They say you come to the ballpark and you'll see something you haven't seen, and I haven't seen that before when you hit the guy on the helmet with a double-play ball. They get a run out of that and another run on the two-out base hit.

You hate to have a guy have back problems, then he starts changing his arm angle and compensating for it and you end up hurting something else. His teammates, they really convinced me he had had enough.

Stealing isn't just speed. Most of it is knowing the pitcher and knowing what a guy does. He might dip his head before he goes to the plate or he might drop his hands slightly before he goes to the plate or his feet are narrow when he goes to first or he might slide-step.

Ordinarily, they'd be in charge of catching kids their age and the young guys. Now they're on the fast learning curve. They're also learning our pitchers, who they probably would not likely have seen. They're also learning the other hitters in this league. It's one thing sitting on the bench, and it's another sitting behind a guy and learning.

What do I want to find out for? ... I know already. I'd be foolish to try to find out at this point, right? I mean, this guy is going to hit until he can't even walk.

He'll get it; he'll learn. But I'd rather have that fire than I would a guy that you have to light his pilot light to get fire. You don't want to put that fire out. But instead of a raging fire, you want him to channel it like a torch.

I had to talk to one of my players, because we needed some luck. I talked to the luckiest guy I know on Earth --Kirk 'Woody' Rueter. I called Woody and said, 'Woody, I need some of the Woody luck.' He said he sent it to us.

I have learned from hamstrings that when a guy says he feels good, you give him a couple extra days. Invariably, you top a ball and have to beat it out. It happens every time.

I don't doubt that this guy is smart enough to do anything that he really wants to do. I don't know if he was quite pitching to the ballpark . . . and if you ask him he probably wouldn't tell you anyway.

I'm not a guy that sits around and does nothing.

The final words were that our guys here will pull for them and give them some love. I asked the guys who they were rooting for, and everybody is rooting for their own country.

The guys at the end are walking a tight rope until Opening Day starts.

He puts pressure on the opposition. He brings a different dimension to our lineup so we can play small ball and set up the guys behind him to play long ball as well.

I'll use the DH as long as I can until the end of spring, when the pitchers will be going far enough to hit. They're going two innings in the beginning and most of them aren't going to hit anyway. Once they get going four, five innings, I'll start using the pitchers. Initially, I'll try to DH whenever I can to get guys at-bats.

I love that. Especially when you have veteran guys at the back of the bullpen.

I'm open-minded with stuff like that, actually, because I was probably one of the first guys who took some relaxation courses in Venezuela in 1974. I even got hypnotized in '78. I was having trouble concentrating. . . . So, no, I'm very open to a lot of stuff.

I never asked him. I asked other guys and they all said, 'No.' I didn't ask Barry. If you've ever been around Barry, Barry's his own man.

They have to concentrate on what they have to do for us here and today. If it happens, it's part of the game. You can't make guys aware of that. You see certain guys went through waivers, and they have votes on who should be traded and who shouldn't. That has no merit, actually.

They'll have to get some concentrated at-bats. Every year, I send guys who I don't think are ready down to the Minor Leagues to hit at the top and bottom of the order so they get nine to 18 at-bats at a time. When they get back, I'll find out exactly how much they played. In the case of a catcher, you have to get his legs ready squatting up and down in a game, too. We'll do whatever we can to get them ready.

They both were very impressive. We'd heard some things about these guys, but the guys improved a lot. Fox was one of the most improved guys in camp. He's a young guy, with very little experience in the Minor Leagues. Those guys are doing good.

It takes awhile. I'm glad all these guys are here. They've been doing a lot of drills. They've been doing a lot of things. You've got verbal direction instructions to each other. ... It's a unit you want to get together as quickly as possible, especially on defense.

No -- I wish he'd gotten better. We all wish he'd gotten better. He wishes he'd gotten better. You don't just lose your skill. Sometimes you can't put your finger on it. He's tried a lot of stuff. It's not through lack of effort or hard work. He's worked hard. Guys around the league ask me, 'What's up?' and I don't know what to tell them.

I've known guys who go home early and, especially when you don't go to the postseason, it makes for a long, long winter. That extra month at home, you start getting ready to go back in December.

It's something we talked about. Again, the decision is up to the player. There's quite a bit of pressure on these guys, especially the guys from Latin America more than anybody because of the magnitude and importance of baseball in those areas.