Phil Nevin Quotations

Where is he? It's his first day, and he's already 20 minutes late. I hope someone is going to make him run laps.

No, ... I just don't think I could do that.

I hate to keep saying it's early every day. It's obviously ... hopefully there's some learning experience in this. We've got to start finding ways to win and not keep finding ways to lose.

I felt for Bard behind the plate. That job is not fun, it's a battle every five days. I'd rather hit it than catch it.

I didn't handle anything well. It was my most embarrassing season, and I was basically immature about the whole situation.

He's going to be darn good. You've got to remember he's only 20 years old. You don't see arms like his come along very often.

Hopefully, this team will start winning and they don't have anybody else to boo and it'll be smooth sailing in San Diego for a while.

I think everybody in here will be disappointed if we don't win the division title.

Whether I hit well or not, I feel comfortable here. Last year I didn't feel comfortable here. Mentally I was off. It's my fault for handling the trade the way I did. This year I feel comfortable from at-bat to at-bat. Last year, I felt I was just pinch-hitting a few times.

We just hadn't had that big hit in a long time.

We did a good job of not chasing anything when he wasn't throwing strikes. You saw him out there throwing strikes and pounding the zone. He's as good as there is at that age. He's going to be dominant. You don't see many arms like that come around very often.

Best hitting coach in baseball, ... He has this way of communicating and getting things through to you. We look at what we're doing like what Tiger Woods went through, revamping the swing. He took a few steps back and one step forward.

Sometimes a change in scenery is good, sometimes time runs out in a certain spot. It did for me here. There's no animosity or anger toward anything. It's been an unbelievable ride here, obviously something I'll never forget. There'll be some great memories.

You should have been here, I was hitting fourth,

At least I wasn't pulled out of the lineup like I was in the doubleheader. How can you fault a guy for wanting to play? We don't make out the lineup.

It seems like each night we've talked about it. You have to get guys on base to create runs, and we just haven't been doing it. We're a better hitting team than this. I think everybody knows that.

It's a good park to hit in, a very fair park, ... I still don't have anything bad to say about Petco. It's a beautiful place. But the numbers don't lie. Guys used to hitting 30-35 homers are hitting 15-20. Do the math.

Eddie is a guy who usually comes right after you throwing strikes. So I was swinging coming out of the gate. He just missed.

I'm done trying to figure those things out, ... The more I try to figure them out, the bigger headache I get.

I'm going to go in and say goodbye to my teammates and start packing and get my stuff ready to go to Toronto. I'm excited. I honestly am. It's an opportunity to play, it's a great organization, there's some great people there that I do know from a long time ago. I'm just excited to get over there.

I'm looking forward to making up for things this year.

I'm more in the flow of the game. Last year, it was like pinch-hitting three times.

I'll be honest with you. If I'd have been in the fourth year of my contract, if I'd have had one year left on my deal, I probably would have done it. You don't get that many chances to win.

I just go up there and whale away after it and hope it hits the barrel of the bat. I don't think there's any plan. The biggest key is having guys on base. When you do that, he has to throw it for a strike. If he does, he might leave it up, it will tumble more and you can get good swings at it.

I guess my job, ... is to come out and do well in batting practice.

I feel comfortable here. Last year, I wasn't at all. It was my fault for not handling the trade well.

He's obviously capable of driving the ball out of the ballpark. Things sometimes come in bunches. You'd like to see them come consistently, but Kevin has one of the best right-handed swings around. He can help us when he gets hot.