It's going to make our team better. I'm excited to have him in the lineup. There are so many dimensions he brings. We need a little spark. It's going to make us better offensively and defensively.
Regardless of what our record is, the goal is to make the playoffs. If you win 100 games and you don't get to the postseason, what good is it? I guarantee you every single team that wins more games than us this year would like to be in our position.
A real difference is, there were no expectations before, and now there are. People aren't just satisfied with their team winning a division championship. They expect the Padres and Chargers to do more. Personally, I think that's a good thing.
It would have been devastating, really. For us to find a way to come up with a team victory ... it's the biggest win of our year, no doubt about it.
Obviously, it makes it a lot more interesting. You've got the best player, possibly, who's ever played this game back to a team that's been playing well.
I think most teams would have succumbed to the pressures and folded. We have a bunch of guys who are fighters.
We've got a veteran ballclub, and guys who are still very hungry. There's a lot of guys on this team who haven't won. This is an opportunity for us, and we don't want to let it go. There's been no panic, and guys are still banding together.
If you look at the last few World Series champions, ... The Angels, and how well that team played together, and the Marlins, a bunch of young guys at that time that just enjoyed being together. That goes a long way.
I cut school in '84 to see the Cubs and Padres. This is my team. It's special. It's doubly special for me. I missed school to watch this team play. I had dreams of playing for the Padres.
This is really sad. You come all this way to assemble a team and Mike's such a huge part of that. To lose him for any amount of time is disheartening.
We believe, ... we're the best team in baseball.
You've got the best player, possibly, who's ever played this game back to a team that's been playing well. It's one of those things where you try not to get too down on yourself as an organization because we could have put them away.
trying to get guys to understand that you have to work the count, you have to swing at strikes, do all those kinds of things good teams do on the offensive end. But they just haven't been able to do it.
I think last year in the World Series, they did some things that were out of character for them, as far as executing. They didn't seem like the same team as this year. They're very relaxed. You just can't really see any weaknesses in that team.