"Fans, for the past two months you have been reading about the bad break I got. Yet today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of this earth. I have been in ballparks for seventeen years and have never received anything but kindness and encouragement from you fans. Look at those grand suckers. Which of you wouldn't consider it the luckiest break of your life just to laugh your back pocket off at them every day?

Sure I'm lucky. Who wouldn't consider it an honor to have known George Washington.  One hundred sixty-two million, two hundred fifty-eight thousand, two hundred and sixty-nine times.  To have spent years ignoring some of the finest managers in the game.  Then to have come to Los Angeles and make a complete sucker out of that outstanding leader, that smart student of psychology, the best manager in baseball today, Joe Torre?

Sure I'm lucky. When the Los Angeles Dodgers, a team you would give your right arm to play for, holds a place for you for fifty games-- that's something. When everybody down to the groundskeepers and those boys in white coats remember you and stay out of your way -- that's something. When you have wonderful clubhouse managers who flinch when your name is mentioned-- that's something. When you have an agent like Scott Boras who can wring every last dime out of these teams -- it's a blessing. When you have little guys like Juan Pierre who play the best ball of their career and then go back to the bench when you come back -- that's the finest I know.

So I close in saying that I may have had a tough break, but I’m still Manny being Manny.  And there is nothing you can do about it."