Burr (NYC): Joe- Thanks for spending such a long time with us this morning! You're the best!

Your welcome .. I enjoy it. Contrarty to what people believe, I like it when people question what I say. I don't know everything, but I have an opinion about everything.

[Mike: "Joe, I don't have any question! I just want to kiss your feet!" Joe: "I enjoy it!"

Joe, you have an opinion on lots of things but you don't answer the questions people pose. ]

Matt (Illinois): Joe, how much of KC's success is due to Tony Pena? Having been a Royals fan for several BAD years it seems incredible what he's done. Did you expect him to do so well as a manager?

I can't say I expected it, but I did think he would be good. I didn't know he had both the fire and ability to light a fire under that team. It all starts with attitude on a losing team. If you stay in a losing situation for a long time, you've accepted that losing attitude. I just didn't know he would be able to turn that attitude around so quickly.

I think this goes back to what Lou Piniella did with Ben Grieve. He didn't want that losing attitude on his team.

[Mike: " I think Lou is saying the team is not aggressive enough. That is something I do agree with it, but not necessarily the way he did it." So Piniella's fire is bad ("Fire bad!") but Pena's is good. Or is Piniella's now good as well. Are you contradicting yourself or is that why you qualify everything you say to CYA?

By the way, the little picture next to Jayson Stark is a dandy of two comic giants: Carrot Top and Paulie Shore.

Good night and god bless!]