Theo Epstein

“When something goes wrong on the field, we expect our players to take the blame, step up, and proactively assume the blame for it, even if it's not their fault. That's the way to be a good teammate.”

“Baseball is better with tradition, with history. Baseball is better with fans who care.”

“Bostonians vs. Chicagoans, they have different sensibilities, and I can only say this because I consider myself a Bostonian. You know, the Puritanical roots in Boston - the 'sky is falling' mentality a little bit. We could be on a great run, and we'd lose one game, and everyone's panicking.”

“Having a relentless lineup full of professional hitters works on so many levels. It works in terms of pure baseball reasons: if you get on base, you're going to score runs.”

“If you reach a point where your entire farm system is in the big leagues, you've traded a couple guys for players who are now in the big leagues, you know what you do? You start over in your farm system, and you keep developing the talented players you have.”

“Watching the Dodgers perform at a really high level is a nice reminder to us as to how high the bar is.”

“It's a human phenomenon that there has to be a reason for everything. There almost never is.”

“Scouting and player development is the key to year-in and year-out success, not the occasional lucky hit. There are no definitive answers in this game, no shortcuts. When you think you've got it all figured out, you can get humbled very quickly.”

“To win the World Series, you have to be able to do a lot of things well.”

“As I sat back and imagined what my transition from the Red Sox might be, I thought it would smell more like champagne than beer, I guess you would say.”

“It's a natural push and pull that exists in any sports organization. When you are in a big market and then you win, and you're up against the Yankees, and ratings are what they are and attendance is what it is, no one wants to go backwards; as a business, you don't want to go backwards.”

“Sometimes, on the business side, it's important to sort of have something with some sizzle in an offseason. It's the baseball operations department's job to push back against that, just as it's the business side's job to sometimes advance those thoughts.”

“I do think we can be honest and upfront that certain organizations haven't gotten the job done. That's the approach we took in Boston. We identified certain things that we hadn't been doing well, that might have gotten in the way of a World Series, and eradicated them.”

“The 2011 Cubs were the oldest team in the division, the most expensive team in the division, and the worst team in the division. And we really needed to start over.”

“I'm not going to try to deny that I'm a Red Sox fan. I grew up a Red Sox fan, had a great decade here that I really enjoyed, and that will always be a part of me.”

“The Red Sox hadn't won in 86 years when we took over. We didn't run from that challenge - we embraced it.”

“You just make the right baseball decision. You don't necessarily worry about somebody's feelings or anything like that. You make the right baseball decision for the team first and then for the player's development as importantly.”

“I don't want to be buried in a Red Sox casket.”

“It took me coming to the Midwest to realize I was the jerk. People are so nice here. They're so grounded.”

“The only time I think about my contract is when I'm asked about it by the media.”