Selected comments from Joe Torre's pregame press conference:

Asked what advise he had given Manny Ramirez:
"Well, you know, some of my advice was basically just to concentrate on what you have to do ahead. You can't really do anything about the past, and the fact that he's already apologized, and hasn't denied wrongdoing, and really, I don't think there's much more.
"I just really want him, and I need honesty from here in the early going, especially, about the kind of shape he's going to be in playing this game. I know he wants to go out there and be there every day, but I'm not sure how much -- again, until we start playing -- to find out what kind of game shape he's in."

Asked -- having managed Jason Giambi when he returned to baseball after discontinuing steroid use and struggled -- if he was confident Ramirez would still be the same player:
"I think everybody's a separate case and we're going to have to wait and see. I wish I had those answers. I think you're going to have to play the game and see where he is.
"The only thing I do know is that Manny is a legitimately good hitter. You know, Jason was more a power-type guy, and I remember encouraging Jason early on to just think about hitting line drives the other way. And it really wasn't the right advice, because it wasn't until he started -- that Donny [Mattingly] sort of encouraged him to pull the ball -- that he got more of his bat speed back. But I was just trying to keep him from trying to hit home runs at the start.
"Manny's a little more -- even though Jason, in my opinion, is a .300 hitter -- Manny is probably a little more adept at using the whole field and has his whole career."

Asked if he is concerned Ramirez' return will be a distraction:
"No. You should have been around our ballclub here. It's been a little tight, because we haven't scored many runs. So I think Manny coming on board is certainly going to lessen the load on a lot of these kids.
"But I don't think it's going to be a chemistry problem. I really don't. I'd be very surprised if that was the case."

Asked for his thoughts on fan support for Ramirez:
"Well, I don't think baseball's cornered the market on that. I think we've seen it in other walks of life.
"Am I defending what he did? Is he defending what he did? No. And certainly, the young kids need to get a message that what any of the players did, and have been punished for, certainly isn't advisable for them. Even though we're role models, whether we want it or not, that's who we are.
"But again, on the other side of the coin, knowing Manny the person, first of all, you can't control how people are going to react to him, but as far as him paying the punishment and coming back, I mean, do we think he should be out of the game for life.
"He made a mistake, he's done his time, and now he's going to come back. And as I say, I think it's going to be a little time before he's back to being the guy we're used to seeing."

Asked how he was dealing with the situation:
"I'm trying to get as much sleep as I can. We go from here to New York, and I have a sense there maybe another person or two there.
"I'm happy that he's back, because as I said, the ballclub, we've been doing well. We've won our share of games and maybe a few more. I think they're ready for him to come back.
"I'm answering the questions, they're answering the questions, and I think now that he's back -- and again, not that the questions are going to stop here in the immediate future, but I think they're ready for it.
"And that's more of a relief that this is over with. We haven't been holding our breath till he came back, because we obviously wouldn't have played as well. But a lot of our guys have really, I don't want to say have gone above and beyond. They've tried as hard as they could try. And as I've mentioned a number of times, we've been fortunate in a lot of games that we have won. We had a lot of home games and we had a lot of chances to walk off where we didn't have to defend a lead. And I call that luck, schedule-wise. The type of team we've had so far, it certainly isn't luck. They've worked at it. But certainly, where we played the game gave us a little bit of an edge."