I always tried to do the best. I knew I couldn’t always be the best, but I tried to be.

The fan is the one who suffers. He cheers a guy to a .350 season then watches that player sign with another team. When you destroy fan loyalties, you destroy everything.

Managers don’t have as much leverage as they used to have. We can’t really be the boss.

No, I don’t think my presence will cause an increase in black attendance at Cleveland.

I always tried to do the best. I knew I couldn’t always be the best, but I tried to be.

Close don’t count in baseball. Close only counts in horseshoes and grenades.

You have to have a short memory as a closer.

The way we’re going… if I called up another pitcher, he’d just hang up the phone on me.

But I’m not going to walk Barry Bonds, like some teams do, in the first inning with nobody on.

I haven’t seen a player in this game, as long as I’ve been in it, that can’t be pitched to… Barry is an outstanding ballplayer. I respect him an awful lot. I also have confidence in my pitchers that they can pitch to Barry Bonds and get him out.

I just didn’t have anything to say, so I said nothing.

I know a lot of people on the field – players, coaches, managers – are glad that I’m gone.

At least when it’s in French, I won’t know what the heck they’re saying.

It’s nice to come into a town and be referred to as the manager of the Cleveland Indians instead of as the first black manager.

Pitchers did me a favor when they knocked me down. It made me more determined. I wouldn’t let that pitcher get me out. They say you can’t hit if you’re on your back, but I didn’t hit on my back. I got up.

If the guys on the bench were as good as the guys you have out there, they’d be out there in first place.

If he can hit, he can hit. I don’t care if he came from Class Z league.

People come out to see the players. When do you see a manager anyway? When he’s out on the field arguing with the umpires, making a fool of himself and you know you can’t win, and when he brings out the line-up card.

All in all, I wouldn’t call it a bad outing. It was a short outing.

No. 1, these guys out here on this field. They keep my energy level up. They try hard, they don’t complain about things – and I’d just like to be with them when things are good, and hopefully we can win a pennant together.