Quotes coming to you a day early this week.

sleep

"When I played here, we didn't play any night games. That was one of Chicago's main weapons -- places don't close until late and you've got to get up early."
Dusty Baker (Cubs.com 5/4/04)

"I've never had it before. It could be the beds. They weren't heavenly."
Greg Maddux, on back stiffness (Cubs.com 5/3/04)

"He's weird."
Maddux, on Kerry Wood's habit of sleeping on hotel room floors (Cubs.com 5/5/04)

ex-Cubs

"I (stunk). I have (stunk) before and I'm sure I will (stink) again."
Shawn Estes, in a moment of self-reflection (Daily Herald 5/9/04)

"What I'm learning is how easy the game looks from up here. 'How could that guy pop that pitch up?' But I was popping up that pitch, too. So I'm not as critical of physical mistakes. I will get on players for mental mistakes or not playing the game right."
Mark Grace (Chicago Sun-Times 5/5/04)

the big o

"You've just got to swing your way out of it. It's not like we're striking out, we're just not hitting the ball as hard as we were and finding any holes. You're not worried about it, you just don't like it. I know these guys can hit."
Baker , on the offense (Cubs.com 5/5/04)

"When you rely on the home run, you're going to have some ups and downs. It's like having a basketball team with a bunch of three-point shooters."
Baker (Cubs.com 5/5/04)

no comment

"I talked to Tom Seaver the other day and he said his [pitch] limit was 140. Go look at Nolan Ryan's pitch count. I bet he was 150-160 sometimes. I saw David Cone throw a 150-pitch shutout."
Dusty Baker (Cubs.com 5/8/04)

"When the bonus baby gets hurt, heads fly. Look at what happened when Kerry Wood got hurt. Remember that? There were people ducking everywhere."
Dusty Baker (Cubs.com 5/8/04)

"I always thought baseball needed to have a consulting group. There's some good minds out there that may not have the energy to coach or manage, but they have the mental expertise to teach. That's what I'd like to do, be a consultant. ... I'll talk about something for $5,000 an hour."
Dusty Baker (Cubs.com 5/9/04)

miscellanea

"It hit me so hard that the umpire thought it was a foul ball. I explained to him, 'Maybe you can take a look at my wrist?' and realized what he probably heard was my bone breaking instead of the bat."
Alex Gonzalez (Cubs.com 5/6/04)

"Sooner or later, Joe is going to blow one, and then what happens? Is this what everybody is waiting on? He's tired of hearing what he's not doing."
Dusty Baker (Chicago Sun-Times 5/5/04)

"I don't know if I'm honored, but it's kind of cool. The only thing is now I really don't have a choice, I can't get rid of it."
Matt Clement, on his goatee-wearing fans (St Louis Post-Dispatch 5/9/04)

"I'm not giving him a high-five ever again."
Sammy Sosa, joking about Moises Alou's personal habits (Chicago Sun-Times 5/5/04)