May 1, 2001

The Week in Quotes

April 23-29

by Derek Zumsteg

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KNOWING THE STRIKE ZONE

"To be in a class with Babe Ruth, you can't ask for anything more. Walks have been underappreciated. It's lost in the stats sheets. It lost its appeal somewhere. Another thing lost in the stats is on-base percentage. That's the most important thing in baseball. If nobody's on base, nobody scores."
--Rickey Henderson, Padres outfielder, on his walk record

LEARNING THE STRIKE ZONE

"They are all good hitters, but now they're starting to recognize the value of being patient. That's going to lead to better batting averages, and more run production."
--Buck Martinez, Blue Jays manager, after his team walked a season-high nine times against the Angels

"He's going to be a good player. You learn the strike zone by swinging the bat."
--Tony Muser, Royals manager, on Red Sox infielder Shea Hillenbrand

"That's a Catch-22. If you're taking strikes, people ask why aren't you swinging the bat. If you're swinging the bat, people ask why aren't you being more patient. If you second guess, you can never be wrong."
--Lloyd McClendon, Pirates manager

"We're not asking our guys to walk more. We don't want to take away their aggressiveness and their manipulative skills. We want to get into more hitter's counts. We have a good hitting team. We preach to our guys 'imagine if our offense was hitting 2-0, 3-1 all the time.' As for our pitchers, we have to throw strike one. When you walk a guy, then get behind the next guy, you think 'I've got to throw a strike.' "
--Allard Baird, Royals general manager

3, TO THE 2, TO THE 1, IT'S DEION/STEPPING ON A PEON*

"He's leading the league in hitting. He's running well. He's playing good defense. He teaching our Triple-A players about work ethic. He's totally disrupting every game he's playing in."
--Jim Bowden, Reds general manager, on outfielder Deion Sanders's minor-league stint

"It's a lot easier now to disable Junior when you have Deion Sanders to replace him."
--Jim Bowden, Reds general manager

THE REST

"I'm not that bad-looking, I'm an average person, an average-looking person. I know some girls send me flowers, so I must be somehow cute to somebody. I'm a cute little-bodied man. I've got an OK body. My uniform fits pretty well - 33 (waist), 32 length. It's a normal body, 180 pounds. It's nice, man - Dominican, Latino."
--Pedro Martinez, Red Sox pitcher, on whether he's intimidating

"There wasn't very much good you could say about playing in that environment last year. But in here, you lose sense of where you are. You have no idea you're in Milwaukee. In County Stadium, you knew exactly where you were, you know what I mean? But this place could be anywhere."
--Davey Lopes, Brewers manager, on Miller Park

"We got beat by one of the all-time greats tonight. It became a situation where you hope to score a run and keep him from 10 strikeouts, but we couldn't do it. He was spectacular. I mean, throwing 99 mph in the ninth inning?"
--John Boles, Marlins manager, on being shut out by Randy Johnson

"Things just didn't fall our way tonight. Sometimes, you need a little love."
--Phil Garner, Tigers manager, on losing to Orioles 8-3

"It's not a popular call. I know how much pitchers like shutouts. I was thinking heavily about it, but this is as far as he's gone as far as pitch counts. He's got about 25 starts left this season, he had arm surgery this winter. Let's go with our heads and not try and stretch him out."
--Tony Muser, Royals manager, on pulling Mac Suzuki with a shutout after 107 pitches

"It was a good day to hit one halfway decent in the air."
--Tyler Houston, Brewers infielder, after hitting a home run against the Mets

"We all recognize Cruz has that type of talent and ability. It's just a matter of him learning the league more, and learning more about himself as a hitter. I'm glad he continued his hitting streak. He's really swinging the bat well."
--Buck Martinez, Blue Jays manager, on Jose Cruz Jr.'s 19-game hitting streak

* from "Prime Time Keeps on Ticking," on Sanders's 1995 "Prime Time" album

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.