Jay Payton Quotes (19 Quotes)

I love Oakland because they gave me an opportunity and I want to be here and help them win, but if I'm not an everyday guy, I'd be open to whatever else is out there. If Boston had an everyday job in center field, I certainly wouldn't block that.

You play 162 games and you're going to go through cycles of both hot and cold. I'll take it if we stay hot.

I've had a year to learn the pitching in this league and that will help.

OAKLAND Top starters Rich Harden and Barry Zito will get an extra day of rest next week. Dan Haren will pitch Tuesday at Detroit and Kirk Saarloos on Wednesday. ... DH-1B Scott Hatteberg has a strained right stomach muscle, though he played Saturday. Manager Ken Macha is considering keeping Hatteberg out of the lineup Sunday and Tuesday, giving him a total of three days to rest with Monday's off day. ... Macha would like to get LHP Ricardo Rincon into a game soon. He hasn't pitched since Monday. ... OF Jay Payton is feeling the best he has at the plate in a long time. He has five homers in his last 11 games, and he homered in consecutive games for the third time since joining the A's on July 13 in a trade with Boston. Right now I feel as good as I ever have, ... A couple of minor things make a world of difference.

Those are the last two guys in the world you want to face with a runner at third and one out in a tie game. Nine times out of 10, they're gonna get the run in.

That's been our problem pretty much down the stretch. We haven't been able to capitalize on opportunities. That's why we're five games back instead of even, because we're not swinging the bats a little better.

I didn't want to go headfirst because I'm thinking, if he goes feet-first, then I get spiked. I guess he wasn't really thinking about that too much because he went in headfirst. I thought I might have broken his arm or something at first, but he was OK.

When you play 162 games, you are going to be hot some days and cold some days. I'll take it as long as we're hot more than we're cold.

It's about as bad as it gets. Those are the last two guys in the world you want to face with a guy on third base with less than two outs.

We all feel like every time he goes out there, he's gonna be lights-out.

It was really, really wet. Fortunately, no one got hurt.

There's probably a half a dozen other teams, a dozen other teams, I could be playing for. Actually, as far as playing time, this is one of the worst situations I can be in because if I'm hitting .800 I still wouldn't be playing any more than I am right now because they've got their boys.

We get two hits one night and nine runs the next. If someone can come up with a magic formula on why that happens, he could make millions. That's just baseball.

I didn't say anything vulgar or swear at him. I just kept telling him he missed it. I didn't walk away so he threw me out.

That's about as bad as it gets. Those are the last two guys in the world you'd want to face with a guy at third and less than two out. If you're able to get out of it, you thank your stars, because they're going to drive the guy in nine times out of 10.

I just smacked it up the middle. If that second baseman had gotten to that ball, I probably would have just kept running out of the stadium. Or maybe run out there and picked a fight with him.

We were contagiously all bad at the same time, now we're contagiously all swinging the bats pretty good. Baseball's a funny game. You can't figure it out. When it's good, you just try to enjoy it as long as you can.

That's mainly why I wanted to get out of Boston. Fortunately, it's worked out well maybe a little better than anticipated. But I felt confident. I thought I could help a team win.

I was just trying to cut him off. I didn't want to go head first because if he goes feet first, I get spiked or cleated in the head. I thought I broke his arm at first. I'm glad he's OK. I felt bad for him. I cleated him pretty good.