Homers Quotes

Of course I`d take 40 homers, a .330 average and 100 RBIs, but it can be better. I want to get better every year. I never want to be satisfied.

You`ve definitely got to be careful. That last pitch he could have hit 450 feet. Their whole lineup is awesome. They`re approaching a major-league record for homers. With the tying run at the plate, everyone in that lineup you approach as if they can hit a home run. Young hit a tough pitch. He showed why he`s leading the major leagues in hits. I just tried to keep the ball down against Teixeira.

Those are three great players, ... You can feel good about your accomplishment when you`re mentioned with those players. Hitting 40 homers is a great number that not many people get to.

Only sixteen players have hit fifty or more homers in a season. To me, that`s a very special milestone.

The key to winning baseball games is pitching, fundamentals, and three run homers.

I don`t see that the strike zone as different. I don`t see that there`s any stigma of American or National League as a player. The only real difference I see is that, in the American League, seven guys in the lineup will swing for homers. In the National, it`s only about four. The rest of them will hit the other way or do whatever.

I did give up four and a couple of big homers, but my offence did the job today hitting and the defence of course did it again, ... I need to keep down a little bit better. I got some balls up. Pena`s was a fastball on the corner, but it was up. He got extension. I haven`t seen a ball hit that far in a while. I got away with a bunch. They popped some up. Overall, I have to work knees down, that`s my goal.

People are always talking about momentum, but I don`t believe in momentum. Momentum changes with one hanging curveball. That`s the thing about baseball. It`s the one sport where you really, really just never know. The guy you least expect gets into the postseason, hits .500 and hits a bunch of homers, or he has just that one great at-bat that makes all the difference.

You see a kid like Justin-Siena`s Brett Wallace (who hit 12 homers in 75 at-bats last season as a high school senior) you are going to be curious. (In) the majors, there are actually very few guys with plus power. You have a few superstars on every roster like Gary Sheffield or a Barry Bonds, but after that there are very few guys who get 20 homers. Wallace is the type of guy who has that kind of power and could be legit, but the bat is always a question.

He`s kind of like that sheep dog that keeps showing up in the cartoon, ... He punches in, punches out, he doesn`t have a whole lot to say. But you look up at the board and he`s got double-digit homers (10), he`s got (63) RBIs. As I`ve said all year long, he`s hit the ball harder, with more consistency, and made more hard outs than anybody on this ballclub right now. Anytime you`ve got Todd Helton on your ballclub, that`s something.

(OAKLAND: Top starters Rich Harden and Barry Zito will get an extra day of rest next week. Dan Haren will pitch Tuesday at Detroit and Kirk Saarloos on Wednesday. ... DH-1B Scott Hatteberg has a strained right stomach muscle, though he played Saturday. Manager Ken Macha is considering keeping Hatteberg out of the lineup Sunday and Tuesday, giving him a total of three days to rest with Monday`s off day. ... Macha would like to get LHP Ricardo Rincon into a game soon. He hasn`t pitched since Monday. ... OF Jay Payton is feeling the best he has at the plate in a long time. He has five homers in his last 11 games, and he homered in consecutive games for the third time since joining the A`s on July 13 in a trade with Boston.) Right now I feel as good as I ever have, ... A couple of minor things make a world of difference.

(Clemens, a right-handed hitter with power to all fields, has hit over .300 with Greeneville and belted several mammoth homers. His first was a grand slam and reached the football stadium over the right-field hill in Johnson City. A blast atop the clubhouse in Pulaski, Va., was estimated to have gone 515 feet. His father wasn`t there for either.He was at a speaking engagement when Koby hit his grand slam and wondered why his cellphone kept vibrating. His wife, Debbie, and others were trying to let him know.) He`s on his way and he hasn`t done it on my coattails, ... I`m happy for him. I`m just kicking back and enjoying it.

I don`t know how that ball went out, ... Usually the wind knocks it down to right field. It`s probably luck. I usually hit one of those streaks every year, even though I don`t hit a lot of homers.