Eric Gagne: In His Own Words

Globe:

I got more calls from friends in Montreal after the trade than I did when I won the Cy Young Award [in 2003].

Courant:

There are so many [Red Sox] fans in Montreal, especially with the Expos gone now. Everybody in Montreal are pretty much Boston fans. Me personally, I was an Expos fan. But Boston has always been my second-favorite team. Montreal is a lot like Boston, blue-collar city, really good sports city.

Courant:

I have to get used to that red. I never wore red before. I'm pretty excited. ... It's going to be different. I'll have to get used to it a little bit. I talked to Timlin a little bit and he's going to tell me the little tricks. I'm probably going to do my regular routine and close the eighth inning. That's the only difference.

Projo:

That's the first time I ever got traded, so [Tuesday] was a really, really emotional day. I didn't know where I was going to go. ... I'm happy with [this] scenario. That’s pretty much my top scenario.

Projo:

It was probably a month and a half ago where I went back-to-back days, had a day off and went back-to-back again. That's really when I felt like my arm was bouncing back, and my back was feeling good. I felt great all year, but it just got better and better every week.

Courant:

[Waiving my partial no-trade clause] was one of the easiest decisions I ever had to make. ... I want to be a Red Sox for the rest of the year and help them win a World Series. That's all I care about. Best organization in baseball. I think [it's] the best sports city there is in America. That's why I jumped on that chance to come here. I want to be a closer, I always want to be a closer. I think I see myself as a closer. But a chance to have 15 more saves or win a World Series? That was a pretty easy choice.

Gagne also answered a question from a French-Canadian reporter in flawless French. Alex Cora, who played with Gagne in Los Angeles: "I don't like it when he speaks French, because that means things aren't going too well on the mound."

Gordon Edes has a good article on how the Sox kept Papelbon informed of the trade talks and his reaction.

At first, it didn't really go well. I'm going, 'Wait a minute, what's going on here?' ... He came in here today, I said, 'All right, baby, you're the one, let's do this.' He said, 'That's why I came here.' He wants to go out to prove to everybody that he was the last link in the chain for us to go out and win a World Series.