August 9, 1999

The Week in Quotes

August 2-8

by Dennis Cleary

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MILESTONES

``I've exceeded everything I expected of myself.''

-- Mark McGwire, Cardinals infielder, on hitting his 500th home run

``The way he's hitting home runs, he could break the record next year.''

-- Hank Aaron, on the possibility of Mark McGwire breaking his home run record

``To get 3,000 on my mom's birthday is a really special thing for me. I was hugging her and telling her, `Happy Birthday, Mom. This is for you.' ''

-- Tony Gwynn, Padres outfielder, on his 3,000th hit

``Joining the 3,000-hit club as a member of one team and one team only, that has a nice ring to it as far as I'm concerned.''

-- Tony Gwynn

``This is what I waited 18 years for. I finally put my flag in that mountain.''

-- Wade Boggs, Devil Rays infielder, on his 3,000th hit

``To tell you the truth, I thought I was going to sit down there and start crying like a baby. I shed a couple of tears when I hugged my father, but I was happy more than anything.... It was just a fantastic moment. It really was.''

-- Wade Boggs

``I wasn't surprised; I wasn't surprised at all. Three milestones in three nights, that's pretty amazing.''

-- Tony Gwynn

``I'll play until I'm 45.... I don't care what's in my future -- a broken leg, a broken ankle, a broken wrist, three or four more back surgeries. I guarantee you I'll get 500 home runs.''

-- Jose Canseco, Devil Rays outfielder

``This is a big milestone for me personally. For it to come in this uniform, the only organization I've ever known, minor leagues included. For a 24th-round draft pick, I think I've done pretty well. I was never supposed to get one hit in the big leagues.''

-- Mark Grace, Cubs infielder, on his 2,000th hit

MORE ON THE TRADING DEADLINE

``It's like the beginning of the season for me now that I'm with a contending team that's so close to winning. I've been in that position before. I know what to do.''

-- Juan Guzman, Reds pitcher

``For anybody, any national press, any local press, anybody that thinks the lack of trades is a lack of aggressiveness or a lack of preparation or a lack of being able to pull the trigger to make a trade, I think is asinine. It's either a reflection that they want to dwell on the negative for whatever reason or they truly don't appreciate the position we're in this year.''

-- Chuck LaMarr, Devil Rays GM

``No matter what comes out of it, it has been a good experience not only for us in the front office, but the kids here, too. A year ago we just wanted to be competitive. Now we make a deal down the stretch.''

-- Billy Beane, A's GM

``I'm incredibly disappointed. I was just sure we were going to get something done. The way things were going, I was certain something would happen.''

-- Curt Schilling, Phillies pitcher

MORE ON UMPIRES

``Because we stood up to protect our basic contract rights, including the right to negotiate and, above all, to protect our retirement benefits, management is now trying to take away our livelihoods and put our families in jeopardy.''

-- Jerry Crawford, umpires union president

``I feel totally betrayed by the umpires who left the union, quit my family, put us in this position.''

-- Bill Hohn, umpire

``We're not the guys out there charging $6 for a beer, charging $5 for a hot dog. We're not the guys who raised World Series tickets from $75 to $150. But we're the ones who get beat on.''

-- Ed Montague, umpire

``[MLB] engaged in a pattern of acts purposefully designed to break the umpires. It's part of a cynical strategy to undermine the unions that keep the game of baseball alive.''

-- Richie Phillips, umpires union head

``I believe I'm doing God's work. I believe there is an immoral culture in baseball today and that I have to eradicate that culture.''

-- Richie Phillips

``I don't see how Richie [Phillips] can last. This plan was one of the worst in the history of labor negotiations.''

-- Ron Shapiro, sports agent

PITCH COUNTS

``We're very careful with our young pitchers. But we're careful with everybody. We don't want to run high pitch counts on anybody.''

-- Lou Piniella, Mariners manager, on taking out pitcher Freddy Garcia after 126 pitches

``I didn't want him out there throwing 140 pitches. I like him a lot, and we want to keep him around awhile.''

-- Gene Lamont, Pirates manager, on taking out pitcher Kris Benson after 123 pitches

``I was going to stick with him until his arm fell off. He had a lot of easy innings and a few hard ones. But he was right where he wanted to be.''

-- Davey Johnson, Dodgers pitcher, on letting Kevin Brown throw 121 pitches

``When I'm healthy, I shoot for seven strong innings. Obviously, I'm not at the point where I can think about reaching 110 pitches yet.''

-- Denny Neagle, Reds pitcher

THE REST

``If you make quality pitches, whether it's here in the big leagues or in the minors, you're going to get guys out and I was able to do that tonight. For the most part I did OK.''

-- Kip Wells, White Sox pitcher, on winning his ML debut

``It just felt like too good of a fit to even test the waters out there. Regardless of whether I could have made more money or less money or whatever, I'm happy here. My wife's happy here. Everything's first class here. I didn't want to go anywhere else.''

-- Luis Gonzalez, Diamondbacks outfielder, on his 3-year, $12 million contract extension

``Buck's crying. Buck talks too much. Tell Buck to manage a team that doesn't have a $100 million payroll and then come and cry about injuries.''

-- Jeff Kent, Giants infielder, on Diamondbacks manager Buck Showalter

``I thought long and hard about it, and I don't like the way it was portrayed like I was the endorser of the product, which I wasn't. I don't like how it's portrayed, but young kids take it because of me. I don't like that.''

-- Mark McGwire, Cardinals infielder, on ending his use of andro

``I went seven years without missing a start. Hopefully it will be another seven before I miss another one.''

-- Pedro Martinez, Red Sox pitcher

``Nothing has been working for us right now. I've just got to go out and do what Sammy can do.''

-- Sammy Sosa, Cubs outfielder

``The infield defense is better than anybody I've ever seen, any team I've ever played for. And, they're consistent at it every day in and day out. That stands out to me more than most, because I look for that and I like that.''

-- Kenny Rogers, Mets pitcher

``[The Yankees] instigated it. It was their pitcher that hit Edgar [Martinez] after he gave up a home run, and it was obvious, and it was blatant. What are we supposed to do? We did what we had to do and hit one of their players.''

-- Lou Piniella, Mariners manager

``Our bats look like they weigh about five pounds. The bats are dragging. Mentally we've got to guard against that. We all get paid for a whole season.''

-- Jim Leyland, Rockies manager