February 25, 2012

Valentine Bans Beer In Clubhouse; Henry Apologizes To Crawford

So much for Bobby Valentine treating the Red Sox players like adults and not children - although perhaps after the news of John Lackey's, Jon Lester's, and Josh Beckett's clubhouse picnics last year, it was inevitable. A transcript from the Globe's video clip:
There's no beer in the clubhouse and no beer during the last leg of plane trips.

Q: How did you come to that conclusion?

It's just what I have always done, except for when I was in Texas, I guess. I'm comfortable with it that way.

Q: How was that received?

You mean like standing ovation or booing? [laughs from Valentine and media] I didn't get either of those. There was probably something in between a standing O and standing boos.
The rules are fine with David Ortiz:
We're not here to drink. We're here to play baseball. You know what I'm saying? This ain't no bar. This is an organization, a place that needs a lot of athleticism. Alcohol has nothing to do with that. People have alcohol in their houses. If you want to drink it, drink at home.
Oh, I will!

Listen: Forget the injuries to Daisuke Matsuzaka and Clay Buchholz, forget Carl Crawford's rotten year and forget getting absolutely no production from right field. Forget the September slide and Tampa Bay's concurrent surge, and fried chicken and cold foamers, forget it all. The Globe knows the real reason why the Red Sox failed to make the playoffs - they passed out ALDS scouting reports during G162's rain delay and angered the karma gods.

Three days after Red Sox owner John Henry claimed that his comments last fall about not wanting to sign Carl Crawford were not actually about Crawford, he apologized to the Sox left fielder for those same comments. Crawford:
When someone is genuinely sorry for something, you can tell. I think he was genuinely sorry for it. I apologized for the season I had. ... I like those kind of meetings where you just kind of clear the air and make everything better. ... He handled it really well and made it really easy for me. It wasn't nothing I had to get off my chest. It wasn't like I hated the guy or nothing like that. ... I think we both share the same goal which is to help the Red Sox win.
David Ortiz has lost 17 pounds. ... Matsuzaka, 31, expects to pitch the US until he is 40 years old. ... Lester, Buchholz, Alfredo Aceves, Andrew Bailey, and Daniel Bard (using a wind-up for the first time since 2007) have all thrown live batting practice. ... The Red Sox first spring games are next Saturday (March 3) against Boston College and Northeastern University.

9 comments:

allan said...

Dept. of WTF?: Aviles NOT traded to Rays.

allan said...

Link also shows how lame PeteAbe is.

Maxwell Horse said...

Banning beer is a good first step. But the only way to be sure that the Sox don't fail like they did last season is if they ban all forms of poultry as well.

johngoldfine said...

"So much for Bobby Valentine treating the Red Sox players like adults and not children"

Exactly.

And if the team tears up and wins a lot, it's because the players weren't drinking in the clubhouse. But if they fuck up and lose a lot, it's because they're sulking that BobbyBeingBobby took their beer away, the big spoiled babies.

Win/win for the important person: B3!

johngoldfine said...

"Matsuzaka, 31, expects to pitch the US until he is 40 years old..."

Was something lost in translation?

allan said...

Well, he won't be doing it in Boston ...

allan said...

But the only way to be sure that the Sox don't fail like they did last season is if they ban all forms of poultry as well.

And outlaw fowl balls.

allan said...

Joe Maddon will allow grown men to drink a beer in the Rays clubhouse: "We're not the Boston Red Sox."

allan said...

Francona calls the beer ban a "PR move".

"I think it's a PR move. I think if a guy wants a beer, he can probably get one. You know, it's kind of the old rule ... If your coach in football says no hard liquor on the plane — I mean, you serve beer and wine — somebody's going to sneak liquor on the plane. If you furnish a little bit, it almost keeps it to a minimum. I don't think it's a surprise that they put this in effect, or the fact they announced it. It's probably more of a PR move just because, you know, the Red Sox (took) such a beating at the end of the year."