Inside the Red Sox meltdown

No wonder these guys melted down.
Interesting stuff from Boston Globe inside the Sox meltdown.. Claims pitchers were playing video games eating fast food in the clubhouse during games. Francona had a pain-killer addiction and was separated from his wife. Players were pissed Epstein overpaid from Carl Crawford and only Pedora was still trying to lead the team.

http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/redsox/articles/2011/10/12/red_sox_unity_dedication_dissolved_during_epic_late_season_collapse/?page=full

John Lackey sounds like a Grade-A piece of shit.

 

Worth noting that the three villians of the piece, Lackey, Lester and Beckett, cannot be gotten rid of except at a loss of tens of millions of dollars and any chance of winning next year, too. Last spring, management and ownership were praised to the skies for locking up their starting rotation to long-term contracts.

 

The Braves have a great clubhouse. So do the Mets. So do the Phillies.

 

Great reporting from the Globe.

Can't imagine reading something that well-researched and written on the web -- with the exception of Yahoo! Sports.

 

And none of it matters if Papelbon throws one more strike past a clown hitter.

 

I don't know how I feel about the pain-killer stuff in there. At least Francona discussed the topic, so it's not totally based on an anonymous source.

There's still a playoff game, which in all likelihood they choke away somehow.

 

Surprised Lester is involved in this.

Why did Hohler do this and not the beat writers?

 

Good story, but I feel like ownership got of way, way too easy here. Which makes me feel like they were the source for a lot of it.

 

Umm, cause the beaters have to go back in the clubhouse next Spring?

 

Not a coincidence that WEEI is reporting Theo to the Cubs.

 

Really? There is pretty much nothing on the record, so we're pretty much relying solely on the Globe's reputation that their sources are reputable. While most of the article feels "true" to me, I don't really think there is anything factual that is confirmed by it, outside of Francona living in a hotel for the past couple months.

The thing that kind of raised a red flag for me - The only guys working hard were Pedroia, Aceves and Papelbon, according to the article. I imagine they were the only ones identified because they have name recognition. Fringe guys like Andrew Miller and Mike Aviles weren't working hard? That part struck me as more of trying to continue with a certain narrative as opposed to reflecting reality.

 

Hohler was the paper's Red Sox beat reporter for a number of years. So he knows his stuff.

And as TigerVols said, the beat writers have to go back to that locker room in the future.