"When Billy Wagner, wearing a towel, returned to his locker after showering Friday afternoon, reporters were waiting to talk to him. You know, about the two-run homer Edgar Renteria hit off him more than an hour earlier, in the ninth inning of an excruciating, 13-inning Braves loss to the Giants.

Wagner didn't give us a roll of the eyes, didn't try to stare anyone down or start with that naïve complaint you sometimes get from neophyte closers, which goes like this: "Why is it you guys only want to talk to me when I screw up?"

Not from Wagner."