Bill Jr Quotations

We made an investment that hasn't realized a return yet.

We're big payers. We've seen some positive results come of it. There weren't as many teams looking to simply dump payroll last year. They were looking for young players in return. I don't know if that's going to change.

Time marches on. We've got a wonderful new facility under construction and it's Busch Stadium - it's just different bricks and mortar.

Brent played a great game. We knew what he could do, but I was glad to see the younger guys like Pat McDermott get in there and do something.

This is one of my favorite places. Some of the quirks of the design create opportunity for much more open standing space.

It's not just what you spend on the major-league payroll. In the last year we've purchased a Double-A franchise (in Springfield, Mo.), paid more than double for early-round draft picks and opened an academy in the Dominican Republic. We've made a much greater investment in international scouting and player development. Perhaps those things aren't as apparent as major-league payroll, but they're there and they have tremendous significance.

It's the way we traditionally do (payroll). That way we aren't caught short. By our calculations, we're showing fairly significant bump in payroll over '05.

It's much better to get here and have a shot at going all the way. We've been here a few times. Last year we made it, this year we didn't. It's so hard now because you have two rounds. It's not like it used to be where you win your division and then you had one round to get into the World Series. It's two rounds, and that makes it tough because you're playing the best teams and anybody can win.

It's a matter of sitting down and getting a deal worked out. I expect in two or three weeks it will be completed.

All we can do is go by facts. Others can choose to disagree about the nature of the business. Frankly, we feel very fortunate to have a payroll in the $90 million range. It's a great baseball town but it's not a huge market. We can afford to sustain it only because we have such wonderful baseball fans.