Inside the Collapse of the Boston Red Sox

[HD MM]

Revealing info reported on the Red Sox via the Boston Globe this morning.....

With their team in peril and their manager losing his authority, three Red Sox pitchers last month were uniquely positioned to prevent the greatest September collapse in major league history. All the Sox needed was Josh Beckett, Jon Lester, and John Lackey to apply the skills and commitment that previously made them World Series champions.

Instead, Boston’s three elite starters went soft, their pitching as anemic as their work ethic. The indifference of Beckett, Lester, and Lackey in a time of crisis can be seen in what team sources say became their habit of drinking beer, eating fast-food fried chicken, and playing video games in the clubhouse during games while their teammates tried to salvage a once-promising season.

Um, wow! This can't be good......

Boston Red Sox - Red Sox unity, dedication dissolved during epic late-season collapse - The Boston Globe

 

[salsadancer7]

Revealing info reported on the Red Sox via the Boston Globe this morning.....



Um, wow! This can't be good......

Boston Red Sox - Red Sox unity, dedication dissolved during epic late-season collapse - The Boston Globe

Yeah, I heard John Kruk talk about this on "Mike and Mike" in the morning heading into work...and I gotta say, for John Kruk, who played in more than likely, the craziest lockerroom in MLB with the Phillies...for HIM to state that this was even more out of line for those Phillies teams...that's saying something. Now TO ME, the whole thing about what they were eating is no big deal to me...but drinking beer and not being on the bench support your teammates...wow!

 

[HD MM]

More quotes from the article....

For every player committed to the team’s conditioning program, there was a slacker. For every Sox regular who rose early on the road to take optional batting practice, there were others who never bothered. For every player who dedicated himself to the quest for a championship, there were too many distracted by petty personal issues.

Drinking beer in the Sox clubhouse is permissible. So is ordering take-out chicken and biscuits. Playing video games on one of the clubhouse’s flat-screen televisions is OK, too. But for the Sox pitching trio to do all three during games, rather than show solidarity with their teammates in the dugout, violated an unwritten rule that players support each other, especially in times of crisis.

Sources said Beckett, Lester, and Lackey, who were joined at times by Buchholz, began the practice late in 2010. The pitchers not only continued the routine this year, sources said, but they joined a number of teammates in cutting back on their exercise regimens despite appeals from the team’s strength and conditioning coach Dave Page.

 

[BillD1984]

As you can imagine, this has taken on a life of it's own on the airwaves this morning!

KFC and heineken may explain why Beckett looked so bloated during his last start, and Lackey is a dog anyway. It's Lester that I'm extremely disappointed in!

 

[AntAltMike]

Hey! I just thought of a team slogan: 25 guys, 25 cabs.

 

[salsadancer7]

More quotes from the article....

That shows me that Tito lost the clubhouse AND there was absolutely NO player leadership on the team... Can't blame Manny for this one. From the looks of it, this has been festering for a few seasons now.

 

[HD MM]

I'm amazed at with all the veteran leadership in that locker room, there could be such disinterest and a lack of motivation that this article suggests.

 

[BillD1984]

Hey! I just thought of a team slogan: 25 guys, 25 cabs.

OR......25 bottles of beer on the wall, 25 bottles of beer.....take one down, pass it around, 24 bottles of beer on the wall......................

 

[HD MM]

A counter expose' has been published in the LA Times......

While the Red Sox enjoyed beer and fried chicken, the bankrupt Dodgers were stuck with Colt 45 and Ramen this season! Further details to follow....

 

[salsadancer7]

I'm amazed at with all the veteran leadership in that locker room, there could be such disinterest and a lack of motivation that this article suggests.

MAYBE there was no reasonable "veteran leadership"...

 

[castle rock kid]

I thought it curious that the Sox let both V Mart and Beltre go last year. Just look at what they did this year.

 

[BillD1984]

I c and p'd this from a poster from another site, but it nails my feelings quite nicely!

It's almost like when when Sidney Wicks and Curtis Rowe wore Celtics uniforms and put shame on a once glorious franchise. Hopefully, John Henry hasn't morphed into John Y. Brown.

Dusty for Captain.

 

[Bodo Fenrirsson]

It sounds like the Red Sox need major house cleaning. It's better to go into rebuilding mode with players who want to play,than to keep the same ingrates on the team.

 

[Hart5150]

While I am not that disappointed to see Tito or Theo leave, the beginning of this article is nothing more than a hit piece on Tito. Obviously feed to the "official" newspaper of the Red Sox by Larry Luchino.

 

[AntAltMike]

I c and p'd this from a poster from another site, but it nails my feelings quite nicely!

t's almost like when when Sidney Wicks and Curtis Rowe wore Celtics uniforms and put shame on a once glorious franchise. Hopefully, John Henry hasn't morphed into John Y. Brown.

I enjoyed the Sidney Wicks era. I could arrive in Boston at around 5:00 PM, buy front row, 1st balcony tickets for $4 each, and then eat dinner before the game.

Once, I moved myself to the press row, which only had four reporters covering the game. At halftime, they'd lower a bucket down to the scorer's table where copies of the first half stats would be placed in it and then it was hoisted back up, so with only four reporters there, my friends and I got to have our own copies of the halftime stats.

The next year, when they signed Larry Bird, I went to the Garden on the day tickets went on sale and got there three hours before the window opened. There were fewer than 20 people in front of me and no one made any heavy buys, but when it was my turn, I was told that all of the good games were sold out. I wound up buying some obstructed view seats. Those of you who never went to Boston Garden may be surprised to learn that seats whose view was obstructed for basketball were seats at staduim level near the rear. The obstruction is the first balcony. You see the entire floor, but you lose shots when they approach their peak.

Fortunately, some friends of mine bought some "half season" tickets, which was one ticket to see each of the 21 opponents, so I got to buy a couple of them to see bland, weeknight games.

 

[DS0816]

While I am not that disappointed to see Tito or Theo leave, the beginning of this article is nothing more than a hit piece on Tito. Obviously feed to the "official" newspaper of the Red Sox by Larry Luchino.

Yes. It's really classy stuff. And more proof that outside New York and Boston, MLB franchises in other cities recognize the sickening fixation sports media has on everything Yankees and Red Sox.

I wouldn't mind Boston Red Sox going through a ten-year period of being a subpar franchise while Baltimore Orioles reascends. (That Wild Card Wednesday, season finale game of Sept. 28 made one think O's were the ones playing for a championship.)

 

[Jimbo]

OR......25 bottles of beer on the wall, 25 bottles of beer.....take one down, pass it around, 24 bottles of beer on the wall......................

Hmm, 25 beers on the wall, 25 players .... wheres the problem !

 

[Mets82]

You know with Tito and Theo gone, I dont know if that changes things at all. The clubhouse has to change more than anything. I think whoever comes in to replace Tito and Theo might not be as good as those two were. I think any Red Sox player or members of Red Sox Nation or members of the media who wanted Tito and Theo gone may rue the day that happpened. If the Red Sox are 15 games out of first in September, I think they would wish for the days of Terry Francona.

 

[Ramy]

No wonder they tanked....they were all in the tank.

 

[AntAltMike]

Some know it all wrote in the Boston Globe that Francona may have been distracted by his back pain medication and his personal, family situation, to which he has replied that those situations were the same when his team went about 80-30 before the collapse.

Can you imagine what would have been written about Epstein and Francona back in 2004 if Dave Roberts had been called "out" insteasd of "safe"? All those columns written after the 2004 World Series callling them geniuses would have called them morons.