Friday Happy Hour at the Elysian Fields Bar & Grill

Welcome to the Elysian Fields Bar & Grill, where they have been barking about the pace of game for many moons.

* The Rangers would have been lauded this winter if they had been able to land Dontrelle Willis in a trade with the Florida Marlins. The Tigers got him instead. Now he's in the bullpen. The Tigers decided they would rather have Armando Galarraga in the rotation than Willis. Said manager Jim Leyland: "With Galarraga having a hot hand, it makes sense."

* Ron Washington, on why he was really upset after Milton Bradley was ejected in Wednesday's game against the Twins, "I thought (umpire Jeff Nelson) had a short fuse. Usually they give you warning but he just took off his mask and ran him."

* Outfielder Carl Crawford on the reversal of fortunes for the Rays: "It's like going from sleeping on concrete to sleeping on a mattress."

* Former pitcher Ron Darling, now on WTBS, on Major League players: "Ballplayers are some of the most insecure people you'll ever be around, because it's a game of not doing what you're supposed to be doing all the time. Three out of 10 and you're a great hitter, that means seven times you're making outs. So they (baseball players) are a lot more insecure than people think, and when they go through those droughts they really take it personally. The ones that take it less personal get out of those droughts quicker."

* And this from Darling on the difference in pitching in the major leagues versus the minor leagues:  "I think that what happens is your breaking ball seems so good in the minor leagues because guys are younger, they don't know how to hit the breaking ball, they swing at it in the dirt.  But you'll throw your best one here and a guy will just look at it and be ready for the next pitch.  If it's in the dirt they are going to take it. The ability to work the strike zone in the major leagues is exponentially better than it is in the minor leagues."

* Padres general manager Kevin Towers on his team's struggles: "I hear our morale is good. I can't believe it's good. I'm not down here (in the clubhouse) all the time, but if our morale is good then we have a major issue. If our morale is good, we have no expectation of getting better. Our morale should be horrible. If we have winning-type players, our morale should be horrible right now."

* Just for the heck of it: Larry Parrish.

* Twins pitcher Livan Hernandez on Josh Hamilton: "I've not got a lot of trouble with Hamilton. But the last home run was crazy. The power he has, he's got that kind of power. It's easy to hit a home run opposite field. The guy is a great player who is having a great year. A lot of people are happy for what he's done. I think he do everything, hitting for average, hitting for power. He's having a good year. Anything you throw in the zone he's going to hit it. Broken bat base hit, it's crazy. I don't know."

* The Marines had nine losses in April when the offense had fewer than eight hits and Richie Sexson said, "We should have taken better advantage of the good pitching we got in April. is team would be a lot closer to .500 than it is if we'd taken advantage of all that great pitching we got in April.''

* Nationals general manager Jim Bowden on the plight of scouts: "I went with them for two weeks, [Asst. GM, VP of Baseball Ops] Mike Rizzo and I. You're up on an airplane to Nashville, Tenn., and all of a sudden you're in Ontario and then you're in Texas and then you're in South Carolina, Florida and that's all you do every day. And people fart on the airlines, and it's horrible! I had to call timeout on the second one because the stench was so bad that I couldn't take it! The stewardess was taking Lysol up and down. It was embarrassing. I called timeout and said, 'Look, go to the bathroom. There's no need for that!' How the scouts deal with the farting alone on these small planes on a daily basis, I don't get it. Have more respect for the person next to you! Stop farting!"