There is a balancing act between just how much we're going to value our immediate future vs. our long-term stability and our long-term outlook. It's important to understand how much weight you place on those factors, just how important the future is. |
There was no handshake, no gentlemen's agreement. |
There were some personal conflicts. We've managed to repair the personal issues between us. |
There?s a stronger appreciation of baseball?s centrality. |
There's a fine line between winning and losing in the postseason. We got outplayed in October, and that happens. And if it happens for three games, you're going home. |
There's a stronger appreciation of baseball's centrality. |
These concepts of vision and togetherness are only words if we don't live up to them. We understand that our actions are much more meaningful than our words. |
They didn't go out there saying, 'Let's find a way to end the 86-year curse.' It's a good story line, but it doesn't carry over between the lines. |
They're always wary of what's around the corner. |
This is a job you have to give your whole heart and soul to. You have to devote yourself to completely. You have to believe in every aspect of it, ... In the end, after a long period of reflection about myself, the organization and the time [here], I decided I can no longer put my whole heart and soul into it. |
This is one of those contract negotiations where it all came together because we have a player who means so much to the organization and has done so much for the organization and he wanted to stay in Boston. David said it early on, and he meant it. It came together very quickly. |
This was a good time to get it done. The time was right. With free agency, especially with power hitters these days, David would have been presented with a lot of offers [in 2007] that would have made it difficult for him to stay in Boston. We didn't think we could keep David. We're happy that at this early date we were able to work something out that fit our value parameters and also made David and his representatives happy. |
This wasn't one of his best seasons. I think he's going to have a great off-season. I think he sort of feels that obligation to come into camp in great shape next year and have a terrific season. Certain players' careers don't always play out in a linear fashion. There are ups and downs. He did a lot of things to help us win this year. But I think he'd admit this wasn't one of his best seasons. I think he called it at one point one of his more frustrating seasons. I think he'll take the steps necessary to improve upon that. |
This year, for a lot reasons and for a lot of teams, has been an exercise in survival. Getting past the attrition of a long year for a lot of different reasons, ... We both survived in probably the toughest division in baseball to get to a point where whomever wins that series will probably get in. It doesn't matter how we got here. It's what we do the rest of the way. |
This year, for a lot reasons and for a lot of teams, has been an exercise in survival. Getting past the attrition of a long year for a lot of different reasons. We both survived in probably the toughest division in baseball to get to a point where whomever wins that series will probably get in. It doesn't matter how we got here. It's what we do the rest of the way. |