New York Mets manager Willie Randolph when asked how he would deal with the latest injury to pitching ace pedro Martinez: "I don't sing the blues. I like jazz.".

JOHN MADDEN: "The fewer rules a coach has, the fewer rules there are for players to break."

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AL OERTER, former Olympic champion: "I don't think the discus will ever attract any interest until they let us start throwing them at one another."

Legendary North Carolina coach DEAN SMITH: "If you make every game a life-and-death thing, you're going to have problems. You'll be dead a lot."

Comedian ROBIN WILLIAMS: "I thought lacrosse was what you find in la church."

PETER SCHMUCK of the Baltimore Sun, on Buck O'Neil, the one-time Negro League star who drew a pair of walks in a July 2006 all-star game at age 94: "The Kansas City T-Bones signed O'Neil to a one-day contract, making him the oldest professional baseball player in history pending the discovery of (the Mets') Julio Franco's real birth certificate."

TOMMY LASORDA: "Everybody makes mistakes, that's why they put erasers on pencils."

Hall of fame college basketball coach MARV HARSH-MAN: "Quick guys get tired; big guys don't shrink."

DARRELL JOHNSON, former Seattle Mariner manager, on when to change pitchers: "You just listen to the ball and bat come together. They make an awful noise."

UKNOWN COACH: "The only difference between me and General Custer is that he didn't have to watch the game films the next day."

The late, great AL MCGUIRE: "Keep it simple, when you get too complex you forget the obvious."

Former Missouri basketball coach NORM STEWART: "We're shooting 100 percent--60 percent from the field and 40 percent from the free-throw line."

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Former Oakland A's pitcher MATT KEOUGH: "Playing for Billy Martin is like being married to him. Right now, we're all sleeping on the couch."

YOGI BERRA, asked if he had new plans for the World Series: "It ain't like football. You can't make up no trick plays."

GEORGE RAVELING: "When I went to high school in Philadelphia, we just had one coach for football and basketball. He took all of us who turned out and had us run through a forest. The ones who ran into the trees were on the football team."

BILL SHANKLY, soccer coach: "The trouble with referees is that they know the rules, but they do not know the game."

WELDON DREW: "We have a great bunch of outside shooters. Unfortunately, all our games are played indoors."

NORM SLOAN, on zone defense: "I hate it. It looks like a stickup at 7-Eleven. Five guys standing there with their hands in the air."

The late JOHNNY OATES, after his team left 14 runners on base in an 8-3 loss to Oakland: "We set the table, but no one ate."

Hall of Fame broadcaster ERNIE HARWELL, on former Detroit Tigers skipper Sparky Anderson: "Sparky's the only guy I know who's written more books than he's read."