All we can do is play ball. Every time we go out on the field, we do what we do in America -- live in the freedom that our country affords us. |
But as much bashing as we've taken, yeah, we might have given up a 10-game lead, but we won five in a row and came back from (three) down in the last week, |
He got me fired up. The key was my knee and if it could hold up well enough to play on it every day. |
He was definitely fired up those first few innings, the way he was throwing the ball. |
He's (Kenny Rogers) tough. He gives you a lot of looks. I just had one of those nights. He made a couple of mistakes. The home run was a change of speed pitch, it wasn't his fastball. I guessed right a couple of times. |
He's just a good guy. A solid, solid player and person. |
I feel good right now. It was a little stiff yesterday. I can still feel a little bit of it. |
I guarantee you, T.C. has looked back on the situation here and thought about what lessons he can take from that. You probably wouldn't see the same personality you saw here. |
I have been encouraged. I was concerned about certain aspects of the game -- how my body would respond. But I have been encouraged. Would I want to be further along? Sure. Am I further along than some would have expected? Sure. I don't think I've done anything to put myself behind. |
I haven't been in a game for a year. You're not just going to take a run at batting practice and jump into a game, ... Quite honestly, [to play] would be for selfish reasons. |
I think everything I've done [this spring] -- I feel I'm further along than most people thought I would be. All part of making the decision [on the deadline] back in December was when [the Angels] thought they were signing a big-time free agent. If Manny Ramirez is in this room, yeah, the deadline is different. But that is not quite the concern now. |
I think in a lot of ways, I've responded to a lot of things this year kind of like a rookie ¿ as far as appreciating things. I've been around a lot, but you can appreciate things a little bit differently when you've been away. It's a different Opening Day than I've experienced in the past, just because of where I've had to come from. |
I think it's a better outfield than we had last year. Garret did an admirable job in center, but I think his natural position is left. And offensively, [Finley] gives us one more good solid bat. |
I think that is going to be a big step along in my scenario. I hate to sit back and try and figure what they're going to do. I can only control what I do out there. |
I think there's probably been a couple of dozen games all year [like this]. The best just keeps getting better. |