Locker Room Quotes

What was the hardest thing about the series? a newsman asked Johnny Bench, suddenly grown tired after gallons of champagne had gone down his gullet and spilled over his head.

Bench thought for a while and said:

"The wives. You know, ballplayers can sit around and play cards and hang around the room. They know how to kill time. Four or five day delay--it's O.K. But the women--they get all nervous, they want something exciting to do. They don't know how to handle it."

A Cincinnati Reds official walked up and hugged Bench, who was quite drunk. He was wearing a bright orange-red Cincinnati blazer, which caught Bench's eye.

"You know what just walked by?" drawled Bench to a crowd. "A carrot. qnd you know what? Somebody's gonna haveta eat it tomorrow. Before the parade. Bugs Bunny will be there. Yubadeyubadayubada--That's all, Folks!"

Bill Lee: "I know I had a blister before Johnson took me out. I never shoulda walked anyone. I should've told Johnson about it before and have him take me out. It was pure vanity."

"If they played in the American League," Lee added, "they would come in third. They're the best team in the world--second only to the Taiwan Little League. They play perfect baseball."

Will McEnaney: "What was it like when I saw the last ball was going to be caught? I just don't know. You'd have to be a drug addict or something to be able to describe it. It was something heavy...a rush..."'

Griffey and Geronimo: "That Fisk..."

"We sure fooled him tonight..."

"Had him shucking and jiving..."

"Shucking and jiving..."

Didn't fool him last night..." "Sure am glad that was last night...!"

--quotes obtained from the Cincinnati Reds' locker room for The Crimson by Timothy Carlson