Tony Russa Quotes (183 Quotes)

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.

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.

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've seen Roy four or five times this year. They've seen Mulder four times. It's not really going to be stuff, it's going to be command you know, do you locate your pitches

We're just going to compete against him. There really is no secret. If we had a plan, we wouldn't talk about it. But there is no plan with him.

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,

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.

(Clemens) is tough enough to hit when it's over the plate and if he starts getting a big plate, that's going to be tough for us. I know in our ballpark, both Tim (McClelland) and Greg (Gibson), and I think Wally will, too, will call a good game and not get excited about the home crowd. You always worry when a guy has good command that he can get somebody excited.

He pitched nine innings against a tough offensive club -- that's dominating. He had a 2-0 pitch to a terrific hitter and he hit the ball out of the state. But that's the last run they got. That's outstanding pitching. No disrespect to anybody in either league who's doing great, but there's nobody greater than Chris. He's clutch.

If you're a scout and you see a guy who can swing like that you say, 'this is a guy with tools. But it's a real difficult thing to jump into.

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.

You've got to make a commitment to playing the game that way, ... That doesn't just happen. That's the way our guys play the game.

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.

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.

Guys like Derrek Lee and Albert Pujols and other guys at the top, Miguel Cabrera , nobody throws the ball down the middle to them, ... So they have to work hard to get everything, and they deserve all the credit.

I think he's a talented guy. I think he runs well. I understand he defends well, he has a nice stroke. That's enough. All I know is it's 2006 and he has a chance.

I was impressed today. I mean, I've been impressed about every time he pitches. But I thought today, he knows he's got a chance to make the club, so everything was different.

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.

He had a lot of reasons to think he'd make the club. He went down and killed (the ball). That sends a strong message about what he has between the ears. ... He's done exactly what we asked him to do.

I think it's huge. With the 2-3-2 format, you let this one get away from you, and who knows what's going to happen tomorrow and then you have three at their place.

The performance is good for the media, so they will get off his case a little bit.

I'll say exactly what I said last year It's one it's not zero. I think we'll take the consistent approach.

You have to think of the loss of a guy and what that means to his teammates and family, ... Your season hasn't even started yet, and you're dealing with this (tragedy). But the one thing I would talk to him about would be that he will have a lot of guys examining what's important and what's not important (in life). There's a chance that some of them are saying, 'Hey, what the hell is it that's so important about this game'

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.

We know him and technically a position player can get here the last two or three weeks and that's plenty of camp. I'm sure he's been working.

I don't necessarily think you can separate the two, ... When you come into a game with a big lead, absolutely the worst thing you can do is to walk guys. That's the only time I'd yell from the dugout - whey they walked somebody. So when you get behind a hitter in that situation, it's more likely a ball catches too much plate.

The impressive thing is he was able to maintain that level of concentration and competitiveness. Most guys, even if you're great, you have a dip once in a while. Every day he pitched it was like the same pitcher.

I think the umpires are smart enough to know how many times Luna has been thrown at. Whether it was intentional or not, I think that was a good call on their part. Enough is enough. It just looks so bad. Not to read intent, but it just looked real bad.

somebody good enough to get the outs in the seventh and eighth innings. We had Gene Nelson and Rick Honeycutt.

So far, it looks like a smart move. When you pick up a catcher in the middle of his 20s like that, we may have something there.

I haven't seen anyone in camp I would hesitate to use in a spring training game. Everyone is working hard.

There's a lot of strengths with this club, and getting double plays is up there with one of the most important.

He's anxious to get out there, but I think if he gets out there he could go backward. We'll just keep moving forward until he gets the green light. If he's cleared to play, he'll play.

We're going to talk, and we're going to make sure that nothing slips through the cracks. Scott is really important, and we're hoping that what he's done is not too much too soon. That's why it's important we talk.

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.

I think he's doing everything at the plate ahead of what we expected. I haven't really talked to him about this weekend, but my guess is he'll probably play.

I think he runs well, I understand he defends well and he's got a nice stroke. I think that's enough. He has some credentials and he competes.

We've won the division, and I think he's lost a little mental edge as far as concentration,

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.

My whole concentration on the game is affected by a pitch that got away. You know, that looks so terrible. The guy is a great pro. I just talked to Julian in there for a long time. Nothing against him, as soon as he fell out of his delivery...the ball has to get down. He's a sinker ball pitcher. That incident screws up the whole night for me.

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.

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,

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.

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.

Since he's been a Cardinal, he has been outstanding to great. And last year, he was just good. I imagine he enjoys outstanding to great. But he was a good player for us last year. And if he's motivated to be better than good, that's good for us.

He's made some improvement, ... With all the treatment, he's got some relief. He's not as sore as he was yesterday, so that's a good sign. But I don't think anybody told me that means he can throw off the mound on a particular day. But I know he has improved.

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.

If you return a lot of the strong nucleus, year to year, for two or three years, I think that'd be an exception. There's too many free agents, there are times money forces you to make decisions to not tender (contracts to) guys who all of a sudden become too expensive. You're trying to prioritize how to spend your money, and everybody faces it.

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.

They have a couple of high-profile veterans Pettitte and Clemens who have had a ton of success. There's probably enough attention to go around. If he was the only guy there pitching he would get more attention, but he gets enough. People know how great he is.