Tony La Russa

“I was a lousy player with virtually no experience managing.”

“If you're a coach, and you don't have trust with players, you've got no chance, and your credibility is zero. And that's why it's so important to tell them the truth. If you have something that you're upset about, tell them the truth. If they're doing something wrong, tell them the truth.”

“My wife and I, we started a foundation about companion animal rescue, but there's a group called Performing Animal Welfare Society just outside of Sacramento... and they offered me a job as an elephant keeper.”

“Losing sucks. I don't think most people understand how bad it feels.”

“We're all men, not machines. We make mistakes.”

“If you like to run and the guys can't run, you don't run. If you like power, and you have guys that can't hit it out of the park, then you start moving guys around.”

“I think there's a growing number of pitchers who want to have a plan going into a game about how they're going to go after that lineup. I'd say 75 percent want to have an idea, and they plan their attack. I know that 75 percent of hitters do not have that same type of plan against a pitcher.”

“In the end, as a manager or coach, you have to keep your heart pure and do your best as a manager or a coach.”

“I was in the American League for 16, 17 years, and I think it's a really tough league to compete in.”

“I've said this: If Jim Leyland had been in my place, he'd have the 2,000 wins and I'd have 1,000. Leyland is the greatest.”

“It's easy to figure out whether you're getting stale. All you've got to do is look in the mirror and be honest with yourself.”

“I've been so fortunate in life to have worked for such great organizations, with great owners and general managers and all the great players, along with the support of my family.”

“If you watch the history of baseball, teams come back, and sometimes they could have come back, but they give in or give up.”

“Winning in Oakland in '89 was distinguished because that was truly a great team on a mission to prove that '88 was not what we represented. I look at that team in awe. It was a push-button team.”

“You've got to acknowledge what you did wrong and see if you can fix it to the extent possible, and turn the page.”

“If you seriously aspire to be a manager in the big leagues, there is a baseball 'book' that one must learn. Alongside that book, you must practice Spanish. Of 25 players on each roster, sometimes there are between eight and 15 players who speak Spanish.”

“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.”

“When you don't have the deepest pockets, you better have the best scouting and development.”

“To me, there is no more conscientious umpire in the Major Leagues than Jim Joyce. He gives you a hellacious effort every time.”

“What you end up doing is you try to match your guy's strength against a place they can be successful. They're doing the same thing against us. Sometimes they have the edge, sometimes you have the edge.”