But it lingered. It'll always linger.

I lingered on the field a little.

He has physically never looked better to me. He's probably 10, 15 pounds lighter than last year and is just in great shape. He's done as much precautionary preparation work as anyone could. He has already been throwing and gotten ahead of where he usually would be at this time.

I certainly don't think it could be a real significant injury. It's hard to believe someone could throw 98 mph and have a serious arm problem. He hasn't had any discomfort at all.

Some of the things written about Dusty and him wanting to leave the Cubs a year ago were completely unfounded. I think people had him in two or three different places he certainly never had any interest in going.

He understood. We kept him until the end. There aren't too many times when a non-roster guy gets more than 45 at-bats. You could tell in the last week, he was trying to get four hits every at-bat.