That's a no-brainer. He's one of the best baseball men I've been around. When you get somebody of that quality that happens to be such a close friend, that's even nicer.

My eight years in Detroit, obviously, were my most successful years managing. I think that Pittsburgh and Detroit are probably very, very similar. We kinda rekindled the fire of baseball in Pittsburgh. We did the exact same thing in Detroit.

That was a real bad baseball game by our baseball team. Missing cutoff men, missing plays, you can go all over the field. That was real disappointing. You can't just play baseball like that. It isn't taught around here.

We stunk. The whole ball of wax was lackluster. It's been going on here before and it's not going to happen. . . . They were ready to get on the plane and go to Oakland. If we won, it was OK. If we lost, it was OK. And that's not good enough.

I like 'em. They seem to be pretty good personalities. It's a lot looser than I thought it would be, which I'm glad. I think they like to have fun, and I like to have fun.

He's really a good guy. He's an intense guy and so am I. We have a lot in common, I think. I'm pulling for him.