Gene Orza Tournament Quotations

I think the success of this first tournament will be measured by one thing--that's players coming out telling other players they should have played, that it was fun. My guess is that next time we will not have all the same questions we've had this time.

We've long known we have our work cut out for us in Europe, but this tournament represents a decent positive stride in Europe, in addition to the enormous success it has been elsewhere.

There are a lot of other great players in the tournament of course in addition to Manny, which is one of the reasons Manny would probably want to play, with the talent at that level. But I haven't spoken with Manny himself, and, in fact, I think I spoke to one of his representatives as late as yesterday and he hasn't ruled out playing. What he decides is really ultimately going to be up to him though.

We don't believe the tournament will create more injuries than spring training otherwise would.

We don't believe the tournament is going to create any greater number of injuries than spring training itself would.

This tournament is going to be a whole lot of fun. It's going to be fun watching Johan Santana in that uniform pitching against David Ortiz in his uniform. It's just going to be that kind of exciting event.

Every player has a right to play or not to play. You only hope the player who says no has a full understanding of the tournament and the consequences of his nonparticipation, especially when it's a player who wouldn't be here and who wouldn't have the new contract he has but for the association.

The success of the tournament can be measured by one thing and one thing principally. And that is to the degree players come out of it telling their fellow players that it was a lot of fun and they made a mistake by not playing.

There was a time when people were saying, 'Will there be a next time?' Now it's a given. That's a tribute to the tournament and how it has been conducted. It is now a given there will be a tournament in 2009.