Don Cooper Great Quotations

I didn't ask him about the back. But I'm not going to ask him about it anymore. If he's able to go Sunday (his next scheduled appearance), he'll be there. I don't think he felt great because of some of the movements he was making in the dugout, but it's going to be: Can he manage the pain?

My perception was that he was a great physical specimen, and what a worker. He didn't have as much confidence in himself as he should, wasn't as aggressive as he should be, and we began a process - and it was a process - of getting him to believe in himself.

To me, what's riding on this now is if we go out there and do our thing - which we've already proven to ourselves we can - we've got a chance to be considered a great team. Everybody can do it once. You do it twice and people start raising their eyebrows.

I sit back and wait for Kenny to do stuff, and I know he will be doing things, and I've never been disappointed. We've made great moves to make our team stronger and created chances for young guys to prove themselves. That sort of thing always seems to be true of the best teams.

It's his first full season in the big leagues, so he has a challenge ahead of him. The challenge is to harness those four great pitches he has. If he can throw to the glove this year, it's game over.