Jim Leland

So you get some silly questions that can be aggravating after a tough loss.

Oh, boy.

Well, I don't smoke them in the dugout anymore.

I have finally learned my lesson that I was wrong for doing that over the years.

I used to cup it, try to hide it.

But things were different in those days a little bit, too.

So, you know, now I go underneath if I want to have a cigarette where I'm out of sight.

But seriously, you know, I go down after every inning and light a cigarette, but you don't really smoke if you have a couple puffs and you put it out.

So it's not, you know, it's more habit than anything else.

But to answer your question, I've smoked a lot of them.

I'm not proud of that, but I also think that, you know, I guess there's a lot worse things than that.

Well, I think that, you know,

Like when I was on the bench and some people would pick up on it.

And of course, the cameras always want to pick you up on something like that.

It probably wasn't the best example of young kids.

And, you know, I certainly apologize for that.

But I'm a smoker.

I don't apologize for that.

I enjoy smoking cigarettes.

And I just don't.