intentionally funny player quotes

"I don't get much sleep anyway, Advantage: Byrnes"
--Eric Byrnes when asked if day games after night games were a problem for him.

Haha!

Most tolerable instance of an athlete referring to himself in the third person?

Oh definitely.

c'mon, Rickey was always tolerable when Rickey talked about Rickey.

Actually to be honest I always like it when people talk about themselves in third person.

Sorry. I mean famous people. Not the guy from marketing who's asking me to change the color scheme on some ad.

Bonds to Jerry Rice, who was carrying a microphone and doing interviews for his radio show: "This man started me on my training regimen. Dang, this is what you've come down to?" (SJ Mercury news)

you'd think Rice could carry more than a mike, then.

He's got to find something for his flunkies and interns to do.

taht's an old 49er, right?

Bonds got off a good burn on Selig during the Home-Run Derby yesterday. Somebody asked him if he was mad that Aaron wasn't going to be there when he hit #756 and he said he didn't mind, that Aaron had a life and couldn't be traveling around the country to baseball games, but as for the commisioner: "I don't even know what a commissioner does"

More Bonds: "I'm just playing a game. A game. And the only difference from a child playing this game and us is age. Why should we be treated any different? You wouldn't tell your child, 'You suck,' would you? You wouldn't want no one else to tell your child, 'You suck.'"

INTENTIONALLY

http://100percentinjuryrate.blogspot.com/2007/07/definitive-rickey-henderson.html

17) OK, I know everyone has been waiting for it. Alas, according to both parties involved, it’s not true. I wish it were. Heck, both Rickey Henderson and John Olerud have said they wish it were true. But it just didn’t happen.

The story went that a few weeks into Henderson’s stint with the Mariners, he walked up to Olerud at the batting cage and asked him why he wore a batting helmet in the field. Olerud explained that he had an aneurysm at nine years old and he wore the helmet for protection. Legend goes that Henderson said, “Yeah, I used to play with a guy that had the same thing.” Legend also goes that Olerud said, “That was me, Rickey.”

Henderson played with Olerud on the Blue Jays and the Mets.

The version I heard had Kevin Mitchell playing Rickey.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2946046

ST. LOUIS -- Former St. Louis Brown Rollie Stiles, believed to be the oldest former major leaguer, has died. He was 100.

Stiles died in his sleep Sunday morning at Bethesda Southgate nursing home in St. Louis County, a spokesman for the nursing home said Monday. A cause of death was not given.

Born Nov. 17, 1906, in Ratcliff, Ark., Stiles pitched for the Browns in 1930, 1931 and 1933, compiling a 9-14 record with a 5.92 ERA. Babe Ruth was among the hitters he faced.

"I had a great game against him," Stiles recalled in a 2006 interview with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. "I held him to three hits."

ADVANTAGE VHBYRNES`

I found a remaindered copy of the BP book Extra Innings yesterday. Maybe this quote from Sparky Lyle (speaking to Jim Kern in 1980) is famous, but it's the first time I've ever come across it myself: "I've seen guys pitch bad and I've seen guys pitch in bad luck, but you've done an outstanding job of putting it all together."

Don't think I've ever come across this one before:

"If we're gonna win, the players gotta play better, the coaches gotta coach better, the manager gotta manage better, and the owners gotta own better."
- Brewers first baseman George Scott to the club chairman

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/compensation/cots/