Issue with MAILC env variable?

I'm trying to use the -r option in "nail" to change the from address headers.  It works fine if I just have an email address, however if I use the (Name) nomenclature the hobbitd bombs with this error:

/usr/local/xymon/server/etc/hobbitserver.cfg: line 97: syntax error near unexpected token `('
/usr/local/xymon/server/etc/hobbitserver.cfg: line 97: `MAILC="/usr/bin/nail -r "user-4b9489cbb9ab@xymon.invalid (Xymon)""        

Env is this:
MAILC="/usr/bin/nail -r "user-4b9489cbb9ab@xymon.invalid (Xymon)""        
MAIL="$MAILC -s"

From the command line this works fine as well:

/usr/bin/nail -r "user-4b9489cbb9ab@xymon.invalid (Xymon)" user-fd45172e7876@xymon.invalid


Is there something in Xymon that is interpreting the parenthesis?  I've even tried to escape them with \ to no avail.

Thx,
Tom