29 Quotes by Buck Martinez

When they got a good pitch to hit, they didn't miss it. They pitched very effectively to the heart of our order. We hit some balls hard. They made quality pitches when they had to.

I think the spirit of the Mexican team will be dramatic. We saw a little bit of it in Tucson the other day.

Nathan is a guy that has been in pennant races, and we have a lot of confidence in him. He's a hard thrower, throws lots of strikes and has the ability to close out games, so we think he will fit in well with this bullpen.

That's the way it is -- we created it ourselves. That's the unique aspect of this. Now, it's up to Korea and Japan.

That's the perils of pool play. You have to be conscious of not falling too far behind and having big run differentials. You have to continue to grind.

The players have been aware that they were going to be involved with this for a while now. But we're taking three catchers for a reason. You can't expect to catch this much this early without getting sore. Fourteen pitchers is another obvious thing. As for the players, we'll take things on an individual basis. For example, Ken Griffey told me he'd be ready to go.

I sensed it was a kind of a bitter moment for them both. I've known them both for a long time, and we really thought they would bring a lot to our team. Then we got down into the numbers of the things and it just didn't work out.

They are a little bit of a mystery because of the uncertainty of who they are going to bring. We hear that the roster that they have submitted has an average age of 24. That's a pretty young roster. It's kind of surprising, but everybody expects that they will have a very representative team.

The World Baseball Classic is going to have an extraordinary impact on the sport. The magnitude of the Classic is enormous. It's designed to further expand the international appeal of baseball, and I think its mission is very similar to XM, which has done an amazing job of adding to the growth and popularity of baseball by giving fans greater access to the game.