253 Quotes by Tony Russa

Mentally, is closing tougher than a hitter going out there with 600 at-bats to produce ... tougher than a starting pitcher? For the great closer, it's as tough. He watches the club for eight innings. Then if he goes out there and screws it up, he's got 24 guys to answer to. It's a heck of a deal. Some guys can't handle it.

I guess they don't want it to flare up. (But) everything's a big deal. You don't want it to catch you by surprise.

We like playing on the road. We love playing at home. So like versus love.

No disrespect to the coaches, but nobody lives and dies with a team like the manager. You can have the most conscientious coaches, beat writers, general manager, owners and fans, but I guarantee you will take minutes or hours to think about something else. A manager can't let it go.

I just talked to Scott about his first at-bat, and he's not just going to take. If David gets on second base, he'll go to right field.

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.

Nobody's more frustrated or upset than he is. He's not a happy camper.

We saved runs all night long. That's the way you had to win that game, because they had so many opportunities. Our defense stood out.

(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.