Jeff Conine Quotations

He was coaching us through it, ... It's pretty simple. You've got a diamond that represents your line of site. That's the perfect track you want to be on. There's a box, and you want to put your box over the diamond and keep it there. As you're maneuvering the space shuttle you want to stay on that diamond.

He got very emotional when he told us, like your granddad is going away and you're not going to see him anymore. It's tough for him. Baseball is his life.

He doesn't give you many mistakes to hit. It was just command. He was not throwing 95 mph at you. It was just pinpoint control.

He doesn't give you many mistakes to hit and when he does it almost surprises you that he makes a mistake.

He made some mistakes. And, fortunately for us, we didn't miss them.

We can hear him ragging on the umpires when there's a bad call.

We're in the dugout hitting instead of maybe giving up another run,

We're playing terrible. It's disheartening. You're close to being in a race and playing terrible. It's not very fun.

I take that very seriously. I think management, that's one of the reasons that they brought me back. They know I am going to play hard and lead by example. If there is something that needs to be addressed, I don't mind addressing it.

It happened as we were going out on the field. Give him a hug and... got to go play now.

I think someone young with fresh ideas and a different style of baseball will be good for the team. Hopefully, it will be a good fit.

I think everybody believes that we have the kind of talent that can really surprise some people. I don't think anybody picked this team to be in first place last year for two months of the season. I think we're improved from there.

That field is hard as a rock, and it's not the normal field that we play on,

You can get waxed like we did last night and come back and put a performance together like we did tonight. It's a good thing, and it does a lot for your confidence.

We're definitely lacking experience on the field right now.

We had it in our grasp. We could have taken care of business ourselves. We have two teams in front of us, so now we have to scoreboard watch and hope somebody else does it for us.

We had it in our grasp. We could have taken care of business ourselves, and we didn't get the job done. Now we have to hope someone else does it for us.

When I first faced him in '98, I knew he and (Roy) Halladay both had special stuff,

We had chances to win and we didn't do it. Now we're going to have to win them all, I think.

Those guys, anything that's got any air underneath, they're going to run it down. They're probably the fastest outfield in the league.

You know you are getting old when guys you've played with and against become your manager.

When I was first coming up, you were never late, never said anything. It's a rule. You show up on time and work hard, nobody will say anything to you.

We just wish, ... one time, we'd have a yawner.

Every time someone goes out the door and someone comes in, you hope there's improvement, ... because we didn't make the playoffs.

We had a real ugly game yesterday. It probably needed to be said, and it was said. I think everybody took it as men and said, 'You know what? It was ugly and we played poorly. So we have to step it up the last week.

You focus on your end goal -- to make the playoffs. You know what you have to accomplish every night to do that. You go out there and try to win that game. It's a dogfight. When you have this many teams bunched up this tight, it's almost like the last one standing gets to go to the playoffs.

B-Rob was text messaging me every hour, 'Come on back, buddy.

I've been steadily feeling better and better at the plate and feeling more comfortable to hit. I feel like my swing is really good right now.

It would have been nice to get a little bit of separation, but we ran into two of the best pitchers in the big leagues. It was usual Pettitte. He showed us different looks in every at-bat.

The whole state of the team is sad. The whole stadium situation, the financial reality of what they had to do, it is sad.

It was very sobering but in a way uplifting,

Something probably should be said at some point by someone. You hope that's all it has to be said, is once.

You sure hope so. You got to hope and feel encouraged by the fact that, if we keep this team together and play as excitingly as we have next year, that they'll come out to support us.

You sure hope so, ... You got to hope and feel encouraged by the fact that, if we keep this team together and play as excitingly as we have next year, that they'll come out to support us.

A lot of first-pitch strikes, he kept you off balance with a lot of off-speed stuff after fastballs. Obviously that was effective because we didn't get too many square bats on the ball.

A lot of them weren't even baseball fans. We passed out tickets to the game, to occupy their time right now.

They're happy, but they lost everything or don't know what they're coming back to.

It's all about location. He located his fastball on the outside corner all night long.

It's not only his arm. It's his release. He gets rid of it so quickly.

It's disappointing and frustrating. Any time you get a collection of guys like this together and know you have what it takes to make the postseason and you don't, it's classified as a disappointment.

Sobering, but, in a way, uplifting. The people I encountered were in pretty good spirits. They either lost everything or don't know what they're going back to.

That's as good as you're going to see, ... other than Mariano Rivera.

Around the field he was all business. He didn't really socialize or go out with us that often, but he didn't cause problems around the clubhouse, either.

In 2001, I played four different positions and I had a really good time doing it. I accepted it as a challenge. Every indication is I'll be out there quite a lot.

I hit it off the end, a split-finger down and in. I didn't think he was going to catch up to it, but he made a heck of a play.

I don't think some of these guys realize they're in the World Series. Which is probably a good thing.

I don't know if that many people care.

He threw a lot of fastballs and just put them right where he wanted them. It's a perfect example of when a pitcher hits his spots, he's going to be successful.

I don't think they want me on base via a walk. I'm getting some pretty good pitches to hit.

He's not a 300-game winner for no reason. He knows how to make adjustments.

You can't explain it. It just seems to happen.