I'm a great believer in the character of the club. To me, character has a lot to do with how you compete. That creates urgency and toughness. That elevates the talent that you have.

There are always distractions, if you allow them.

Toughest thing for me as a young manager is that a lot of my players saw me play. They know how bad I was.

Pressure comes when someone calls on you to perform a task for which you are unprepared.

The thing I learned when I was playing was that your best way of winning was to make it difficult for the other team to score in the last three innings.

I'm very distressed that the report was leaked early so that the initial headline said 'dismissed, fired.' That's 180 degrees from the arrangement we have potentially.

Just because you're down to your last strike, you're not out yet. You can always do more. You'll always have more at-bats to take. That's true in baseball, in rescuing animals, and in life generally.