respect sammy
"I understand the level people are used to seeing me, but they have to understand I play every day. I never got hurt until last year."
Sammy Sosa (Cubs.com 7/11/04)
"[Fans] have to give me a break. (The numbers) don't mean I'm out. This year, if I don't hit 40 home runs am I not any good? If I don't hit 35, am I no good?"
Sosa (Cubs.com 7/11/04)

trade winds
"If we have a chance to get better, we certainly will look into it. But we're not going to get into other people's players or potential people who could be in deals or might be in deals. I'm looking forward to the second half and hopefully getting our own guys back."
Jim Hendry (Cubs.com 7/15/04)

"The only way I would probably want to leave would be that I'm benefitting the Diamondbacks in leaving."
Randy Johnson (Chicago Sun-Times 7/13/04)

"This team is similar to Boston. It's the same thing. Absolutely [Nomar would] fit in. He has been through the wars and he'd handle this very well."
Todd Walker (Chicago Tribune 7/15/04)

prior

"I said, 'Let's get through the first inning.' We went inside and tried to get some things ironed out, then went back out and kind of gutted through two hitters. I think I knew after two pitches that things weren't right. I wasn't going to put the team in jeopardy by me limping through that inning or put myself in jeopardy."
Mark Prior (Cubs.com 7/15/04)
"It wasn't any sharp pain. It was real dull and sometimes not even there. He threw a good side in St. Louis last Sunday and had no problems."
Larry Rothschild (Cubs.com 7/16/04)

"It's Mark Prior. We're not going to take any chances here."
Cubs trainer Dave Groeschner (Cubs.com 7/15/04)

"It just makes you sick to your stomach."
Dusty Baker, on Prior leaving the game with an apparent injury (Cubs.com 7/15/04)
"The exact words used by Dr. (Stephen) Adams were that the ligament is robust and in perfect shape. There's absolutely no possibility of Tommy John (surgery) or ligament reconstruction or anything like that."
Hendry (Cubs.com 7/16/04)

"We're in an area that's unknown."
Rothschild (Cubs.com 7/16/04)

"That elbow's going to go. The inside of [Mark Prior's] elbow has got to be hurting from all the force being put on it. That big loop (taking his arm behind his head) is going to snap his UCL."
Dr. Mike Marshall (Daily Herald 7/18/04)

"I do not doubt Mr. Hendry or the doctors. Unfortunately, neither understands the inappropriate forces that Mr. Prior applies that exceed the physiological limits of his pitching elbow. If he does not change how he applies force, then this discomfort will continue."
Marshall (Daily Herald 7/18/04)

"Somehow, we've got to get people to understand the traditional pitching motion is broken. There's absolutely no reason for pitching-arm injuries."
Marshall (Daily Herald 7/18/04)

"If Prior, for instance, wanted to embark upon Marshall's 280-day pitching program, [Marshall] promises the Cubs prodigy will add 5-8 mph to his fastball - in addition to making his motion injury-free."
Lindsey Willhite, citing Marshall's claims (Daily Herald 7/18/04)

"My dream is to teach 10 pitchers of (Prior's) quality and have them as a staff. You'd just watch them annihilate hitters - and they'd never be sore or stiff."
Marshall (Daily Herald 7/18/04)

"He let it go pretty good. It's good to see him able to do that and not have [elbow pain] barking at him at all. We'll see how he is [Monday] and go from there."
Rothschild (Chicago Tribune 7/19/04)

miscellanea

"This [season] has been the most trying, the worst, because it has been a lot of people [injured], everyone almost."
Baker (Daily Herald 7/17/04)

"I knew that (I'd be on the bench) but I also didn't know I'd get off to the start I got off to and playing well. That makes it a little more difficult. I'm not going to rock the boat on any of that. I knew going in what my role was. It'll be different next year, wherever I'm at. I didn't realize it'd be this tough."
Walker (Cubs.com 7/16/04)
"He's on a performance count."
Baker, on whether there was a pitch count in Kerry Wood's first start off the DL (Cubs.com 7/11/04)

"With us scoring a few runs, [Matt Clement] should have made the All-Star team. He really should only have three or four losses."
Gary Matthews (7/16/04)

"But to win, you have to have clutch hitting and allow yourself to do what you need to do by having a good at-bat. Swinging at high pitches and balls in the dirt, you're not mentally into the game or into what the pitcher's trying to do to you."
Matthews (7/16/04)

"I'm just trying to win and trying to keep the team in the game. I feel I've been doing a decent job of that."
Matt Clement (Cubs.com 7/16/04)