A-Rod's Press Conference

Here's some quotes from A-Rod's press conference today. They come to us via Pete Caldera, Anthony DiComo, and Chad Jennings, first here's the quotes from Via DiComo:

About the difference between today and his PED press conference last year:

"It's definitely a much different day," Rodriguez said. "That's clear to me. Last year, obviously, was a very embarrassing day, and something that I wouldn't want to go back and do. But looking back, I certainly thought it was a very important day."

On winning it all:

"Now that you taste it, you just want to keep doing it again," Rodriguez said. "There's no question for me that it wasn't a monkey, it was a humongous gorilla that came off my back. And I felt that."

...

"It becomes an addiction," Rodriguez said. "You just want to keep winning."

On Jeter's contract situation:

"Derek Jeter was born to be a Yankee, and he was born to wear pinstripes," Rodriguez said. "He's our captain and we need him here, and I envision he'll finish his career here. When you think of Derek, I can't envision him wearing any other uniform."

And now some more from Jennings:

“I’ve done a lot of growing up and realized a lot of things,”

...

“I kind of divorced myself from the idea of numbers.”

On the Johnny Damon situation:

“I was just crossing my fingers, hoping he would come back.”

And finally, a few more from Pete Caldera:

- On being in the same press tent as a world champ, a year after his steroids-admission press conference: “Looking back, it was a necessary step for me…very important.’‘

...

About winning the World Series in general: He said he had lunch with Mark Teixeira yesterday and they talked about the addiction of winning, and how they “badly want to do that again.’‘
...

“I’m going to take the same approach (in 2010)."

You can listen to the audio of A-Rod's press conference over at LoHud.

He's certainly started off 2010 the right way and didn't say anything stupid, at least nothing that was quoted in these three articles (I have to assume it would be there if he did), so that's good. I'm glad he's not going to change anything this year--he doesn't need to. And while I'm not sure I believe it, I love that he said he “kind of divorced" himself "from the idea of numbers.”