McCarver: Manny's Lack of Commitment in Boston was "Despicable"

Other than hallucinations, what are you basing this on? Varitek wasn't a whipping boy of the Boston fans prior to 2004 -- not even close. Please share your expertise on Mr. "Varetek".

 

You know, there is a reason besides not trying that players don't run the bases or field very well. They're not good at it. I'd have to put Manny in that category for baserunning. Fielding, he has a terrible first reaction and first step. At top speed, he can make plays, but of course there aren't four balls a year hit in Fenway where the left fielder has space to hit top speed.

 

Yes, please share. Varitek, to my knowledge, has never been a player Red Sox fans wanted to get rid of. When he contract was up in 2004, Boston fans pleaded Epstein and Co. to resign him, and they did.

 

McCarver is an idiot (Before Game 7 of the 1991 World Series: "This is a must win for both teams").

In this case, however, he has a point. I understand that the Manny Being Manny Show had been going on for years, but -- and correct me if I'm wrong Boston fans -- didn't he take it to a new level this year? There's a difference between going into the scoreboard during a pitching change and flat-out refusing to play, or striking out on purpose.

Of course, according to Bill Simmons, it's all Scott Boras' fault anyway.

 

For many people, it was the pushing of the traveling secretary incident. I assume that story has been talked about here. Thats part of your answer.

Also, the teammates apparently felt they could no longer depend on him and some of the veterans were asked and they wanted him out. Thats the rest of the answer.

You may or may not agree with these reasons being good enough, but they are probably the biggest reasons that some of the fans had had enough.

 

I can understand your reasoning. "Manny being Manny" was going into the scoreboard in the Green Monster, giving a fan a "high-five" after fielding a ball in the outfield or just being playful in the clubhouse.

It turned to a new level when Manny and Youkilis got into a shoving match or when Manny pushed down a traveling agent because he refused to provide Manny with an obscene number of tickets to a game to give to family and friends. It became worse when Manny refused to play and lied about an apparent injury that came up negative after getting an MRI. The list goes on.

Sure, Manny has been flaky, but his antics grew to a level that made others in the clubhouse feel uncomfortable and when Manny finally spoke to the media about his displeasure in Boston, fans wised up and paid more attention to his lack of ambition to play in Boston.

 

Oh yeah I forgot. No one's EVER wanted to slug Youkilis before.

 

Don't you mean "Youk"

 

You have not been following the Red Sox for that long than because fans were calling for a new catcher after Tek strung together 3 bad years between 2000 and 2002 ( 2001 he was injured most of season)

He then went on a new training regimen for 2003 and banged out 25 HR's and the rest is history

 

The McCormick incident, combined with the bs in '05 that led up to the trading deadline (though many welcomed him back with open arms as seen by the PH appearance), the '06 laydown once Ortiz went down when the wild card was still within reach.

 

People that were screaming for Varitek to be replaced were seeing the offensive numbers Posada was putting up at the same time while the Yankees were rolling to a WS and a pennant in those three years, while the Red Sox were a mess, especially toward the end of 01 with the Williams/Kerrigan switch.

 

Yes exactly. Also at that time Sox fans did not realize how good a defensive catcher that TEK was for their pitchers.

Varitek really became "TeK" after he slugged A Rod