Mulder was spectacular, but there were a lot of outstanding things, ... Mostly, the way we competed, that was outstanding. In the end that's the most important thing we can do.

Any way you slice it, he was outstanding. There were several times when there was some serious thump at the plate and he made good pitches.

There's a bigger difference now than when I first got into professional baseball because that was before guaranteed contracts, before there was a lot of money, so it was mostly survival. You had more competition.

I had started law school at Florida State University as a part-timer. I would go two quarters, and they allowed me to drop out to play baseball, and then I'd get readmitted in September. I was convinced I was going to be a lawyer and was using my baseball salary to pay my way through school.

I've paid him a lot of compliments. He earned a lot of respect, with a lot of tough situations. There were injuries, they were forced to sell or trade guys like [Aramis] Ramirez. I thought he did a good job of keeping the club competitive every time we saw them.

I don't necessarily think you can separate the two, ... When you come into a game with a big lead, absolutely the worst thing you can do is to walk guys. That's the only time I'd yell from the dugout - whey they walked somebody. So when you get behind a hitter in that situation, it's more likely a ball catches too much plate.