Ernie Whitt Quotations

We're going to enjoy this win for a few moments and we have a big game ahead of us (Wednesday).

We're going to enjoy this, celebrate a little bit, but we do have one other game to play and there's no guarantee that we're going to the next round at this point.

Whenever you can beat a powerhouse like the USA, it's a real feather for baseball in Canada's history.

Whenever you can beat a powerhouse like the U.S.A. it's a feather in Baseball Canada's history. We can be happy right now, but we still have a task at hand and after an hour or two, we'll focus in on Mexico.

Pete is the type of player that can play all three infield positions. If Danny hadn't gotten hurt, Peter would be at second. But I'm a big Stubby Clapp fan, and now he'll be at second. I'm happy to give him one more opportunity to go out there and shine.

I got to see what Corey looks like. I know he's ugly but I got to still see what he looks like.

He has filled out the paperwork that he does want to play. I'm sure the Dodgers have some concerns about that. Naturally, we're hoping that he's healthy and that he wants to play. And if that's the case, that's great. We would definitely welcome him on the staff.

I think it all falls on his shoulders, from the lineup to the pitchers, it's all on him. It's not just Denis, the whole staff (has a tough job). Because of all the rules we have to play by it's the whole staff.

I think the pitchers threw the ball a little better today, and that's always encouraging. It's just a buildup. I didn't learn anything today, though, that I didn't already know. But it is definitely a way to gauge where we are. So now we go forward from here. The enthusiasm and attitude around the clubhouse is high.

I thought our pitchers threw the ball a little bit better today, which is always encouraging. So, yeah again, this is just a build-up.

I think tonight was a little bit of a wake-up call for us.

I was very happy with the way the guys played. We played errorless ball, which was good. We threw too many pitches and fell behind in the count. When you fall behind the count on good hitters, you're going to get hit and that's what happened today.

We're all left-handed. There's nothing we can do about it and that's all we have. It is what is.

We have to win two games to advance. We think that Erik Bedard matches up better against Japan in the second round.

We had our fate in our own hands and we didn't come through with it. You have to give credit to Mexico; they came out and beat us.

We had our chances, we had our fate in our own hands and didn't come through with it. Anything can happen, you look at the odds and they are probably worse than us yesterday beating the U.S. but then that's why we play the game.

We had our best pitchers throwing against South Africa, our best lineup going. You know, sometimes games just happen. That's why you play the game. There's no question that we were on pins and needles.

We can be happy right now but we still have a task at hand.

We had everything set up the way we wanted to. They just came out and swung the bats well. I think the guys were prepared. It's not a good feeling. Any time you can control your fate and let it get away, it's disappointing.

We have a veteran enough group and our guys compete with the guys we're going to be playing (Wednesday) on a daily basis. We're not in awe of the United States.

We had a nice dinner and a few ... ginger-ales.

We didn't expect some of them to throw as many pitchers as they did. Some of the results were not the way we wanted it.

We felt we were kicked in the stomach last night playing South Africa.

Everyone speculated that South Africa was going to be a pushover. It just goes to show, as I've said all along, you have to play every game as if it's your last in these type of tournaments.

Don't short-change South Africa. They're gutsy. They're young enough that they might not know who they're facing.

There's no question Adam is swinging the bat well. I think the biggest thing is with that, he came into this tournament pumped, excited, wanted to play. But not just with Adam but every other guy on this team, they wanted to be here.

I spoke to him last summer and he was optimistic. Since that time, there's been things that have been written and the organization has said they don't want him to play.

Q threw the ball outstanding. He's just a strike machine. We were shocked when he threw that one ball. I thought, 'Well, he probably just wants to throw some extra pitches and get some work in.' I haven't sat down and determined a role yet, but he will be very active in our bullpen.

Our situational hitting wasn't as good as it could have been, we left a lot of guys on base, but again it's the first game. These guys are pretty good tournament player guys. They seem like they can turn it on and do a pretty good job for us.

People, especially in Canada, have been making a big thing out of the fact that we are opposing each other as managers. Buck is a close friend of mine. Canadian fans might consider the U.S. to be friendly rivals, but there's certainly no rivalry between Buck and myself.

(Orr) did a nice job today. I've always been a Stubby Clapp fan and the fact that he'll probably be our second baseman means he'll get an opportunity to go out and shine one more time.

The one thing that I really don't want to hear is ? and I know that we will hear ? at least you guys beat the USA. But that's not the purpose of this tournament. The purpose of this tournament is to go out and win a championship.

As a team we probably threw too many pitches. This is the first time they have thrown to hitters. Overall we were OK. We played errorless ball and swung the bats well.

A lot of it is that we haven't really gotten into the slide-stepping yet at this point in time. In this thing, it's a timing situation and we still have about 10 days before we open up. It's going to get better.

They might not even know who they're facing. It would be nice to give them a scare anyway.

It was a wake-up call. Everybody speculated South Africa would be a pushover. I was surprised at the caliber and how good they were.

The odds are probably worse than what they were with us (Wednesday). Anything can happen. That's the way we play the game ... Maybe they can give them a scare.

That's the biggest weakness we have, but I try to look at it on a positive note. Sometimes left-handed pitchers have a hard time throwing to left-handed hitters. So that might play into our favor.

Everyone's excited and everything like that, no question. Whenever you can beat a powerhouse like the USA, it's a feather in baseball Canada's history. We're going to enjoy this, celebrate a little bit, but we do have one other game to play and there's no guarantee that we're going to the next round. We can be happy right now, but we still have a task at hand, and that after an hour or two we will focus on Mexico.

It's what we needed to do. It's important to get off to a god start.

It took us by surprise when Martin pulled himself out of it. I can see his point of view. As a young player, your ultimate goal is to play in the big leagues. He feels he has that chance. It caught us off guard, but I can understand that.

It will be fun to oppose Buck. I feel there's probably more pressure on him than there is me, because the United States are expected to win and win the whole thing. We're just the sleepers and hopefully we'll go in and quietly beat them.

Not really. Managers have tendencies, but you basically have to look at your personnel, what they're capable of doing or not doing and play the game by the book, what you would expect out of each individual, not so much out of their manager.

Any time you can control your own fate and don't ... well it's not good. We didn't beat ourselves.

I'm going to have to talk to Greg (Hamilton, Canada's G.M.) and we'll have to come up with some other options for that third catcher. But whoever we come up with, the fact is they were all lower on the depth chart than Russ.

I know you are not supposed to look too far ahead, but you have to in a tournament like this.

I'm very proud to be the manager of Canada. Every time they give me the opportunity to manage, I will.

I know for a fact we don't have the depth that some of the other countries have. But we do have a lot of heart.

In Winnipeg, we were probably 100-1 underdogs. Now? Oh, we're probably facing the same odds.

He threw the ball well, he threw some nasty pitches.

If he feels he can play then that's great. If he can't, then hopefully he'll be a part of this team in some capacity.