SIX WAYS FROM SUNDAY
“You can’t expect to no-hit a major league team, let alone the Yankees… Every now and then, one or two guys circled the wagons, but not six.”
—Jimy Williams, Astros manager, after Wednesday’s no-hitter against the Yankees (AP)
“What greater place can there be to do this? …This place is the history book. It was nerve-wracking in the ninth after having to watch the other guys. But it is a great experience.”
—Billy Wagner, Astros reliever (AP)
“I didn’t notice the crowd because I couldn’t hear myself over my heart… It was about to pound from my chest. Very rarely do you see a no-hitter, let alone be a part of one. … This is as special as it gets for a reliever. The last ball… that’s mine.”
–Wagner
“It’s not a good feeling, you got to remember this feeling… Right now, we’re being kicked while we’re down. My team has never been no-hit on any level. It’s embarrassing. If you’re not embarrassed by it, then there is something wrong with you. … It can’t get any worse than it was today.”
—Derek Jeter, Yankees shortstop, after Wednesday’s no-hitter (AP)
“It is definitely embarrassing… I’ve been playing long enough to know what that feeling is like. We had no patience, no discipline.”
—Todd Zeile, Yankees infielder (AP)
“I was icing my shoulder after I came out and I looked at the television and said, ‘Holy cow!’ It was very exciting… It definitely makes my injury a little easier to swallow.”
—Roy Oswalt, Astros pitcher, on the no-hitter (AP)
FINALLY
“You couldn’t draw it up any better… It’s very cool to get to the number that all you guys were talking about, a number not a lot of guys get to. It takes a lot of hard work to get to this point. I had to work very hard to get to this number.”
—Roger Clemens, Yankees pitcher, on getting his 300th win (AP)
“To give each guy a hug, it was tough not to tear up… I have a lot of people to thank and have been saving the articles so that I can pass that along–the respect I demand and have been afforded. I’m just so appreciative of all the things that have worked out for me.”
–Clemens
“I told Roger after the game that I used to be popular here before all this 300-win stuff… There was no mistaking (the boos) for a nickname or anything, they were boos.”
—Joe Torre, Yankees manager, on taking Clemens out of the game with two outs in the seventh inning (AP)
“But I’m glad it all worked out. I would have booed too if I was in the stands. They wanted Roger to be out there at the end, but that wasn’t going to happen, given his pitch count.”
–Torre
DOWN THE ROAD
“I play 20 years, work my tail off, they’re not going to tell me what hat I’m wearing… I promise you that. There might be a vacant seat there. I’ll take my mother and we’ll go to Palm Springs and invite all y’all and we’ll have our own celebration.”
–Clemens, on the prospect that he might not be enshrined into the Hall of Fame as a Yankee (AP)
“Somebody told me there are a couple of guys who don’t even have a hat on… But that would be disrespectful to what Mr. (George) Steinbrenner has given me: an opportunity to come here and continue my career, to be able to achieve these moments and become a Hall of Famer.”
–Clemens
“I became a Hall of Famer here… If I’d have listened to people there [in Boston], then I’d have been done. Not people. One person that evaluated my skills and he didn’t take the time to get to know me.”
–Clemens
GETTING IT (OR NOT)
“I’m not in the on-base percentage camp. I’m in the athleticism-with-baseball-intelligence camp.”
—Omar Minaya, Expos general manager (The Sporting News)
They don’t preach ‘get walks.’ They preach, ‘Get a good pitch to hit.’ If you don’t get a good pitch to hit, hopefully that means you’re going to get a walk. But they don’t come out and say you need to get walks.”
—Rocco Baldelli, Devil Rays outfielder, on his team’s offensive philosophy (Miami Sun-Sentinel)
“When we put Dunn there, Casey was the other guy I had in mind… I do like Dunn up there, but I figured I would try Casey there and see how much we like it. I look at on-base percentages, and those are similar between Casey and Dunn.”
—Bob Boone, Reds manager, on moving Sean Casey to the leadoff spot (Dayton Daily News)
THE REST
“Tino has a great understanding of the game and the way it’s supposed to be played. I just see a guy who knows what it takes to get to the playoffs and the World Series. He’s a guy who’s going to win us ballgames. Not only does he know how, he’s done it. He’s played every day and won championships. That’s different than sitting back and saying, ‘I know what it takes.’ I don’t know. But Tino’s got four rings.”
—Scott Rolen, Cardinals third baseman, on teammate Tino Martinez (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)
“You can’t be a micro-manager if you don’t micro-manage.”
–Boone, Reds manager (Dayton Daily News)
“Only me and Barry get booed… Only good players get booed.”
—Neifi Perez, Giants infielder (San Jose Mercury News)
“It’s tough to send Johan Santana back to the bullpen… but we are a better team when we can use him four or five times a week instead of this one time a week when he starts.”
—Ron Gardenhire, Twins manager (ESPN.com)
“[A big payroll] doesn’t ensure that you’re going to win… We’ve learned that painfully.”
—Fred Wilpon, Mets owner, after firing general manager Steve Phillips (AP)
“I told the players if they can win three games in a row at any time this year, I’ll dye my hair any color they want… How about that one? I told them no purple. It’s got to be a legitimate hair color.”
—Lou Piniella, Devil Rays manager (AP)
“Losing isn’t fun… I can tell you that. It’s no fun.”
–Piniella
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