July 19, 2012

Lester Speaks Out

Jon Lester opened up to ESPN's Gordon Edes before last night's win:
You think I'm happy right now? You think I like coming to the park with almost a 5 ERA (4.80) next to my name, with a 5-7 record? I mean, who would be happy?

You think last night me coming off the field getting booed was fun? C'mon, who would want to do that? It's much cooler for me to walk off the field to a standing ovation after pitching my ass off. ...

It's embarrassing. It's embarrassing for my wife to be sitting in the stands to hear that. I'm embarrassed for her. I'm embarrassed what she has to hear in the stands. ...

I don't want to show up at the park and go, "[Expletive], I'm going to give up seven runs in four innings and call it a day, then go home and count my money because that's all that matters." ...

This is a tough place to play, you know? I love playing here because it makes people accountable. It makes you accountable for what you do. There's no excuses here. If you pitch like [expletive], you can't come in and say, "Aw, the mound's a little wet" because you've got Dave (Mellor, the groundskeeper) down there saying, "No, it wasn't." This place makes you accountable. ...

If baseball was that easy to fix when you're not going right, you wouldn't see slumps. My biggest frustration is when people think we're robots. We're going to have bad games. We're going to have bad seasons. Do we want them? No, I hate this. ...

Every single guy cares, every single guy busts their ass every night, every guy grinds out at-bats. It doesn't matter if it's Mauro Gomez or if its Pedro Ciriaco or if it's Will or Adrian or David. ... I think that's what caught everybody so off guard here, that article about being toxic. This clubhouse is great.
You can quibble with a small point here and there, but it's an excellent piece.

7 comments:

9casey said...

I like it.... I hope this team makes every writer look like an idiot. And that is the sad part about Boston now, if they dont make the playoffs it will be something else other than the injuries..

Tom DePlonty said...

I thought this was one of the best player interviews I've ever read. And kudos to Edes for not trying to reframe or editorialize on Lester's comments refuting the "toxic clubhouse" stuff.

allan said...

Crawford, on deciding to sign with the Red Sox:
Things didn’t go right for me the first year, so naturally, those thoughts creep into your head when you’re doing bad. If I had a good season, those thoughts don’t creep up. But I’m a person (who) once I make a decision, that’s it. And at the end of the day, if I had to do it all over again, I think I’d make the same decision. ...
If I’m a fan, I don’t care about how much you get ready for the game, and it doesn’t really matter if they know or not because at the end of the day, it’s what you do in the game. Until I perform well in the game, they could care less.

***

allan said...

And I think Edes can get a player to talk to him like this because he is usually even-handed in his coverage and does not play games like some other writers, who you may notice never get "scoops" (which this is, of a sort) like this.

hrstrat57 said...

I actually think Lester will turn it around.....

9casey said...

I actually think Lester will turn it around.....

July 19, 2012 5:29 PM



He has to....

hrstrat57 said...

um, maybe not... :(