The Week in Quotes: September 3-9

SAVE THE WATER COOLERS!

"That’s just me. I don’t try to please anyone. I show emotion sometimes.
This was one of those cases."

— Mike Hampton, Mets pitcher, who threw his glove, a towel, his cap, and
punched a water cooler leaving the game after walking Pat Burrell

"I like everything Mike Hampton does. I don’t want him to do anything to
jeopardize his health. But he’s hit enough water coolers to know how to hit
them."

— Bobby Valentine, Mets manager

"If you’re dating a girl and having a bad time all the time, get a new one
and make yourself happy."

— Turk Wendell, on tossing his glove into the stands in a 6-3 loss to the
Phillies

"It is what it is. I don’t control emotion. If you have to let it out, let
it out. They always say it’s better than keeping it in."

— Valentine, on Wendell’s toss

HAPPY HECKLERS

"You expect behavior like that in New York or Boston. But here in Kansas
City, you don’t expect them to talk about your mother and your sister like
New Yorkers. It’s nothing I haven’t heard before, but it’s a little
unexpected here."

— Jeff Zimmerman, Rangers pitcher, expressing surprise at rude fans in
Kauffman Stadium Saturday

"That kind of behavior is rampant in baseball."

— John Wetteland, Rangers pitcher

"You have to give them credit. They’re there from the first inning on to
the ninth. They kept ragging on us. I don’t think they’ll be able to sing
much in church tomorrow."

— Zimmerman

CONTROLLING THE STRIKE ZONE

"He just had one miserable day. He threw me off my game. I wasn’t wild
today. He called my strikes, balls."

— David Wells, Blue Jays pitcher, blaming his seven-run, two-inning
failure against Oakland on umpire Mark Wegner

"Nothing was wrong with David Wells. I think the umpire got into his head.
I mean the guy only has (31) walks all year so he probably knows what a
strike or a ball is."

— Ben Grieve, Athletics outfielder

"You can’t blame an umpire. They just beat us."

— Alberto Castillo, Blue Jays catcher

PITCHING MACHINE

"God bless the Tigers"

— Al Gore, Vice President, on pitching batting practice for the
Tigers at Comerica Park Sept. 6th

"Not only have I seen worse BP, we have worse. If he’s out of a job,
spring training begins in February. But I hear he’s looking for a four-year
deal with a four-year extension."

— Steve Lubratich, Tigers assistant GM

"He threw like an athlete. But I hope he didn’t take all those line drives
personally."

— Dusty Allen, Tigers infielder

"He would have been one famous sucker."

— Lubratich on infielder Robert Fick, who barely missed Gore with a line drive

ONE AT-BAT FOR BIG MAC

"You can’t draw any conclusions from one at-bat when he’s missed as much
time as he has missed, but I thought he had a few good passes. D’Amico
painted a curveball in on the last pitch, so you tip your cap to D’Amico.
But he had two good passes on those fastballs."

— Will Clark, Cardinals infielder, on Mark McGwire‘s first at-bat after
missing over a month with a knee injury.

"I wanted to get him out, obviously."

— Jeff D’Amico, Brewers pitcher, on how he approached McGwire

"It’s a start. That’s all it is."

— McGwire, Cardinals infielder

"He took a couple of swings. If he comes out of it where he can play
tomorrow or get an at-bat tomorrow, then I like what I saw."

— Tony LaRussa, Cardinals manager

PITCHING WISDOM

"The only thing that concerns me about the pitching is base on balls. Walks
and home runs, that’s not a good combination to win ballgames."

— Jerry Manuel, White Sox manager, on his team’s performance heading into
the playoffs

"My style of pitching goes with their style of hitting. I like aggressive
hitters."

— Tim Hudson, Athletics pitcher, on beating the Blue Jays

"It looked like he read our mind."

— Tony Batista, Blue Jays infielder, on going 0-for-4 against Hudson

"I think I made the pitches I wanted to make, but I also made some I didn’t
want to."

— Andy Ashby, Braves pitcher, after losing his fourth straight decision

"I’ve been in the game 14 years and have never seen anyone throw it over the
backstop."

— Mike Stanley, Athletics infielder, after Barry Zito threw a pitch over
the screen behind home plate, beyond the field-level premium seats and 10
rows into the SkyDome’s infield grandstand

"We were going to take him out after eight, regardless of the score. He
came close to 120 pitches."

— Lou Piniella, after pulling Freddy Garcia, who was pitching a shutout

THE REST

"Right now we’re going to play out the season and see if Andy wants Hee
Seop Choi hitting behind Sammy next year. Good luck. Sammy will get walked
300 times. It always turns out that I’m the best first baseman in the
organization. Hopefully, one of these days the Cubs will realize it."

— Mark Grace, Cubs infielder, on Andy McPhail, acting GM, and contract
negotiations

"Right now, Jeff would have my vote. He’s been our clutch man, our RBI man.
Barry’s our home-run man."

— Dusty Baker, Giants manager, campaigning for Jeff Kent for NL MVP

"Guess what? Everybody has injuries."

— Paul Konerko, White Sox infielder, on the Indians’ laments that injuries have hampered
their season

"It was pretty much like a heavyweight fight. I thought we had them with a
rope-a-dope or whatever we were doing out there."

— Manuel, on beating the Angels 13-12 after scoring nine runs in the first

"I had a blast. It went by so fast, but there are so many memories I’ll
take from this."

— Scott Sheldon, Rangers utility player, on playing all nine positions and
striking out the only batter he faced during a 13-1 loss to the White Sox

"I’ve never seen someone hit that hard in the head. It shifts you away from
worrying about the loss to worrying about our friend and our teammate."

— Jason Varitek, Red Sox catcher, on Red Sox pitcher Bryce Florie, who we
wish a complete and speedy recovery for after he was hit in the face with a
line drive Friday

If you would like to submit a quote, please

email Derek and be sure to include both the quote itself and a
URL pointing to the quote.