Red Sox Report: Baseball, No Beer For Bosox
Monday, February 27, 2012
Saturday was Valentine’s Day at JetBlue Park in Fort Myers, as in, the day that Boston’s new skipper laid down the law with his new team. And there were anything but warm and fuzzy feelings in the Red Sox clubhouse.
New manager Bobby Valentine had his first powwow with the entire team where he set the ground rules for 2012 - among them, no beer in the clubhouse, before, during or after games.
This comes as little surprise given the circumstances surrounding last year’s laugher on Lansdowne which saw the Boston Budweiser’s set the September record for futility.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTValentine had no choice but to ban beer (and we presume ordering out for fried chicken during games) given what transpired last year. But it’s not as if his approach is a novel one. 19 of the 30 teams throughout Major League Baseball also ban alcohol from the clubhouse.
As David Ortiz said after the meeting, “we’re not here to drink, we’re here to play baseball. You know what I’m saying? This ain’t no bar.”
I wonder why Big Papi decided to wait until now to utter those obvious words?
It looks like the brothers Beckett will have to find something else to do during the games as opposed to soaking up the suds. Here’s an idea. How about watching the game and supporting your teammates? Or maybe you can watch opposing hitters to help you better prepare for when you have to face that very same line-up.
Let the games begin!
NOTES:
-It was certainly no coincidence that Tampa Bay Rays’ manager Joe Maddon came out on Sunday and confirmed that alcoholic beverages will still be allowed in his team’s clubhouse this season. Maddon said, “we’re not the Boston Red Sox.” Ouch!
-Valentine made it a point to praise Josh Beckett Sunday for his approach to pitching batting practice. “He was very good today,” said the Red Sox skipper. “He really wants to have his change-up down pat. He feels like that’s an important part of his arsenal when he goes north and today was a good step in that direction.”
-Valentine also talked line-up today saying he’s probably have 100 different line-ups this season. Last week he intimated that he may not be entirely comfortable with having Jacoby Ellsbury remain in the lead-off spot which he confirmed again today. Valentine said that he has talked to both Dustin Perdoia and Ellsbury about where they might hit in the line-up. Both players are candidates to hit 3rd in the batting order despite the fact that Adrian Gonzalez occupied that spot primarily last season. Ellsbury addressed the issue saying, “it’s hard for me to say at this point. I haven’t hit third on this team before.” Ellsbury continued, “time will tell what will happen. I really don’t have an opinion either way at the moment.”
-Ellsbury also addressed playing in Boston and whether or not he will look to go elsewhere following the 2013 season when he is scheduled to become a free agent. “I love playing here. It’s a great place to play,” he said. “It’s the only place I know. I enjoy playing in that pressure environment.”
When asked if he would consider signing a contract extension before his current deal expires, Ellsbury said, “there’s always that possibility. I kind of leave that up to my agent (Scott Boras)and I’m just happy everything worked out this year. As far as future contracts and stuff like that, I let them take care of it and then inform me if there’s any decisions to be made.”
-Besides the ban on alcohol in the clubhouse, the other big story coming out of camp over the weekend was owner John Henry apologizing to Carl Crawford for saying he was against signing Crawford last offseason. Henry told Michael Felger and Tony Massarotti this offseason that he disagreed with his baseball operations people on the signing of Crawford saying that it made little sense to add another left-handed hitter to the line-up. But, in the end, he allowed his baseball people to make the signing.
On the surface, nothing Henry said was outrageous or even slightly out of line. However, his comments upset Crawford who made his feelings known last week. For that reason, Henry thought it was wise to apologize to his $142 million dollar man.
