Philosophies of the game that I happen to agree with because they're true.

Fans will look at batting average, but on-base percentage is the most important thing. That's what I gauge myself on. I always try to stay around that .400 level.

If you hit .320 with a .330 OBP, you're going to make a load of money. If I was in charge, the guy who hits .250 with a .400 OBP, I'm going to make sure he gets a lot of money. That guy's more valuable than the other guy.

He has made our whole lineup better. He's on base a lot, and that opens things up for those of us hitting behind him. When he hits like he can, it opens up a lot of RBI opportunities.

I was just a hacker (in Oakland). I learned after a while that's not going to work, just going up there and swinging at everything. Now if I hit .270, but I'm getting on base, .360-plus, that's contributing offensively.

I'm driving in runs because I'm getting the chance to drive in runs.

"What do you think of Andruw Jones?" asked Jon Miller.

"I don't know much about him, but he may have a great future," Willie Mays replied. "I don't know how old he is -- 25, 26?"

"He just turned 21," Miller said.

"Oh!" exclaimed Mays. "He's got a great future!"

We're a little out of sync right now. It's not kosher, whatever that means. I'm not Jewish.

Everybody within a hundred miles of St. Louis who sells t-shirts for a living should drop to their knees every time this guy bats.

I'm going to do my job and that's play baseball. If that's where my boss says we're going to go, that's what I'm going to do.

Look at that, will you? Look at all those division titles -- '91, '92, '93, '95, '96, '97, '98. And four National League championships, too. You hear guys say, "Oh, but they won only one World Series." That's what jealous players say. Come on, who wouldn't want to be in that situation?

We identified the type of player we wanted to add to our club -- someone whose on-base and slugging percentage sum was elite for the position he played.

-- Rockies GM Dan O'Dowd, February 2000

There are many coaches who believe in teaching players to swing for singles. That's OK for some guys, but not everybody. As a hitting coach, Charlie Lau is known for producing .300 hitters ... but when Charlie was with a team that hit a lot of homers, they won. When he was with singles-hitting clubs, they lost.

If you play for one run, that's all you'll get.

There is a lot to be said for the base on balls. It isn't as good as a hit ... but there are certain guys who can mean a lot to your offense because they draw walks. ... I love the hitters who can wait for strikes. As everybody knows, I like the home run. But I like the three-run homer best, and that means there have to be two guys on base when the homer comes. And how did those two guys get on base? Odds are that one of them walked.

Say a player is hitting .260 and he wants to get that batting average up. Everyone knows you have to swing to raise your batting average. A walk may start a rally and help the club, but your batting average stays the same. ... Often a player is hitting lower than he should because he's been swinging at bad pitches or at pitches he can't handle. This is when he should be more careful at the plate, watching the pitches more closely and trying to get ahead in the count. ... Since the guy isn't hitting and because he wants to raise his average fast, he's swinging at everything. Consequently, he's making outs on pitches he wouldn't have swung at a month earlier. That .260 batting average becomes .230. The key is patience.

I played Glenn Gulliver down the stretch in 1982 because of his ability to walk. For a long time he had a batting average in the low .200s, but his on-base percentage was .430. He was helping the club, and there is a place in the majors for a guy like that.

At the top of the lineup, walks are crucial.

I'm not saying that a player should go to the plate with the bat glued to his shoulder. Rather, I'm saying that a guy should lay off the bad pitches.

In theory, the stolen base is a good weapon, but everything depends on how often it works. For the steal to be worthwhile, the runner should be safe around 75 percent of the time. The player who steals 35 bases but is thrown out 25 times isn't helping the team. ... I'd stop giving him the steal sign. The failed stolen base can be destructive, particularly at the top of the order, because it takes a runner off the basepaths ahead of your home-run hitters.

I don't have a hit-and-run sign, and I believe it's the worst play in baseball.

My goal is to have as many players on base as possible when the number-four hitter comes to bat ... so I like to get my best on-base men in the first three spots in the order.

I move players up and down in the batting order according to how my stats show they ahve fared against certain pitchers. ... A player like Gary Roenicke might bat fifth against one pitcher, seventh against another, and not be in the lineup at all against a third. It all depends on the numbers. I believe the lineup has to be changed because of slumps and stats.

Your most precious possessions on offense are your 27 outs.

There are only three [outs] an inning, and they should be treasured. It's such a basic fact that fans sometimes forget it, but an inning doesn't last fifteen minutes or six batters or twenty pitches; it lasts three outs. Give one away and you're making everything harder for yourself.

Bunting in the second or third inning is beyond me. No one alive knows that early in the game if his pitcher is only going to give up one or two runs or five runs. Stats will tell you that a pitcher with a 2.50 ERA will need fewer runs to win than one with a 5.50 ERA. ... And even your best pitcher has some games when he needs all the runs you can get for him.

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