Quotes of the Week

To the Quotemobile!

"I really haven't gotten over [it] yet. It's been a little easier the last couple of days because the World Series is over."

-Moises Alou

Well, good. You shouldn't have gotten over it yet.

I don't need the Mets to be sulking around all winter or anything. It won't make me happier to imagine Carlos Delgado puttering around the den, refusing to take off his bathrobe and slippers, reacting angrily whenever anyone asks him if he's all right. I'm not wishing a long, dark night of the soul onto Jose Reyes.

But there's nothing wrong with feeling the sting of your collapse for a while. In fact, I'd expect the pain to intensify over the next few weeks. While the playoffs are still going on, it's possible to immerse yourself in the wins and losses, in the fact that the story is still ongoing. Now, with the non-Arizona/Hawaii diamonds gone quiet 'til the Spring, there's time enough to wonder about what might have been. Now that the whole thing is laid out, you can see just how one move here or there would have changed the entire tapestry. (In our case, one win here or there would have likely changed the destiny of the Colorado franchise forever. You're welcome, Denver Dave.)

The World Series is over, the distractions have either departed or disappeared onto Duck Boats, and there's nothing to keep Moises Alou and Co. from their own thoughts. Good luck with that.

As for Alou, Omar re-upped him for 2008 on Wednesday at a marginal cost of $6.5 million ($7.5 million option vs. the million-dollar buyout). It was the obvious move, given how productive Moises was when he actually was able to take the field. A .341/.392/.524 line, good for a .313 EQA, is outstanding for any left fielder, and the injury risk comes with the territory.

Short of going after Kaisuke Fukudome or (gasp) Barry Bonds, there weren't a whole lot of better options out there in left. The Reds, for example, got a relative bargain by picking up their their $13 million team option on Adam Dunn. Well, Dunn posted a .304 EQA in 152 games last season, and his defense is somewhere to the shady side of slipshod. Even the worst-case scenario -- half the money for a half-season of production -- doesn't look all that bad when you consider how much Toriiiiiiii Hunter and Andruw Jones are going to go for.

"The list of teams that our family has talked over, that we think would be a fit for next year, should we not come back, are pretty much teams in cities we agree would be ok for our last year, and teams I think have a legitimate shot at being in the post season and/or World Series. Teams we didn’t include aren’t for any one reason. There are a million little things that go into this from stadiums to school districts to travel to spring training to etc. etc. etc. but the list represents the teams after Boston that have some of the off the field things that are big to us, plus the potential to go into October next year. ... Cleveland, Detroit, Anaheim, New York Mets, Philadelphia, Atlanta, L.A., S.D., Arizona, Chicago Cubs, St. Louis, Milwaukee."

-Curt Schilling

Urm. Um. Hmm.

Okay. Here's the thing -- Curt Schilling, on a one-year contract, pitching in the National League, is likely to be a rather useful thing. He's the hurling version of Alou -- high upside old dude who's a major injury risk. As Schilling's repertoire has shifted away from power (his 6.0 K/9 was his lowest rate since 1994) and toward finesse (1.37 BB/9, a rate bettered only by Greg Maddux and Paul "Playoff Angel" Byrd), he's become a better fit for the NL, where there are fewer power bats to pitch around. He'd be a perfectly fine fit for Shea.

But then again, so would Maddux. And unlike Maddux, Schilling comes with a huge and insoluble ego issue blocking the way -- his reportedly strained relationship with Petey Martinez. To whatever extent it's true, it's just not a problem the Mets need to get into, even at the cost. That's mainly considering the cost on the Pedro end -- people tend to have issues with Schilling, rather than the other way around, and Curt could be counted on to deliver his all no matter what the clubhouse situation. In fact, I imagine the challenge of playing in New York, across town from his loathed Yankees, stealing the spotlight back from Martinez ... all of that would be quite a thrill for the ol' guy. Whether he'd rise to the occasion or not, I couldn't say, but none of the chemistry issues would be coming out of his hide, per se.

But Pedro ... who knows? The guy's a psychological black box. I don't know how he motivates himself or what the thought process is. Alls I know is that if something is likely to make him unhappy, it's likely to have an effect on the back end, and there's no need to risk that.

“The only thing they didn’t understand, quite frankly, is us kneeling on the ball at the end."

-Tom Coughlin, on London's NFL fans

I doubt that. They were probably at a loss to explain why the NFL would have sent those two incompetent outfits over for the game in the first place. Honestly, how is it possible the Miami Dolphins are so bad? I don't mean how, really -- their defense got old overnight, their running back's out for the year, their quarterback is going to have to retire due to massive head trauma (never a good sign), their offensive line is porous, their coach is a moron, etc.

It's more that it's stunning to see a team look so sad in a marquee event. The Giants weren't much better, but they actually had something to play for, unlike the 0-7 Dolphins, who apparently only went for the warm beer and homely women. This is why it's important to sell the game out in advance, and wait a couple of years to come back so as to allow people time to forget how awful the experience actually was. Time smooths out such wrinkles.

"It demonstrates that they're not a model of intelligent management. There were many checkpoints along the way where more decisive action would have eliminated this issue."

-David Stern, on the sexual harassers at Madison Square Garden

It demonstrates what now? Oh, I heard you just fine, Dave. But ... what? Excuse me? Who on this planet, or any other, thought for a moment that the New York Knickerbockers were "a model of intelligent management?" No one who has access to the print or broadcast media, for one group. No users of the Internets, for another. People with eyes are out.

Other things L'Affaire Anucha also demonstrated, using Stern's logic:

• The Knicks are not a Model T
• The Knicks are not a Model UN team
• The Knicks are not a modeling agency
• James Dolan is not the model of a modern Major General
• Isiah Thomas is not a role model (actually, this one works)
• The Knicks are not a model airplane

And so forth. The Commish also might have pointed out that the sexual harassment might have been thwarted by, oh, I don't know ... NOT SEXUALLY HARASSING HER IN THE FIRST PLACE. "Not sexually harassing" someone may or may not be decisive, but it has the added quality of being the right thing to do.