Drayton McLane Quotations

We've very, very excited about Preston Wilson. He wants to be with a champion, and we are still committed to being that champion. We want to go back to that World Series. Preston is a great defensive player with speed, and last year he had 90 RBIs. This is exactly what we're looking for.

We were hoping to have had something accomplished by now, or earlier, but we certainly have to respect that.

If we could have gotten that one big hit, we could have won that game. We just didn't get that hit.

I don't know what the going rate is. I know we paid him $18 million last year. We're just going to have to think it through and see where Roger is at.

I am easy. I'm kind, thoughtful, benevolent, easygoing. I'm a pushover.

Barry Axelrod has told us Jeff will be there and we'll welcome him and give him every opportunity. We have a rehabilitation program, and that's what we'll start on (today) when he gets here.

We took some real risks when we allowed Jeff to participate in the World Series. And our attorneys advised us there were risks. We felt we were well within the contract to allow him to do so. We felt we owed him the right and our fans the right to see him in the World Series if we got there.

We told him we certainly needed an answer by the latter part of this week. We don't want to be left out in the cold if we can't get Beltran. Moises Alou has moved on. Steve Finley has moved on.

His prestige, the respect people had for him then was extremely important. We wouldn't have won it without his support.

He was one of the first to contact me.

It hurt personally because I had such admiration for Ken and Enron. But that was the right thing to do at the time.

It hurt for a minute, but now I'm ready to go. We're still in charge. It will just make it all the more meaningful when we do win it in St. Louis.

I think we have a better opportunity than any other team. I think the key time will be the winter meetings.

We're very, very excited about Preston Wilson. His enthusiasm is as sky high as ours is. He wants to be a champion, and we are still committed to being that champion. We want to go back to that World Series and win the World Series.

(Boras) updated me. He's still negotiating. We're still in it, but the time is getting short. They've given us no indication (Beltran is close to signing with the Mets). We're patiently waiting for some positive developments. We have three days to go, and in baseball, that's a long way to go. We did not change our offer in any way.

Each year, with our players, I ask them what their goals are. I said, 'Roy, what is one of your goals?' He said, 'To own a bulldozer.' That kind of took me back a little bit. I had never heard that before.

You're going to get me in trouble with the commissioner (Bud Selig).

It was our desire to get to the World Series, and we did that. But we wanted to win. Our mission is to win the World Series, and we'll get to work on that in the morning.

That just wasn't it. He kept throwing different things at us at the last hour. We never got a bunch of things resolved.

Things came together through so much adversity this year. There were so many issues that it took time. But the character came out in them, and that was important when they lost Monday night. Two days later, we're champions.

The insurance policy, from their point of view, would be the strongest if he did not come to spring training. I'm unsure of where we are on that.

I'm going to call him the first day. Roger knows that and Randy (Hendricks) knows that. I told Roger he better be ready to go May 1.

If you read the fine print, it says that ($30 million) figure doesn't account for interest, depreciation and other things. You take all those off, and most of that disappears.

I haven't heard from Scott Boras since Thursday.

In the original policy, (the insurance company) claims that he could not come to Spring Training. We're going to take all of the information we have and meet with them and see if there is any opportunity (for Bagwell to play in Spring Training). Jeff just wants the opportunity.

By our going ahead and extending him, this shows the respect and admiration we have for Phil ... as a leader and as a person of accomplishment.

He came here at an awkward time at the All-Star break last year. He made a huge difference this year. It took time with Andy Pettitte coming off (elbow) surgery and Lance Berkman coming off knee surgery.