to reduce the debt ratio



“All of the owners I have met–I cannot think of one outlier–place winning above profit. Baseball is trying to become a profitable enterprise despite that fact. You don’t buy a baseball team to make money. I argued with David Ginsberg, who chairs the Red Sox finance committee, when we bought the team. He tried to tell me we were going to make money. I told him he was crazy.”


–Henry

SO MAY THE SUNRISE BRING HOPE WHERE IT ONCE WAS FORGOTTEN



“We went through all that. You might have been the one guy not there. We went through all of that a month ago and we were only going to talk about it for that day. I feel like I’m where I should be and as far as the leadership of this organization and we’re excited about what we can accomplish together this year.”


–Red Sox GM Theo Epstein, when asked why he returned (Boston Globe)



“It seems like a very short period of time. That, coupled with the fact that you’re 65, and a year seems like it’s 10 minutes. But, yeah, it seems like it’s brand new to me.”


–Yankees manager Joe Torre, on starting his 11th year at the helm (New York Times)



“That’s a great question. I probably won’t know until about April 1.”


–Marlins manager Joe Girardi, when asked what his starting lineup will be this year



“Seventy [wins] is not a goal, 81 is not a goal. Our goal is to play the game properly every night. We’re going to aim high. I’m a big reader. I read “Wisdom of the Ages” by Wayne Dyer. It’s a collection of 60 short stories. It talks about Michelangelo. Michelangelo aimed high. Look at the history of this man. The David is pretty cool, the Sistine Chapel is pretty neat also. He talks about if you aim low, the concern is that you might hit the mark. So we’re not going to aim low, we’re going to aim high and see what happens.”


–new Devil Rays manager Joe Maddon, on the team’s goals (MLB.com)

THE REST



“If he’s a Caribbean guy, taking a look at the weather forecast up here yesterday would have made me not want to come, as well. I want to congratulate Ozzie on being a great manager, Manager of the Year, as well as becoming a United States citizen earlier this year. We’re proud to have him as an American citizen.”


President George W. Bush, on White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen not making the trip to Washington with the team (MLB.com)



“I’m the only guy in baseball who ever spiked Ty Cobb. See that taped-up tear? I did that.”


–Tigers manager Jim Leyland, on when he threw a cleat at a photo of Ty Cobb in his office (Detroit News)



“Growing up in Natick, I was well aware of the passion involved in this rivalry. When the light bulb first came on, we knew it would grow some legs. Whether it would be the No. 1 e-mailed story on ESPN.com, I’m not sure we expected that.”


–Lowell Spinners director of corporate communications Jon Goode. Lowell has offered to pay for new uniforms for any youth league team that wants to change its name from the Yankees to the Spinners (Boston Globe)



“There’s even a bowling league in Beverly. A 14-year-old kid called because his afternoon league named their teams after baseball teams and they’ve been stuck on the Yankees.”


–Goode



“The first day is always the hardest.”


–Mets catcher Ramon Castro, on the first day of spring training (MLB.com)



“It really isn’t, but we just say that. I don’t know why.”


–Castro, when asked why

If you have a quotation you’d like to submit, email John, and be sure to include the URL where you found it.

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