Catcher Quotations

Occasionally, a young catcher is born with a backup's soul. Bob Montgomery was on the Red Sox opening day roster for the entire 1970s, yet he never had more than 254 at-bats in a season.

I was on the phone with him for three hours last night. I tried to talk him out of it. We all did -- his dad (former big league catcher and manager Bob Boone) and his brother Aaron (the third baseman in Cleveland). We sort of ganged up on him, but he said his heart wasn't in it.

I was battling absolutely as hard as I could. A pitcher would rather have a rocket hit off him than have someone stand up there and keep fouling off pitches. That's frustrating for a pitcher. He thinks this is the pitch and you foul it off. I know as a catcher I got frustrated. ... I think it was a great opportunity for a hit, a walk, anything. Once I was three, four minutes into the at bat, I'm thinking 'I have to get on base some way.

I was missing with location in the first with my fastball. After that, I concentrated more on throwing where the catcher was setting up.

When you do it every day, when you go out and throw to a lot of catchers, you don't even think about it. You just assume that a catcher will set up inside or outside, whatever. (This) opens up communications. You can tell them how you want them to set up. It's common sense, but you don't think about.

What makes you a better hitter is getting a pitcher's tendency, or you see the infield moving early or maybe even the catcher tells you what's coming, because it would be very difficult to look for a light and then also on the release point. It's a lot easier as a runner at second base to relay signs or locations, but you can't even see the signs sometimes from second base. And lights from center field? That's not the case here.

We don't have a No. 1 catcher here. We felt like we wanted to see what Ojeda could do. I think this makes sense. We feel we need to look at this kid.

We are grateful that Johnny Bench is the namesake for our award because he is, without a doubt, the greatest catcher to ever play the game. We are very excited to have someone of his caliber support our efforts in honoring the accomplishments of these college players.

Any time a pitching staff does well, I think the first thing you've got to look at is the defense and right along with that you've got to look at the catching. The catcher holds the brain. He's the guy that everybody is looking at to be the leader and take control of the game and keep that pace going. With A.J. and Widger, I haven't felt as comfortable with two catchers in the four years I've been here as I do with these guys. They remember the game plan and they carry it out. That's one of the reasons why we've had the kind of pitching staff we've had this year.

Olivo is a big-time player. The last two days were tough on everyone. For a catcher working both games, I can't imagine. These conditions were tougher than in New York earlier this summer.