Jose Oquendo
Jose Oquendo
José Manuel Roberto Guillermo Oquendo Contrerasis a former Major League Baseball infielder and a third base coach for the St. Louis Cardinals currently on medical leave of absence . He is the longest tenured third base coach in Major League Baseball. He also served as manager of the team representing Puerto Rico in the 2006 and 2009 World Baseball Classic...
feels hitting hope work
We hope he can do something tomorrow. We'll see how he feels after he does some hitting work in practice.
came forgotten heritage latin proud received
These are very proud people. They are proud of their heritage and haven't forgotten where they came from. I don't know how it will be received here, but it is something big in Latin America.
ask beating canada puerto sure
Be sure to ask him about Puerto Rico beating Canada.
clutch hit pitch proven tough
Bernie, he's a clutch hitter. That's the way he plays. He's proven it through the years. He hit a tough pitch back the middle. He's professional who makes clutch hits. He's always done it.
ball charge deep milwaukee plays range tremendous watching work
The things that I know from watching him in Milwaukee and Arizona, the thing we're going to work on is to charge harder. He kind of plays deep a little bit. He has tremendous range and a tremendous arm. Sometimes he has to charge the ball more and not lay back.
among came fewest meant people planned
I wanted to give him one at-bat, because a lot of people came out to see him. But then I planned to go to Eduardo Perez. It meant a lot to him. He'd had among the fewest at-bats on the team.
introduce soon
As soon as they get together, that's the first thing. We're going to introduce them, and we're going to introduce them around the bag.
close competition tradition
There has always been a tradition of competition between the islands, because they are so close to each other.
competing expected good guy regular took
That's the only one that took me by surprise. We all expected him to be there. He's a regular in Cincinnati. He's not competing for a job. But you can't say anything. This is voluntary. A guy has a right to say no. But he would have been good to have on the team.
run runs
We'll be aggressive. The more runs you score, the better. Every run counts.
address swung talking team
We swung at too many first pitches. We'll be talking about that to the team because we need to address that.
definitely expect leave says unless
I expect him to play. He'll definitely be in the lineup -- at DH, unless he says otherwise, unless he says, 'I can play first.' I'll leave it up to him.
bragging fans looking passion people respect rights rivalry
The passion is going to be a lot more than in the first round. This is what people were looking for. There's a lot of rivalry between islands. Fans are going to take it like a fight. We're going to take it as bragging rights and respect each other.
behind good guys job pitchers work
They were pretty solid. The pitchers got their work in, and the guys did a good job behind them.