Jim Leland

He doesn't really over swing.

He doesn't try to do too much.

He's very capable of taking a single right field with a man on second, two outs.

pick up an RBI he's just a terrific hitter but like I said it's almost effortless you know a lot of people see him see a big guy they think he's just a muscle guy that overpowers the ball it's really not true he's really got kind of a simple swing

And like I say, it kind of hits like a small guy because he's also a big guy.

Well, this sounds kind of crazy, but I really...

I really like Kurt Abbott.

I thought he was just a fun-loving guy, and he really probably never got as much out of his ability as he should have because he just didn't have the confidence that he probably should have, but he was such a great guy.

In fact, I think he's a police officer down there now.

But he had such a great personality, and he didn't play every day, but he was one of those guys that I just kind of had a soft spot for.

I really, really liked him a lot, and of course,

There was a lot of guys on that team, you know, that I was actually pretty close to or as close as you can get, you know, manager-player relationship, you know.

You have to divide that a little bit, obviously.

But that was just a great bunch.

And, of course, you know, I'm sorry to say this now because I'm sorry to say it, but, you know, my good friend Darren Dalton, who I thought made a huge difference, has just gone under some very, very serious surgery for brain tumors.

And I thought when Dutch came over there, that probably made a difference.

I can remember...

when we were trying to get Dutch, and Wayne Isinga called me, and he said, well, if we get Darren Dolan, will we win the World Series?

And I said, well, I'll answer that this way.

I don't know if we get him if we win the World Series, but if we don't get him, I know we won't win the World Series.