Tony Russa Playing Quotations

He is playing so good in every facet of the game. He's hitting fourth, and that's because nothing bothers him. He just plays. He's been as important as anybody we have; he's had an outstanding year.

He's done everything. Gotten big hits, played defense well, run the bases. He's playing today, so he's still in the mix.

He hasn't started working out hard yet. I don't know enough about his stroke. He missed a lot of playing time in spring training, so I don't know how quick (his return) can be.

I watch the outfield and how neat it is to have guys playing for their lives. You watch those drills, there's a lot in those drills. When you have an outfield that's set they're getting the kinks out.

Over the weekend, he was very aggressive in his playing and it's barking. The medical and training staff think that he should take a day or two.

When you're playing this game, at some point the players are going to look at you and say, 'Aren't you trying as hard as we are?' You're the guy who has to step up and say it,

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

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.

I'm just excited that both of the guys are playing well. That's the best part about second base. The thing about Luna is he's got so much versatility. He can play in the outfield tomorrow if we really want him to.

If you look at last year, we had Scott playing and he had some really big hits, but overall he was really banged up, he wasn't the same the last two months, ... This year we lost four regulars, three of them are boppers, and the guys that took their place did a terrific job of handling the bat, so we played a little different game.

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.

It's a real dream come true to win here. Roland Hemond once told me to enjoy the moment and that's what I'm going to do. The hardest thing to do is win the division. It takes six months. Now we can look forward to playing in October.

Eckstein is playing so well, it's almost in the category of, what's new?