Tony Russa Saw Quotations

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.

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.

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 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.

I think my first understanding of the significance of Gibson's home run is the drama of what he did that day, as hurt as he was, that being his only at-bat. And if you saw him foul those pitches off and how gimpy he was, it was an incredibly heroic kind of at-bat, if you can use hero in sports,

He (Walker) is so talented. He is a heck of a player. You just imagine when he was really in his prime and healthy. You saw that all the time.

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.