From Baseball Prospectus - The Week in Quotes column. REM fans would appreciate the headline hook.
...AND THE MARINERS FEEL FINE
"I would say it's the end of the world as we know it. If Ichiro is worth $20 million a year ... I am speechless by that contract. I'm hoping that report is false, because there's no chance a top-of-the-lineup guy--forget that, anybody- is worth that much. And Ichiro, who's led his team to zero, nothing? I hope you're wrong, Dan."
--Marlins team president David Samson
"We're signing here a Hall of Fame-type player."
--Mariners GM Bill Bavasi, on a contract that includes a $5 million signing bonus and pays Ichiro $17 million per season until 2012.
"It's unbelievable. You know what, everybody gets what they deserve, and I guess that will be more luxury tax money, more revenue-sharing money they'll have to give. I'm sure it can't be true. There's no way they gave $20 million a year to Ichiro, at his age, for five years. There's no way."
--Samson
"I'm going to do my best to play 10 more years here."
--Ichiro Suzuki
"Literally, it will take the sport down, that contract. We're right back to the ridiculous contracts. It can't be."
--Samson (David Andriesen, Seattle Post-Intelligencer)
"He may be 33, but in a much younger body. The idea is, we're going to get a World Series and bring it to Seattle and win it while he's here. He is going into the Hall of Fame, and he's going to wear a Mariners uniform."
--Mariners team president Chuck Armstrong, on the team's plan.
"Well, signing Ichiro to $20 million a year for five years, it's a joke. It's inexcusable. It's complete mismanagement. It can't be true."
--Samson
"Also, the fans in Japan asked me to come back to Japan and play. But in the end, when coming back to Seattle and the fans asked me to stay here, that was the moment that meant the most to me. That's when I decided…We're at a place where all our hard work is blossoming."
--Ichiro (ESPN.com)
"My mother always taught me that if the only thing you have to say is, '(Expletive) Dave Samson,' then don't say anything at all. So I'm not going to say anything at all. Is my mother the greatest or what?"
--Bavasi, responding to David Samson's comment on the Ichiro signing.
