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Ring The Bell
March 13, 2009
3.13.
09, 2:48 PM
Ring The Bell
Papelbon Sounds Off On Manny
Beckett Shooting Blanks, Smoltz Almost Ready
By: Jared Carrabis
I know I promised no more talking about Manny, but Jonathan Papelbon changed the rules yesterday.
In an interview with Esquire Magazine set to come out this April, Papelbon went off on his former teammate, Manny Ramirez. The words that Papelbon chose in describing the quickly deteriorating relationship that Ramirez had with the club just before his trade from Boston were surely the words that were on the mind of a handful of Red Sox players, but Papelbon was the only one to speak up about it.
We all know how crazy Pap can get and how enthusiastic of a character he is; in this interview, we see a side of the Boston closer that clearly has been irritated by the actions of Manny Ramirez.
"For [Manny] not to be on the same page as the rest of the team was a killer, man! It just takes one guy to bring an entire team down, and that’s exactly what was happening. Once we saw that, we weren’t afraid to get rid of him. It’s like cancer. That’s what he was. Cancer. He had to go. It sucked, but that was the only scenario that was going to work. That was it for us. And after, you could feel it in the air in the clubhouse. We got Jason Bay — Johnny Ballgame, plays the game right, plays through broken knees, runs out every ground ball — and it was like a breath of fresh air, man! Awesome! No question.
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Papelbon went on to explain in further detail of how Ramirez no longer fit in with the clubhouse that the Red Sox tried to hard to uphold.
"The beautiful thing about our team is, we don’t let anybody get above the team. He wasn’t on the same train as the rest of us; he was on a different train! And you saw what happened with that. We got rid of him, and we moved on without him. That comes from the manager, and it comes from guys like Jason Varitek and Tim Wakefield and David Ortiz. Nobody is ever going to be allowed to do that. Even a guy like me, just heading into my fourth year in the big leagues — if David Ortiz gets a little, you know — I’ll tell him what’s up! I’m not afraid to do that. I’m not afraid to put him in his place, because I think everybody needs that. And if somebody does it to me, I understand that. I most certainly understand that. Varitek tells me all the time, ‘Just shut up. Do what you’re supposed to do.
’"
When Papelbon's comments reached Ramirez, he responded just as anyone would have expected him to. "I'm here, not there anymore," Ramirez said. "I moved on.
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Although Manny's response to Papelbon's comments were brief, there were others that reacted to what Papelbon had to say. Their responses were not so brief and not so subtle.
While on ESPN Radio, Peter Gammons sounded off on Papelbon by saying, "Jonathan’s very emotional. He’s not Abraham Lincoln. But there’s a lot of hard feelings. It was very telling in Colleen Dominguez’s interview with Manny that he doesn’t talk to anybody on the Red Sox. She said David Ortiz? He said no. … and it’s kind of too bad but Manny became obsessed with the money and there were things that happened like stiffing all the clubhouse kids, and stuff like that that left very bad tastes in his teammates mouths. And also the fact that Manny made it very clear. Winning is not important, my contract is. That’s the way he left. And that’s the way the players felt… I find it really distasteful for anyone to use the word "cancer" in relationship to a human being because it just, it doesn’t fit. Jonathan did not use his words well.
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On ESPN's daily show 1st and 10, Skip Bayless and Stephen A. Smith debated if Papelbon was in the right to have made the comments that he made. While Bayless "I do hate that word (cancer), but I have absolutely no problem with the thrust of what Papelbon said.
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Stephen A. Smith was not so forgiving to Papelbon for his actions, but only under a certain circumstance. Smith said that if Papelbon faced Ramirez like a man behind closed doors, while Ramirez was still in Boston, and attempted to get the slugger to change his ways, then his comments were justified. However, if Papelbon never made an attempt to talk to Ramirez man-to-man, Smith said that Papelbon was a "punk" for talking behind Manny's back.
In my personal opinion, I think that Papelbon should have just kept his mouth shut. We as fans already knew how the players felt about Ramirez and what he did to his teammates prior to his departure. Papelbon couldn't have made these particular comments right after the trade, because a team that is focused on winning a World Series doesn't need any more drama or any distractions from the media. We all saw how Ramirez reacted to the comments, so it's apparent now that making the comments were irrelevant and they stirred up more drama that doesn't need to be in the presence of the Red Sox or Manny Ramirez.
Moving on to news that is actually worth reading.
Manager Terry Francona told the Boston Globe on Monday that veteran pitcher, John Smoltz, is 12 days away from his first scheduled bullpen session as a member of the Boston Red Sox. The Red Sox understand that there is no rush to get Smoltz back to mid-season form. Thanks to the depth provided by free agent signings and player development, Smoltz can take baby steps en route to his return to a Major League mound in a Red Sox uniform this June.
A pitcher on the Red Sox staff that is taking giant leaps, rather than baby steps, back to a Major League mound is none other than Josh Beckett. In his third start of the spring, Beckett hurled four shutout innings against the St. Louis Cardinals on Thursday. Although the Boston ace issued his first walk of the spring against the Cards, he has yet to give up a run. The right-hander has tossed nine innings in three starts, giving up just five hits, while striking out four.
One last note, Jon Lester will be taking a comprehensive physical exam this weekend before putting his signature on his five-year, $30 million extension with the Boston Red Sox. Lester is healthy and looking strong this spring. While most speculate if the workload that the left-hander took on in 2008 will effect his innings in 2009, Lester has complied a 1.42 ERA so far this spring. I don't like to get too high on Spring Training numbers, because the offenses aren't exactly full Major League lineups, not to mention that most pitchers are still experimenting during the spring, but so far, so good for Jon Lester.
Don't forget to watch Dustin Pedroia, Kevin Youkilis and the rest of Team USA take on Puerto Rico Saturday night at 8pm ET as the Americans try to make their way to the finals of the World Baseball Classic!
-Jared Carrabis
-Jared Carrabis
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