Quotable

"When he was hurt, when he was gone, people would say, 'It'd be nice to have him on the bench pulling for us,' It'd be nice, maybe, if he could pinch-hit, or be available for that, which is something everybody else would have to do." - Todd Walker

"When you do something like that (leave early) , you lose a lot of respect in the clubhouse real fast. There were some things during the year he quietly lost respect for. But I think that was just the final straw. That 'C' that he wears on his jersey (for captain)—he doesn't deserve it when you do something like that." - Ryan Dempster

"Sammy is Sammy, and everybody loved him on the team, regardless. Everybody in Chicago loved him, obviously. Now that probably has changed a little bit." - Todd Walker

"If you create Frankenstein, you can't be real surprised if he eats the village," Stone said. "It's not his fault. You created him. ... The Cubs as an organization had a very permissive attitude toward Sammy Sosa. ... For 12 years, they allowed him to get away with exactly what he wanted to get away with, to do what he wanted to do. If Sammy wanted to have a guy sitting next to him on the bench, they let him do that. If he wanted to have a guy in uniform to work out with him, they let him do that. And if Sammy wanted to come to spring training late, they allowed him to do that." - Steve Stone

"We did probably take a public relations hit as far as people thinking we were whiners or we were looking for excuses. To be honest, we weren't looking for excuses. We know we didn't win it, we didn't get the job done. I don't know if 'choke' would be the right word, because you would have to have the thing almost clinched to be considered choking." - Mark Prior