[This season] has taught me that when I go through a winter and go into spring training, I want to have a closer, to tell you the truth. We tried the system earlier in the season. That was not successful for us.

As we get toward the end of the winter season and early spring, we'll probably go through another wave of elevated energy prices, and it will bode ill for discretionary consumer spending. Consumer spending might be rather lackluster for some time, perhaps a year or two. In the end we're going to [see] a consumer that's saving more, is more cautious, and a little more spendthrift.

Mel taught me a new grip on my sinker in spring training, and I've used it all year, ... It has really helped me.

Mel taught me a new grip on my sinker in spring training, and I've used it all year. It has really helped me.

Spring [season] is for training mainly. Most of the training we do in spring is preparing for the fall.

It was at spring training in Arizona and it was my third season and the Warriors were doing really lousy. I walked into the A's press box, and Bill walked up to me and introduced himself, and said he empathized with me. He remembered when the Warriors traded Wilt Chamberlain to Philadelphia in the 1960s, and he said to stay positive.