We won 95 games in a season where things didn't go right, ... I will not sit here and apologize for that. We busted our [butt] to do the best we could. I was very proud of what we accomplished.

[Boston scored only eight runs in the three games against the A's and a total of 24 runs in their last eight. Jason Varitek's slump is at 4-for-41 and Damon's at 5-for-26.] I don't think you can score nine runs a game the whole year. ... It doesn't work like that.

The excitement level will be off the charts. You'll see a lot of guys running to the ballpark. I might jog.

and I'd love you to police yourselves. But if I have to step in, I will.

The one thing that I'm really excited about is when he hits the ball, he runs like his pants are on fire. I love that. Our team is not very fast. ... But when [Crisp] comes out of the box, they better get it in or he's going to go to second. That's an aspect that we haven't had a lot. That will be fun to watch. You can already tell by the way he plays the game. He's going to do it every time. It's part of his game.

Jason was sitting next to me and we had that exact conversation about a week ago. We'd even gone to the rulebook.