"Everybody talked about our offense. You better check the stats. We didn't make a lot of changes. You can't just overhaul things all at one time, get great offense, defense, speed, pitching. You don't do it overnight. We're always trying to improve in areas. We were in the upper-middle in offense. It's not like we were in the lower third."
Dusty Baker (Daily Herald - 3/18/04)

"He played. He played and that's big. That means a lot to the players. Because he played the game and played the game as well as he did for as many years as he did, I think that's automatic respect. I've admired his career. I grew up a Reds fan. I didn't like him much when he played for the Dodgers, but I admired what he did in the game. He's taken teams to the postseason before and hopefully he'll do it again."
Greg Maddux, on Baker (Cubs.com - 3/17/04)

"It was all American kids on the [Air Force] base. We were kind of fenced in. Outside the base were the 'gypsies.' That's what we called (the Spanish kids). I think that's where we learned how to throw. We used to have rock fights over the fence. It was all in good fun."
Maddux, on his childhood shenanigans with brother Mike (Cubs.com - 3/17/04)

"They won't let me do anything. I can't even shag [balls]. They don't want me running around. They don't want me to take [batting practice] because of the rotation [of the right foot], having to push off on it. They don't want me to aggravate it. They won't let me play golf, either."
Mark Prior (Chicago Tribune - 3/17/04)

"I wouldn't say I have to pitch my way back onto the team because I think they know what I can do. And, barring disaster this year, having a bad season... If I have a solid season they know what I'm going to do, and it's going to be their decision more than mine, because I want to be here. It'll come down to whether they want me here."
Matt Clement (Chicago Tribune - 3/15/04)

"I would have loved to go back [to the Cubs]. Last year was the most enjoyable experience of my career, and that's not taking anything away from anywhere else. It's just that whole thing about Wrigley and Chicago baseball and being able to walk to the park from where I was staying. I mean, the last month of the season, it was like a playoff game every day. There's no way I can do justice trying to describe it. I would have gone back in a heartbeat. Money wouldn't have mattered."
Eric Karros (L.A. Times - 3/14/04)

"In every bullpen, you need the [jerk], you need the good guy or Bible guy or whatever, you need the crazy SOB, and then you need the reasonable SOB that keeps everybody else's head straight and keeps the focus on the field. I'm the crazy SOB. At least I was in Minnesota. I don't know yet about here. I might have to be the peacemaker here because you got Farnsworth, you know."
LaTroy Hawkins (Chicago Sun-Times - 3/14/04)