I never for one minute felt like we won the World Series because I was here. |
I never once thought we won the World Series because I was here. I think there's a lot of people that probably deserve some of the credit for some of the good things that happened to the Red Sox. Not just Grady, but a lot of other people, too. It's the case everywhere you go. |
I never saw him show up, so he's probably gone. From his point of view, I'm sure once we got Wily Mo [Pena], he probably thought this was not the place to be. |
I really didn't ask him. I think, as you can tell, I'm really not that shook up about one day or the other. He's not going to run in and play that next day [Thursday] anyway. So we'll get him comfortable and get him out there a couple days later. |
I really respect the guy; I always have, |
I really thought it looked pretty good. |
I really want to try to get guys in there earlier rather than later. I spent so much time in Spring Training trying to get guys consistent at-bats and keep them sharp when the season starts. I don't want that to all just go to [waste]. |
I remember talking to Dougie when he first started. They said he got beat up pretty good. I talked to Charlie Hough. They make jokes about him. They go, 'Pick it up when it stops rolling,' and everything. There's a reason they say that because it's hard to hit and it's hard to catch. We're living through that right now. |
I respect his decision. I just wish he wasn't leaving. Things like this you take for granted sometimes. I felt like I was going to be with this guy for a while. Maybe we weren't together 24 hours a day, but it was 18. We've been through a lot. |
I sat there, and he was the manager. I held out some of my good [stuff]. We know each other really well, but he was the manager then. I thought I learned a lot. |
I saw the same Pap that we've always seen. He competes, he makes pitches [and] he pounds the strike zone. He gave up a couple of hits, but they have the middle of their order coming up and he made quality pitches to quality hitters. We needed it at that point. |
I sent a message to (general manager) Theo (Epstein) in about the sixth inning (Thursday) because my wheels were spinning. I said, 'Why don't you think about it, and I'll call you before I get on the plane,' but I think this is the best way to do this. |
I talked to him last night, late before we got out of here, and decided to pull the plug last night rather than doing it this morning at 9 o'clock. It just didn't make sense to me. |
I talked to Johnny and talked to [team medical director] Dr. [Thomas] Gill just now, and Dr. Gill said he's already improving, which is real good news. I don't doubt this will be a few games, but that's a heck of a lot better than the rest of the year. |
I think Edgar will show up tomorrow and be a better player. I think it helps. When you have a guy like [Alex] Cora, it makes it easier. That's for sure. |