Red Sox have Drama, who Doesn’t?
If you ask me, all of this so called drama coming out in Boston is childish and out of hand. David Ortiz said, “there is too much drama here and I don’t know if I want stick around.” First off, I don’t recall hearing about the Red Sox offering you a contract Big Papi, so the choice of not coming back is out of your hands for the time being. Terry Francona and Theo Epstein isn’t drama, it’s business. Tito was in the last year of his contract and there was never any talk of an extension. When the team was 80-39 and in first place, it wasn’t discussed. Maybe both parties decided before the season even began that win, lose or draw this was Francona’s last year. When the General Manager’s job in Chicago opened in late summer, wasn’t it Epstein’s name that was immediately mentioned as the replacement? That was also when the Sox were in first place. The September collapse may have made their decision to part ways with the club easier but it wasn’t the reason they are no longer around. They are two successful men who made the decision to move on. Secondly, why don’t you take those rose colored glasses off and see the baseball world with clear eyes? Do you think the Red Sox are the only team with drama? Let’s look around the Majors for a moment.
Let’s start with the teams battling it out in the Championship Series:
Texas Rangers: They had to go thru the process of who was buying the team prior to the 2010 season. The very next year, Nolan Ryan forces managing partner, Chuck Greenberg, to resign and leave. The same Chuck Greenberg that helped Ryan outbid Mark Cuban for team ownership. Manager Ron Washington had to apologize to the world for testing positive for taking cocaine. Fan favorite and longest tenure player, Michael Young, had his fair share of drama. First, he lost his shortstop position, then lost third base and came pretty darn close to losing the designated hitters job. He asked for a trade and the Rangers tried to accommodate him, at one point in spring training there was a tentative deal in place to trade Young to Arizona. Let’s not even go down the path of Josh Hamilton tossing the ball to the fan in the stands.
Detroit Tigers: Miguel Cabrera, All Star and future Hall of Famer showed up drunk on the first day of spring training.
Milwaukee Brewers: They sign Rickie Weeks and Ryan Braun to contract extensions but fail to get one to Prince Fielder.
St Louis Cardinals: Albert Pujols. You want drama? Good luck with this one, especially with Theo Epstein now at the helm in Chicago.
Ortiz even said that he would consider playing for the Yankees because they don’t seem to have any issues there. Seriously? Did you even think before you shot your mouth off? The Yankees don’t have any drama? So I guess the whole Derek Jeter free agency mess was nothing. The Steinbrenner brothers saying he isn’t worth the money he was asking for and if he could find a better deal with another team then he should look into it. Andy Pettitte stringing them along all offseason on whether he was retiring or not. Roger Clemens‘ steroid trial which would have been very messy for the Yankees. Cliff Lee teasing them until a last second bolt to the Phillies. They sing Rafael Soriano and during the press conference with Soriana sitting right there, Brain Cashman said it wasnt his idea to sign him. C.C. Sabathia is going to opt out of his contract to get more money. Next year is Brian Cashman’s last year under contract, I haven’t heard of any talk of an extension there, have you? Finally, take a peek into the Yankee dugout sometime, how many players do you see huddled around Alex Rodriguez at any point in a game? Go ahead Big Papi, go play there. Let us know how that works out for you. You assume they want you as DH, you know what they say when you assume?
How about these players: Manny Ramirez, Hanley Ramirez, Jose Reyes. You don’t think they create drama in the club house?
I could go on to every single team and find some drama. I won’t, but I think you see where I am going with this. The list goes on and on an on.
Any drama on this Red Sox team was brought on by the players and players only. We will be talking about beer, chicken and video games forever now. The biggest problem I have with it all is that the gutless and classless players don’t have the courage to come out and say, “yes I did that and it was wrong.” In fact they have said nothing. Haven’t they learned by now that the cover-up is always worse than the offense?
This is the world of sports. Every sport and every team has some sort of drama involved. The Red Sox are just highlighted because they were the hands down favorites to win it all and instead they quit on the team and each other.
If the members of this team dont stand up and take accountability, then they can expect to hear plenty of boo’s on opening day.
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