Richie Sexson Quotations

We're looking for reasons to keep playing hard. We're trying to be a spoiler. But it is harder to play when you know you're out of it.

We've been in most of these games in the fifth, sixth and seventh innings. Most of the pitchers we know are going to be with us have been OK. It's the kids who have been getting beat up late in games.

If we could jump out and play well early, you get some confidence. Then things kind of snowball.

I'd like to believe so. No one can ever say with certainty who's going to go to a World Series. But you have to come to the ballpark every day convinced you are going to win.

I felt like I tagged him pretty good, so that's what stunned me. I think Jason knew it, too. He started walking back to the dugout. Everyone makes mistakes.

I don't think it was where he wanted it. He doesn't throw beach balls.

If it does work, then there's a base open and they're going to walk me anyway. I don't understand the theory why he stole there. It doesn't seem to be a good green-light situation with two outs. I'd rather there not be a base open and give me a chance to drive in the run.

He had velocity tonight more than I'd seen the last few times I'd faced him. I had one pitch, first pitch of my third at-bat, that I should have done something with and I missed it. Against Randy, you can't miss your pitch.

We've got to keep Gil on the field. Joel threw really well for us in the second half last year. The numbers may not be mind-boggling, but he got a lot better.

He said he was hitting the ball the other way and doing some of the things he used to do. But some things are more important in life, and family's definitely one of those things.

He was one of the best in the game. Look at his career numbers and he's right up there in some good company.

He was teary, but his heart just isn't in it anymore.

He just didn't miss. He was throwing strikes and hitting corners. There were a lot of three- and four-pitch at-bats.

I talk to him every day. He's one of my better friends in the game. I talked to him two days ago and everything was fine. He was hitting the ball the other way. It felt like he was doing some of the things he used to do.

I think you owe it to someone as a friend to try and talk them out of something like that. But you have to listen to what they are saying. After a while, his feelings really came through. Eventually I had to agree with him that it was the right thing to do.

I think it was the right one. I think if deep down inside, he didn't feel like he could be the player that he was. I wish him the best.

I was wondering why, when he left, he kind of got the boos. I wasn't really sure of why exactly,

I was actually just looking for a fly ball there. That's really all we need, just tie the game,

I wonder what the qualifications are? ... Some guys don't seem to have missed much of last year.

I thought I got him pretty good, so that's what startled me. But the game's too long to blame on one play.

That was great, ... We did everything fundamentally right.

I was on the phone with him for three hours last night. I tried to talk him out of it. We all did -- his dad (former big league catcher and manager Bob Boone) and his brother Aaron (the third baseman in Cleveland). We sort of ganged up on him, but he said his heart wasn't in it.

You always think you're never going to get hurt. When you do it's a shock. It's something you don't want to go through. So I feel blessed to be healthy again and even more so to be productive again.

We could just as easily have swept that series. We played that first game tough, we just came out on the short end. But we're excited. We feel like we've got a great team. I know a lot of people don't, but we do. Amongst ourselves, we think we're going to do a lot of things right this year.

Typically when you get drafted, playing here, it's not good. So you don't want to play here. But it's a great place. It's a really nice stadium.

We needed this. We've been struggling. Hopefully, everybody can get going now.

We should have won because they cheated. They kept moving up to the wrong tees. We played from the back tees.

We do have a tough division. We have to play 54 games against the toughest pitchers in the league. Hopefully we can hit and pitch on the same day and win games.

We think we're a better team than we've shown this month.

We believe in ourselves. We don't care what everybody else thinks.

We all want to see our families. But you can't have everything you want.

This way, we're getting an actual day off. It's a long season. Some teams kill themselves traveling on the off day. It'll be a long day (Sunday), but we should be ready to go (today).

Those people were yelling that at me all day long. I didn't hear them after a while. They didn't say anything.

With him, you may only get one pitch to hit per at-bat. It was the first one, fortunately.

We've been struggling with our at-bats. But we've stuck with our game plan. We've been blaming (the slump) on the fact that we've been facing good pitchers. And we have. We saw another one tonight. And it sure is good to see Ichiro going again.

We've been struggling to get hits. But we've tried to stick with our game plan. We've been putting our struggle down to the fact we've run into good pitching.

We expected to be a little better. We just ran into some serious pitching.

It would be nice to win it; it would say I was able to stay on the field, ... But it's not an award you want to win more than once.

The thing about a team like the Royals is that eventually they have to win,

Teams like Kansas City coming in here are scary, ... Eventually, they have to win. You just hope it's not you.

A different move, one I hadn't seen before. It caught me off guard.

That's my job. That's why I was hired to come here, to drive in runs. I enjoy those situations. The guys did a good job to get on.

Zero, he slid, Zero, he used two hands!

This is a pattern we need to break out of, and right now. Coming out of spring training we weren't looking at having a 7-13 kind of April. But it's the hand we've been dealt. We've got to battle out of it.

They threw three pitchers at us this weekend who didn't miss a spot in three days. If they did, we fouled it back. When a team collectively doesn't hit like this, you can be pretty sure it's the pitching.

There wasn't a lot to hit. He'd start his pitches in our dugout and bring them back on the outer half of the plate. It was just one of those nights.

It's kind of a point you try to reach as a power hitter,

It's a way to have some fun in the clubhouse.

It's unbelievable. He's been great. Every team has one or two guys who can stop those three- or four-game losing streaks. He's certainly that type of pitcher who can just stop a bad time.

It's not like it's an everyday occasion, ... It's nice that Adrian's behind me.

For me, it's all about the first 81 games. It's by then that you know what the team has for the most part. If you get to 81 games with a decent record, the confidence grows. You start winning games you're not supposed to win.

It's one of the most powerful things in sports. Not a lot of people can do that.

It's a loss. It's frustrating. No matter how close it is, it still goes into the loss column.

It's going to be a tough month, a tough first six weeks. But you've got to play these teams sometimes, and now is a good time to see where we're at. You can always catch fire.

It's fun, because he's not used to any of this. I can't believe he's never seen an exploding pen. I figured they made those things in Japan. Once I assured him that his face wasn't on fire, he was cool with it.

It's funny because earlier in the game, I'd had a single with Raul (Ibanez) on second base and he didn't score, ... We were joking on the bench. Reeder said he would have scored on that one. And then later he's on second and he doesn't score. It's just one of those things. We didn't think any more about it.

You try not to hope. Hope is not a good word. That's half the battle. You've got to believe you can win.

It's nice, especially in this ballpark, because there were a lot of questions about whether I could do it here.

It's not an award you want to win more than once.

Everyone knows he'll have his 200 hits by the end of September, That's possible, too.

It's not a milestone. When you first get to the big leagues, you don't think in terms of getting 1,000 hits. It's just something that can happen when you stay around awhile.

I'm getting consistent at the plate. I'm starting to see teams for the second and third times. I'm settling in. I think it's working.

If not now, then when? The time is perfect for a change, I think. I know I can do better than I've been doing. Right now my swing is in a bad place.

I haven't done anything to hurt it, except play 150 games. I'll be back at first.

I remember missing balls and hitting them out that way. I can't believe they brought it in. That will be good for Jenks (Geoff Jenkins).

I hit that one good. He threw me a good split to start me off with. The encouraging side is I stayed back and went more off-speed conscious, and just kind of reacted to the fast ball. It's a good sign for me.

He's smart and he's got the ability to throw a pitch where he wants it. He's a student of the game. Guys who are younger should be hanging around his locker because he knows exactly what to do to every hitter.

I didn't have to drive a half hour to get to a batting cage. It wasn't such a chore to leave the family and go hit. I could go down there at 9:30 at night if I wanted. I just hit a lot more.

He threw the ball well, man. He was hitting his spots, and he had his velocity back, too. Watching some of his starts, he's been in the low 90s, and today he stayed around 94 and 95.

He threw it right there. It definitely was a strike. Right down the tube. Outside corner.

He's intense. Back in the old city again, I'm sure that played a role.

The truth is that this is the worst I've ever felt at the plate for this long a period of time.

The meat of our order still hasn't done anything and we're still winning games.

The meat of our order hasn't really done anything. We're still winning games and floating around .500, so that's good. As soon as we start clicking and doing some things that we can do, we'll start winning more consistently.

The meat of our order hasn't really done anything.