Tony Russa Quotations | Page 2

That's the only concession we've made. And I don't think having Carp go out there every fifth day is going to diminish our chance of winning.

That's a very good lineup. He pitched deep into the game and pitched well, too.

Whoever is feeding him, I'm going to talk to Wendy (Sanders' wife) and make sure it's the same breakfast and lunch that he's been having. Because what a lift he's given us, four games straight games now. He's been so clutch against good pitching, really good pitching.

When Suppan throws that many pitches, he doesn't feel like he's got good location,

When something like that happens, you put the other club in a bad position, so it's better not to put the club in a bad position, ... But I think my understanding is they understand it was unintentional.

We have one of the game's best closers but he was fresh and we didn't feel like we were pushing him at all. I don't care how great Izzy is, if I'm on the other side they may think they've got a better chance when the other guy comes out, because Carpenter's just dealing.

You have to fight (the players) from feeling like, 'Hey, whatever happens, happens,' ... Somehow, some way, you have to find a way to make them understand that you have to take care of both the personal and the professional. There's nothing disrespectful about paying respect to the player but also paying respect to your profession.

You can do anything you want with him. You can hit-and-run with him, bunt. We push the game with him quite a bit.

When you're talking about the best first five years in major league history, how's that not huge? Whether it's 100 RBIs, the .300 batting average or 30 homers, it's huge ... it's historic. We're not going to be cool about that one. We just saw history. I don't think you see history in this game that often. When you see it, you applaud it.

We had excellent chances to add and we missed. That makes the game have a bad smell when you miss a point once or twice.

Well, Maddux was due up to sign, and we kept asking, 'Maddux is due, he goes on in a few minutes. Where's Greg? Where's Greg.' And we turned around, and he's there. He had come up, his glasses on, and he walked right through the crowd and nobody saw that it was Greg Maddux. He didn't put on any airs. He was so natural.

When you're playing this game, at some point the players are going to look at you and say, 'Aren't you trying as hard as we are?' You're the guy who has to step up and say it,

When I gave that compliment last year, ... I was hoping that he was going to retire.

Tip your to hat to Roger Clemens. You could tell he was ouchy there, and we didn't get anything off him.

We worked hard to get here. The club has been so relentless, as strong-minded as you can be.

We worked hard to get here. Our club has been so relentless, and we're in a great position. ... The club has been absolutely relentless, and as strong-minded as you can be. This club is mentally and physically very, very tough.

We understand we're officially in October baseball. It just doesn't seem right to celebrate when your magic number is one.

There are a lot of pieces that remind you of the old Busch. There's enough there to remind you of the old Busch. And a lot of it will depend on how we play.

We like playing on the road. We love playing at home. So like versus love.

We've been really concerned the whole second half that a stretch of bad play was right in front of us and I think that's kept us pushing and we've been able to avoid it. I don't want to lose that concern even though we're starting to get healthy.

We saved runs all night long. That's the way you had to win that game, because they had so many opportunities. Our defense stood out.

When you face a guy who's been such a great teammate, and we have experienced so much together, it makes it a lot more personal. We know him, he knows us. It's definitely a different type of game.

When you go against a guy like Greg Maddux or a Roger Clemens, I don't care if it's a regular season game, is a guy with that kind of command and if he starts getting an edge he pushes and pushes it so it's up to whoever the umpire is,

We've got to get him going. He's one of our key guys, so whatever it takes. If hitting in the middle gets him going, then we'll do something else at second. I hope he gets it going, because he can help us wherever he hits.

We've just gotten so lucky. Like Gretchen saying she would help. She's going to do our show on Sunday night. On Monday, she goes to Dallas to open her first national tour as a headliner. That she would do this, donate her time, is incredible.

We would have taken the zero even if Houston loses.  The object is just to get (our magic number) to zero, ... If you have your preference though it's to win a game to get there.

When we've got into some kind of adversity, when we've had to go left or right, up or down, it's been good for us. And the reason that it's worked that way is that these guys have been very strong-minded, very tough-minded about not conceding anything.

When we've been in some kind of adversity, and we've had to go left or right or up or down, it's been good for us. Hopefully, it will be good for us today. It's better to think that than the other.

Well, I bet if they had their hand on a bible, they'll tell you they don't think we're really good because they beat us four out of seven, so I hope we throw out the regular season. We saw them play well, and they play well enough to win a championship, and that's really what counts. They're in the tournament.

To me, 2002 was so personal and emotional. I believe that you create your own destiny, but it was almost like there was a plan for us. I don't feel that this time. I feel this is more normal. The reason we've won is because we've played the best. If we play the best in the postseason, we should win. And if we don't, we'll get beat. But 2002 was the only year I had the feeling it was inevitable.

Those two swings were sweet Jim Edmonds swings. A couple of others times, he probably put a little too much into it.

What's different about this club, when you have this many setbacks, it's usually part of why you don't win or you barely squeeze by in the last week of the season with a good but not great record. To have this kind of run and play this quality of baseball for this long is why this club deserves a very different kind of credit.

You hoped it would be complicated. We're going to have some decisions to make, which is good.

What a performance we're watching. It's just been a privilege to watch this kind of excellence.

What a performance we're watching. It's been a privilege to watch this kind of excellence. A lot like our first baseman. ... He's had a great, great year. Nobody has had a greater one.

You have to recognize that you have a chance to have a special place in baseball history, so you're going about it for more than just the moment or the money or the stats or the attention. I think that will be the key for some of these really terrific young pitchers. You have to be really good, and at some point you have to dedicate yourself to your place in baseball history.

We went through this last year. ... We're not going to get into wild-card formulas. The magic number has got to be zero to celebrate. It is one. ... It's a great feeling to know we're going to play in October, but we've always been taught you're a champion when it gets to zero.

Every time we play him in the last two-three innings of a game, we're pushing him. It wouldn't be a bad idea for him not to play nine too often.

It would prove that point that the attention should be on the players and not the managers.

Think about it, I brought him into a tie game, how much more do you want to expand the role? He pitched three innings, so it's going to be a couple of days before he's back out there.

The whole point about resting guys is all academic as of this week because we've got days off, and I don't have to rest anybody,

I've answered this question every time exactly how I believe it, and that is that we had the luxury of a crooked-number lead, and the responsibility of our relievers were No. 1: Get outs. But No. 2: Don't give them any cheap opportunities, which means walking guys because you're being too fine,

See, that's the kind of question that will end the session faster than a pause. You got something else you want to ask? That thing was over the day after, wasn't it? There was nothing that happened.

(Opponents) still think he's a dangerous hitter, ... I don't think clubs look forward to facing him. If you think there's somebody who gives you a better chance to win than Larry, you put that person in there. I don't see him.

Normally, when you miss chances like that, ... it comes back to haunt you.

Somebody raised a question that he wears down in the second half and I checked the stats. His numbers are better in the second half.

Someone told me a long time ago a good test in situations like this, ... You ask the guy, 'If this was your free agent year, when could you play?'

So you get Jim four and Walker in the five spot. I think that the other thing, too, if Reggie is not playing in the middle of the lineup and you leave Jim second, there isn't as much thump in the middle. So let's put some thump in the middle, and So gives you a lot of options.

Depends on the game, depends on the situation. I think he's getting closer to what he is. Does that mean we would hesitate to use him? Probably not. Does it mean it would be nice to keep him moving in a positive direction? Yes.

Any way you slice it, he was outstanding. There were several times when there was some serious thump at the plate and he made good pitches.

Any pitcher can make a mistake, and we're good enough to capitalize. But (Arroyo) did enough good things. He got a lot of outs in a lot of different parts of the zone. That's good pitching. If we pitch good, I always think there's a chance we're going to break through any particular inning.

And then the other stuff falls into place. As you saw there, that's what he's been doing all year long. I can't remember seeing a pitcher all the years that I've managed that has been so good every time out.

Any of you guys that cast any kind of negative implication on Albert, you ought to be ... ashamed of yourselves.

The bunting side of the game hasn't been the easiest thing for Chris and he's worked really hard,

The bunting side of the game has not been the easiest thing for Chris and he's worked really hard,

That's just the way he pitches. I think it has more to do with him mentally concentrating really well. He hasn't let anything get away from him.

That's just the story of the postseason, ... Whether it was Atlanta against Houston or us against San Diego, or you take what the White Sox have done to (Vladimir) Guerrero and Garret Anderson, if you pitch really well, it's tough.

That shows you what Juan is capable of doing. We don't win that game without him being a hero, a star.

That's how he pitched early in the year. He just got in a funk. In the middle of that funk, he had a couple of games like this and we couldn't score for him. ... This is what he's capable of doing.

That's how he pitched early in the year. He just got in a funk,

Albert's award was well deserved because he was the most valuable player to our team across the board, as soon as he showed up to the ballpark until he left. His value went well beyond statistics.

You're watching the number and go '10-9-8' and get to one and you're going to celebrate? Zero is when you celebrate. That's what we're doing to do.

You take your hat off to Roger Clemens. You could tell he was ouchy there a little bit.

This is how he pitched earlier in the year. He just got into a funk. It happens to pitchers, it happens to hitters, it happens to defenders. And in the middle of that funk, he had a couple of games like this. Against Washington and today, this was the way he was earlier in the year. This is just his second year in the rotation; he's still learning.

This is one of the toughest losses, and one of the best losses I can remember, just because what the club showed. It was impressive watching them compete like that. I'm just talking about our team. They did the same thing.

They have done some really good things, mixed their pitchers or patterns up. I think no matter how good you pitch, we've got so many weapons, there's a way for us to break through and we haven't.

You can't lose them the way we lost them. When you score one or two against a pitching staff that's last in the league. It's a mystery.

There's a way to win when the other guy is pitching good against you. You've got to pitch and defend well against them. We didn't defend that well today, either.

There's a lot of pieces that remind you of the old Busch, especially in a 3 o'clock game when it's about 5 and you can't hardly see. It think it's a beautiful ballpark.

There's a lot of stuff (left to figure out). It's not just John Rodriguez.

It's just toughness. This club has physical and mental toughness that's special. That's the way I describe it. I just think we have a special mental and physical toughness.

It's a special burden on the offense to do something this series.

It's a better setup. We could have made an adjustment and pitched Matt tomorrow, or Supp tomorrow, whichever, but it's a better setup for us.

It's a better setup, ... We could have made an adjustment and pitched Matt tomorrow, or Supp tomorrow, whichever, but it's a better setup for us.

It wasn't good enough. It looked like he was kind of hurrying to get outs. He missed his location a couple of times, they've got a dangerous lineup and they made him pay.

It's a real dream come true to win here. Roland Hemond once told me to enjoy the moment and that's what I'm going to do. The hardest thing to do is win the division. It takes six months. Now we can look forward to playing in October.

Forever now, as long as baseball history is repeated, that home run is going to be part of history and Albert will have his place in it.

For a guy who is supposed to be very tough, he's got a lot of cupcake in him. I saw him in an afternoon game in Cincinnati and he had his full beard on, but his wife didn't like it so he shaved it. He's macho with an asterisk.

Then there's a consequence because that'll be picked up someplace and it'll get attached to him some and he'll lose some points with legitimate fans and people in uniforms. It's a shame. How about how hard he works every day? How he cheers for his team when he's 0 for four? And all these other million things he does right? Somebody says he lingers at the plate? That's real tired.

It's not the way you'd like to set it up, where all of a sudden a guy who has pitched well as a starter, you make him a reliever,

It's not the way you'd like to set it up, to all of a sudden take a guy who has pitched well as a starter and make him a reliever,

It's not the way you'd like to set it up. All of a sudden you take a guy who has pitched well as a starter (Marquis) and make him a reliever. But you've got to do what you've got to do,

It makes it a lot more personal, ... I mean, whoever you're facing, you know professionally what's at stake. But when you face a guy who's been such a great teammate, we have experienced so much together, it makes it a lot more personal.

It's good for you guys. Maybe you'll get off his case a little bit.

It's been a great story all year long, how we've been able to compensate for some really important pieces that have not been available, ... He's an important piece and we're still hanging in there.

Everybody has their strong points, and that's an important one for him. He's done everything. He's gotten big hits, he's played defense well, he has run the bases.

That's the difference in the game. We fell behind by two and then we battled back, did a real good job of scoring the two, and then we had a chance for more. We got the two to tie it and we got a lot of momentum going.

It's something he should have. It's totally different from his cutter and his fastball,

Eckstein is playing so well, it's almost in the category of, what's new?

The best way to keep yourself competitive is not to change anything. Right now we're trying to grind out wins and win the division.

The ball Albert hit would've gone out anywhere. There weren't balls that were hit to the warning track that did not go out that would have gone out in other ballparks. I think it's going to play like the other one.

Take your hat off to him. He never put the ball over the middle of the plate when we had a chance to hurt him.

It's classic baseball, ... The winner's in doubt. That's why you play.

It's tough enough to get one base hit in the big leagues.

They were really good together, and this is a tough lineup. If Marquis wasn't pitching, I probably would have waited till tomorrow.

I want to make sure Al Reyes gets the credit he deserves, but you don't want to speak so much about that and pretty soon it sounds like we can't win without him, ... That's an important miss for us, but we have other guys who can step up.

not what I wanted to hear. I would've wanted to hear him say he was ready to do whatever the team needed him to do in this situation.

The neck where he had the whiplash, that's what's sore -- more sore.

It's not about him; it's about the team, ... I told him, 'If you're going to be unhappy and pouting, then I can't put you out there to pitch.' He said he was unhappy, but he was ready to do whatever the team needs. I'm comfortable that's how he really feels.

It's really a smart move on his part because once you're in that closer role, there are days you just got to go, you got to risk it. But here we can protect him better. For him and for us it makes a lot of sense.