Billy Wagner
Billy Wagner
William Edward Wagner, nicknamed "Billy the Kid", is a former Major League Baseball relief pitcher. He pitched for the Houston Astros, the Philadelphia Phillies, the New York Mets, the Boston Red Sox, and the Atlanta Braves. Wagner is one of the only five Major League relief pitchers to accumulate a total of 400 or more saves in his baseball career...
ProfessionBaseball Player
Date of Birth25 July 1971
CityTannersville, VA
ahead bigger braves early four games silly taking
It?s too early to be silly about this stuff. It?s not that we?re not taking this seriously, but I think it?s bigger for the Braves than for us. We?re four games ahead of them.
hard hopefully turn
It's not the end of the world. We'll play as hard as we did tonight, and hopefully things will turn around for us.
man society
It's unfortunate, but that's how society is today. They want to see the big man fall.
bite
They do. If you give up nothing for a while, when they do come, they'll come in bunches and bite you.
against awhile caught finally guys interested meet played playing positive sincerely somebody took truly understand
They finally caught on that this guy's for us, not against us. Charlie's a positive person. And playing in Philadelphia, it's not a positive situation. A lot of these guys haven't played under that positive influence. And when you meet somebody like Charlie, who is truly and sincerely interested in you ... it took awhile for them to kind of understand that.
allowed charlie coaching group guys inspiring last leadership pressure situations staff themselves
This coaching staff has allowed us to grow. We didn't have that leadership last year. Charlie Manuel and his group have been as inspiring as they can be. Last year, guys went out and put a lot more pressure on themselves in situations like these.
focused game lose next pressure stayed stepped team win
After you lose the first game of a series, the pressure is really on to win the next two. This team stepped up and focused and stayed consistent.
There's not a lot going wrong. There's just not a lot going right.
slept
I slept the whole day and didn't budge.
childhood helped mad matured stay
I've matured a lot. You can only stay mad so long. I think (his childhood) helped me to see how not to do it the right way and to try to do it better when I get a chance.
good thrown
Sometimes it's good to just be thrown into the fire, Did he even know it?
letting loss turn
Right now, we're very confident. We're not letting one loss turn into two.
anywhere ball competition conscience consistent face felt good next threw turn velocity
Actually, I thought I threw the ball decently. I just felt in good conscience I wasn't going to be able to turn it up to that next level. I'd say my velocity was anywhere from 92 to probably 96 mph. But that's not as consistent as I need to be to face the competition we're going to have. I couldn't in good conscience go out there and put myself into that situation.
bad effective good hurt spring team
I don't want to go up there and be a bad apple. I'm just not a very good spring pitcher. I don't want to hurt my team by going out there and not being as effective as I want to.