After a bit, another edition of Cubs Quotes. Thanks to J.R. Tomkinson for emailing me a few gems a while back.

Leading Off

"I need Corey's speed up there. [Mark Grudzielanek's] not going real good yet. I didn't want [Derrek Lee] way down in the seventh spot. I wanted Corey where we could use his speed. Corey's getting better, he's bunting more. I think eventually Corey could be like a Lou Brock guy. He's a guy with power, and a guy who can run and can hit with a higher average. It puts pressure on the pitcher to watch him."
Dusty Baker, on Corey Patterson hitting leadoff (Cubs.com - 8/1/04)

"It's something temporary. It could be permanent. I'll see how sharp Nomar is and how he fits. It's like a new guy coming to school. I've been in that situation before. You come to a new school, take the quarterback's job that he's had for years and end up with his girlfriend."
Baker (Cubs.com - 8/1/04)

"Dusty told me before the game, he said, 'Be yourself, be aggressive in the strike zone,' and that's what I tried to do."
Corey Patterson (Chicago Sun-Times - 8/2/04)

"They didn't pitch me any differently. I think pitchers would rather walk you than give up a base hit. A couple of times I was 3-2, and [Randy Wolf] threw me a breaking ball."
Patterson (Chicago Sun-Times - 8/2/04)

Mister Three-Hundred

"All he has to do is keep breathing. He'll get to 300."
Baker, on Maddux (Cubs.com - 8/1/04)

"He weighed 180 pounds soaking wet [when he came up]. He had this little baby face. You'd never think that on Sunday, he'd be going for his 300th win."
Billy Williams, on Maddux (Cubs.com - 7/30/04)

"Whatever it was, it didn't work too good."
Baker, on his advice to hitters when opposing Maddux (Cubs.com - 7/28/2004)

"I think he'll be OK financially without doing that"
Paul Bako, on whether or not Maddux will sell memorabilia from his 300th win (Cubs.com - 7/28/2004)

"Obviously, you'd love to do it at home. I'd like to see us win the next four days before that. I just want to continue to pitch well. If you win, you win, and if not you get ready to pitch five days later."
Greg Maddux (Cubs.com - 7/28/2004)

"It's not fair to the rest of the guys. I would've loved to go out there, and maybe try not to walk somebody and hope they hit it at somebody but that's not right. It's not fair to the rest of the guys or the team or the city. It's not the way you're supposed to play the game. I knew I was finished after six."
Maddux, after leaving before a Cubs rally would have given him his 300th win (Cubs.com - 8/1/04)

It was a total team effort, and that's the way it should be," he added. "This is more a sense of relief than anything. I feel great. To win 300, you obviously need lots of help. You're only as good as the guys behind you, and today is a perfect example."
Maddux, after recording his 300th win (The Sacramento Bee - 8/8/04)

"You can't put your own personal achievements ahead of the team, obviously. You do what you can to give your team the best chance to win. That's it. If you do that, you can sleep good at night."
Maddux (Washington Post - 8/8/04)

The Sky Is Falling...

"They have a responsibility. You don't want anyone injured or killed... I don't care who they are, what company they are, nobody has a right to be as arrogant as they are."
Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, on falling chunks of concrete at Wrigley (Chicago Tribune - 8/5/04)

"We understand our primary responsibility is to provide a safe environment for our fans -- a responsibility we take very seriously. We are confident the steps we are employing will ensure as high a level of safety as is possible."
Andy MacPhail (Cubs.com - 7/29/04)

"There's not a whole bunch I can say about that. That's not in my department or jurisdiction, No. 1. And No. 2, I'm not an engineering man."
Baker (Cubs.com - 7/29/2004)

"Yeah, 'Hard Hat Day' for the rest of the year."
Mark Prior (Cubs.com - 7/29/2004)

"Maybe we can go to Comiskey."
Prior (Cubs.com - 7/29/2004)

... Or Maybe Not

"He's a great player. His accomplishments and his ability speak for themselves. He's a tremendous, tremendous player and I think he's capable of giving us a huge shot in the arm here down the stretch."
Jim Hendry, on Nomar (Cubs.com - 7/31/04)

"When you have a player of that stature, you're really subject totally to what [Red Sox general manager] Theo Epstein decides to do and whether he wants to move him or not. I can't remember who made the first call. I didn't know for sure if he would ever move him."
Hendry (Cubs.com - 7/31/04)

"The ovation I got, that stuff you don't forget. It stays in your heart."
Nomar Garciaparra (Cubs.com - 8/1/04)

"It was a surreal feeling. The fans were cheering when I walked out to stretch. It was hard not to take it all in and stay focused for the game at the same time. I'm excited that we won today."
Garciaparra (Cubs.com - 8/1/04)

"He has a great arm. I didn't realize his arm was that good. He's throwing off of one foot in the hole, and he has a lot of steam on it. You see why he's a superstar. He does it on both ends, with the bat and on defense."
Derrek Lee (Cubs.com - 8/3/04)

"I just told him I'm not going to give you my number for a month and a half. You're going to have to think about staying here for a while. And he said he would. That was probably the biggest piece of the negotiations."
Michael Barrett (Cubs.com - 8/3/04)

"He said, 'Are you going to consider Chicago after this?' I said, 'You know what? I am definitely going to consider it afterward, but we'll address that when the season is over. Let's get to the postseason and then get to our goal of winning the World Series.'"
Garciaparra (Chicago Sun-Times - 8/4/04)

Trade Summary
"It's awesome. He was in Boston, he's here now. It's a beautiful thing."
Sammy Sosa (Cubs.com - 8/1/04)

Dusty's Bizarre World of Aging

"I'm a firm believer that as a guy gets older it takes him longer to get his rhythm and his act together. It's like as you get older, it takes you longer to get loose in the morning."
Dusty Baker, on Greg Maddux's slow start (Cubs.com - 7/27/2004)

"I'm a firm believer that as a guy gets older, the more he gets his act together. He can jump out of bed and go out and play."
Dusty Baker (Chicago Sun-Times - 7/28/2004)

Miscellanea

"It's great. I'm driving a stealth bomber onto the field. I'm under the radar. We've got unbelievably exciting things happening in this organization."
Ryan Dempster, on his Cubs debut (Chicago Tribune - 8/1/04)

"I saw the gun up there when I struck out the last hitter, (Lyle) Overbay, and I saw '98.' I said if I combine 98 with hitting my spots, this game will be tough for them."
Carlos Zambrano (Cubs.com - 7/29/04)

"People always worry about me. I know how to make adjustments at the plate. When I'm healthy I can produce. Maybe you can put that in the paper and those people can leave me alone now."
Sammy Sosa (Cubs.com - 7/29/04)