Thursday, May 07, 2009

Ned & Joe Speak

From today's press conference at Dodger Stadium:

Ned Colletti:

Good afternoon. First of all, the Los Angeles Dodgers organization completely supports the testing to keep this game clean. We respect the testing, we honor it, and this organization will never condone anything that isn't clean.

Secondly, whenever somebody makes a mistake, and they accept full responsibility, and are accountable for their actions, and repentant and contrite, it's a plus. And that's what Manny did today in his statement.

Joe Torre:

And I echo Ned's comments about this game. I think we need, as a game, we need to regain the trust of the fans. And it's not going to be obviously an overnight success. We're going to have to just endure what we have to endure. In Manny's case, obviously the fact that he did take responsibility and was very disappointed in himself and it certainly caught us all by surprise. I hope to heck I'm always surprised when something like this happens because I never want to not believe players or believe this stuff still exists, even though reality shows us that it does.

I had a meeting with my club about a half hour ago, just to give them a chance to talk about it, and obviously going on from now till July without Manny, and just wanted to talk over a few things. Again, it's obviously a distraction and it's a void in our clubhouse and on the field, but our job is to go out here and play as the Los Angeles Dodgers are supposed to play and that's to win.

Both Torre and Colletti said they found out at their respective homes after last night's game via phone calls from Frank McCourt.

Torre said he felt "surprised and shocked," later disappointed.

Colletti said he felt "sick, saddened."

Torre said Manny is allowed to work out with the team, he just has to be out of uniform by the time the gates open.

photo by Chris Pizzello/AP

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