The Week in Quotes: September 30-October 7

PLAYOFF SWEEPS

"I can’t tell you exactly what he said. It’s a secret we have to keep under
the sheets. I guess it was a moment of truth. He wanted to shore things up
and make sure I was comfortable."

— Mike Cameron, Mariners outfielder

"I told him the Nasdaq was down 113 points and Cisco was a heck of a buy."

— Lou Piniella, Mariners manager, on his on-field conference with baserunner
Cameron

"He threw some outstanding pitches and he threw some funny ones that
weren’t so outstanding. I mean, there’s no doubt about it, he struggled."

— Tony LaRussa, Cardinals manager, on Rick Ankiel‘s record five
wild pitches in one inning

"What we were trying to do was go out there and get a good pitch to hit,
basically the same thing that we did with Maddux."

— Will Clark, Cardinals infielder, after hitting a three-run home run in a
10-4 win over the Braves

"Lou told me to hit the ball to Frank Thomas. He doesn’t play first base
that much. I wanted to bring Rickey Henderson to home plate. I made the
decision. I did it myself."

— Carlos Guillen, Mariners infielder, on his game-winning bunt to score
Rickey Henderson

"We feel like we let everyone down."

— Frank Thomas, White Sox infielder, after being swept

"Everybody still wants to play. But we ran into a hot ballclub that played
better baseball than we did. Now we get to watch."

— Kevin Millwood, Braves pitcher, after being swept by the Cardinals

GOING LONGER

"It’s been a grind. We’re obviously not trying to do it the easy way."

— Roger Clemens, after an 11-1 loss to the Athletics to force game 5

TRAVESTIES

"You think about getting the opportunity to play all nine positions. What’s
outstanding is to get the win on top of it, at home, come from behind. Some
things happened today that were awesome, and hopefully they can carry into
next year and we can continue the things we did the second half of the season."

— Shane Halter, Tigers mascot, on becoming the fourth player to take all
nine positions in a game

"I don’t ever want to make a travesty of the game under my watch. But
everybody started getting into it, the fans, the players… everybody."

— Phil Garner, Tigers manager, on playing Halter at all nine
positions in a game

"I had the umpire so confused I could’ve done anything I wanted. I was
confused, too. But actually it worked out perfectly, right down to the last
guy."

— Garner

FINAL THOUGHTS

"I got a real empty feeling inside. I don’t even feel like I’m going home.
It will probably hit me later tonight."

— Charlie Manuel, Indians manager, on being eliminated from the
playoffs on the last day of the season

"I was pulling awfully hard. But pulling awfully hard doesn’t get it done."

— Manuel

"We’re 13 better than last year and I think we made improvements. We played
aggressive. It’s a long season and a tough season. I appreciate them
staying with the plan."

— Tony Muser, Royals manager, on the team finishing 77-85

"If we don’t win the World Series, I’m disappointed. So, I’m disappointed
in this season. But our team never gave up."

— Nomar Garciaparra, Red Sox infielder

"We went out on a good note, but we lost 90 games. That can’t be too good."

— Fred McGriff, Devil Rays infielder

"There are no words for this. I mean, it’s been incredible coming to the
ballpark every day. My brother (Jeremy) is playing with me. It’s unbelievable."

— Jason Giambi, Athletics infielder, after clinching the AL West division
title on the last day

"I wish we could play tomorrow. I’d like to see if we could keep it going.
But we have tremendous momentum heading into spring training."

— John Boles, Marlins manager

"When you lose 97 games, you better be busy in the offseason. It is not
going to be easy to do it in one year, but I don’t like this losing."

— Don Baylor, Cubs manager

"It’s a season of what could have been. But there’s a good future here. I
think things will be good."

— Davey Johnson, Dodgers manager

"I couldn’t be happier. I can’t say enough good things about what these
guys accomplished as a team. It would have been easy for them to go for
individual stats and goals and not worry about the team, but that’s not the
way we went."

— Davey Lopes, Brewers manager

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.