Bobby V bans beer in clubhouse

[Dojji]

This is clearly just a PR move.

Well duh.

 

There's a time and a place for PR moves.

[ibot2much]

Shaughnessy's conversation with Beckett ( as he reports it)

 

Josh, any thoughts on BV's decision to take beer out of the clubhouse?

--That's his decision

Any reaction to it?

--No.

De you care that there won't be beer in the clubhouse this year?

--No.

 

DS says that he resisted the urge to end the conversation with "Stay thirsty my friend".

* ************

When I read a while back that Beckett does not speak on his pitching day, I at first thought that he was amazingly focused....now I just think he is a pompous ass. ( from me not DS)

[VA Sox Fan]

Shaughnessy's conversation with Beckett ( as he reports it)

 

Josh, any thoughts on BV's decision to take beer out of the clubhouse?

--That's his decision

Any reaction to it?

--No.

De you care that there won't be beer in the clubhouse this year?

--No.

 

DS says that he resisted the urge to end the conversation with "Stay thirsty my friend".

* ************

When I read a while back that Beckett does not speak on his pitching day, I at first thought that he was amazingly focused....now I just think he is a pompous ass. ( from me not DS)

 

I think he meant that is how he wanted to wrap up the article:

 

This is where the wise guy in me wants to wrap up with something catchy like, “Stay thirsty, my friends.’’

 

I will resist that urge.

[Elktonnick]

Well duh.

 

There's a time and a place for PR moves.

 

Kevin Kennedy, former Red Sox manager and Rays analyst, gave an interesting reason for banning beer etc. on the last leg or a road trip. It is a liability issue. Even the Rays under Maddon ban alcohol on the last leg of road trips. There have been numerous incidents of players having accidents and DUIs. So this is why it is done. BV had the same policy when he was with the Mets reportedly according to Kennedy after an incident.

 

Given the money at stake with these payrolls, this kind of move appears fiscally prudent if nothing else.

[ibot2much]

I think he meant that is how he wanted to wrap up the article:

 

This is where the wise guy in me wants to wrap up with something catchy like, “Stay thirsty, my friends.’’

 

I will resist that urge.

 

I didn't read it that way.....If he wanted to end the COLUMN that way, his readers are not the ones staying thirsty bcause we are not under the ban. Did he want to end the column that way because he did not dare say it to Beckett in person but could do so in print? I don't know. But thanks for your POV

[jung]

Thanks for the explanation. I guess what I could not distinguish is why the liability is different on other legs of a road but the distinction must be that you are not getting into your own car at the airport and driving home.

 

As for the new rules just being a PR move I am not sure that makes sense. Again, so many times this offseason people including myself said this team would be under a microscope this season. I don't think the rule change makes that go away. However now media types won't just be looking for the behavior but will be looking for behavior contrary to the rules never mind contrary to anything else. If anything the media will be that much more motivated. I suspect these guys are going to go even farther to try to monitor what is going on in that clubhouse.

 

I also suspect that V realized he was not going to nip the media efforts in the bud with this new rule and even likely new it would just exacerbate media interest in keeping an eagle eye out for this story. Hence I don't think he can afford to make this a toothless rule that he does not intend the players adhering to. In fact does this not create a situation where the player has to bring beer into the clubhouse since it will no longer just be there.

[VA Sox Fan]

I didn't read it that way.....If he wanted to end the COLUMN that way' date=' his readers are not the ones staying thirsty bcause we are not under the ban. Did he want to end the column that way because he did not dare say it to Beckett in person but could do so in print? I don't know. But thanks for your POV[/quote']

 

I just think that if it was directed at Beckett, he would have said "I resisted that urge"

[redsoxbeatz]

It's pathetic that this A.) is news B.) had to happen.

 

Hope the red sox can be the real deal this year.

[jung]

You could make the case that it was long overdue just based on the liability issues. You have to believe that the other 19 teams did this without being caught in the klieg lights.

 

The shame of it is this whole issue became a metaphor for the failure of the team, a lack of focus and discipline and the rest of it. I am not happy that this team will be under a microscope this year unless they are just taking the league or at least the division apart. Can't change that either.

[ibot2much]

I don't think that Beckett helped the cause with his comments about the rat that let the cat out of the bag ( how do you like that mixed metaphor), but amazing to me was the picture that showed Lackey at ST and he never spoke to the media about anything. If Becket is a PR nightmare, they must really fear putting John out there

[Elktonnick]

I know some here call me gramps (which is okay since I have 11 grandchildren) but I can remember a time when beer wasn't allowed in the seats at Fenway park. In the 1950s I can remember my father and others standing in the runway or in back drinking their beer.

 

In 1978 the city of Boston eased the restrictions on beer sales at the park and only allowed the purchase of one beer per person to bring to their seats according to an newspaper article I found.

[jung]

I don't think Josh is helping himself either. It would be so easy to just do a "Lester". Today he commented that he does not think he has to change anything.

 

What does that mean? Does it mean he is still headed for the clubhouse in the 7th? Does it mean he is still going to have these unexplained weight gains during the season. Is he still going to have trouble closing out the season like he did against Baltimore last year? This is what I have meant about certain players making their entitlements more important than the team's performance and maybe even their own. He is just not willing to give an inch.

[a700hitter]

I don't think Josh is helping himself either. It would be so easy to just do a "Lester". Today he commented that he does not think he has to change anything.

 

What does that mean? Does it mean he is still headed for the clubhouse in the 7th? Does it mean he is still going to have these unexplained weight gains during the season. Is he still going to have trouble closing out the season like he did against Baltimore last year? This is what I have meant about certain players making their entitlements more important than the team's performance and maybe even their own. He is just not willing to give an inch.

He's just a very stubborn personality. If people are looking for a statement of contrition, you are not going to get it from Beckett. He is a tough competitor, and hopefully he has come to the realization that in order to compete the way he likes to compete that he has to do some extra conditioning. If he does his work, I don't care if he spits toward the stands and the press box. The greatest hitter of all time did that for his entire career after his rookie season.

[jung]

On the one hand clearly how Josh performs is more important than what he says or does not say.

 

It would help his team for his issue to not be hanging over them because it is a distraction. It is just not something they need. Worse than that, the way he is commenting suggests he has not put it behind him either and maybe he can't until the players clear the air amongst themselves.

 

But Josh is making no bones about carrying this around with him even to the point of picking at imaginary issues. Nobody that I can recall has asked Josh to sacrifice his family considerations for the team. But I think there is an expectation that he would manage the same balancing act we all have to manage. This idea that Josh is angry because people are expecting him to put his family second is just a huge red hearing and a means for Josh to do what Josh likes to do....avoid whatever the issue is by attacking on some other meaningless and irrelevant front.

 

All of that will be fine if he pitches well. Although I don't know who else but Josh can keep this crap off of his teammates.

 

Seeing him in a tee shirt....he looks a heck of a lot like he did when he finished last year weight wise and he is gaining this growing reputation now for being effective for half a season as well as his odd even season thing.

 

As I said early today I also don't know if hitters are going to take his comments about taking extra time on the mound and spit them right back at him in the form of continually stepping out just as he is about to throw. That is another topic that I wish never saw the light of day. If he is taking to long on the mound and batters step out the ump is going to turn to Josh to get on the rubber and throw the ball.

[Bellhorn04]

He's just a very stubborn personality. If people are looking for a statement of contrition' date=' you are not going to get it from Beckett. He is a tough competitor, and hopefully he has come to the realization that in order to compete the way he likes to compete that he has to do some extra conditioning. If he does his work, I don't care if he spits toward the stands and the press box. The greatest hitter of all time did that for his entire career after his rookie season.[/quote']

 

I feel the same way.

[SoxSport]

Isn't Shaughnessy writing a bio with Francona? That would make it a slight conflict of interest to be talking about this stuff, since Tito was in the middle of it. The Globe is way overexposed on this subject, anyways.

They continue to try to milk it for all the readership they can get. At this point, it's pretty boring--counterproductive, in terms of the home team.

 

I can't remember the last time the Globe said anything negative about the Yankees--or any NY team, for that matter. They covered the Jets this year almost as much as the Patriots. Aren't they owned by the NY Times? Well, that's a partial explanation.

[Divinity]

Tito calls the beer ban a PR ploy

 

Saying a recent move by the Red Sox to ban alcohol in the clubhouse amounted to a public-relations strategy, former Boston manager Terry Francona asserted Monday that it likely won't change whether a player who wants a drink after a game will have one.

 

"I think it's a PR move," Francona, now an ESPN analyst, said on ESPN Radio's "Mike and Mike in the Morning" show. "I think if a guy wants a beer, he can probably get one. You know, it's kind of the old rule ... If your coach in football says no hard liquor on the plane -- I mean, you serve beer and wine -- somebody's going to sneak liquor on the plane.

 

"If you furnish a little bit, it almost keeps it to a minimum."

 

Francona managed the Red Sox for eight seasons, a tenure that ended after the team missed the postseason despite holding a nine-game wild-card lead in September.

 

"I don't think it's a surprise that they put this in effect, or the fact they announced it," Francona said of the alcohol ban. "It's probably more of a PR move just because, you know, the Red Sox [took] such a beating at the end of the year."

[Spitball]

Tito calls the beer ban a PR ploy

 

I think this is obvious. If nothing else, it allows the team to focus on baseball and not worry about speculation as to why a particular player was not on the bench in the late innings. If Josh Beckett needs to see the trainer, he needs to do so without radio show hosts making a big deal of the whole event.

[jung]

Media hounds are going to be all over this team this year looking for dirt to fling.

 

None of them even ask baseball questions anymore.

 

 

"How do you feel about your chances this year" is about as close as they get to a baseball question. I wonder if we are seeing the death of the beat writer whether pulp or digitally based. Seems to me those were the guys that used to ask actual baseball questions.

[Elktonnick]

Media hounds are going to be all over this team this year looking for dirt to fling.

 

None of them even ask baseball questions anymore.

 

 

"How do you feel about your chances this year" is about as close as they get to a baseball question. I wonder if we are seeing the death of the beat writer whether pulp or digitally based. Seems to me those were the guys that used to ask actual baseball questions.

 

This year will be no different then any other when it comes to the intensity of the media coverage. Boston always has had the most intrusive baseball coverage with the possible exception of New York. The internet, the cable nets and sports talk radio just ups the ante a bit. You still have the beat reporters but you also have ESPN, NESN and CSNE beat reporters competing with the Herald, Globe and the Provdence and Hartford papers.

[jung]

I think the difference will be that the media will be focused on very specific issues this year. That is not the same as the coverage just being generally intense.

 

Maybe they are still called beat reporters but they seem more like gossip columnists to me. I can't remember the last time I actually heard anybody ask a real baseball question or saw an interview where any real baseball was covered.

 

As I mentioned earlier just as an example, we have CC having completely changed his stance. Yet we have not seen any evidence that a single reporter has asked CC any questions about the genesis of the change or anything to do with it at all. This is a guy that got creamed in the off season for his lack of production at the plate.

 

That would likely be a good news story for a change as well. Carl could hardly do worse than he did last year. I would think we would all be pretty excited about him coming to ST with a completely new stance. But nooooooooo. We will ask Carl what he thinks of V so far. That seems a much more provocative topic.

 

Bunch of glorified gossip columnists. We get some stories about who might be coming to the team and who might be traded or signed but even that has a tone of mystery and the copy is often written in a style similar to that used in the tabloids.

 

I would be less critical before spring training started. But there are guys actually swinging bats and throwing baseballs now and there is hardly a difference in the coverage.

[seabeachfred]

Isn't Shaughnessy writing a bio with Francona? That would make it a slight conflict of interest to be talking about this stuff, since Tito was in the middle of it. The Globe is way overexposed on this subject, anyways.

They continue to try to milk it for all the readership they can get. At this point, it's pretty boring--counterproductive, in terms of the home team.

 

I can't remember the last time the Globe said anything negative about the Yankees--or any NY team, for that matter. They covered the Jets this year almost as much as the Patriots. Aren't they owned by the NY Times? Well, that's a partial explanation.

 

Plus they're a miserly and miserable liberal paper....ooooppppsss!!!!!! Sorry, not politics. You know, though, all kidding aside Sox Sport, it is as if the Globe almost acting like a Fifth Column against the Red Sox. They knocked the players and they had it coming, but when I download the Globe on my computer I never saw squat against Epstein or Francona. It's as if they were as innocent as new born babes. I think it is time for the Globe, Herald, the Courant and the Journal to focus on the team and try to accentuate the positive during this ST. If there is some bad news, fine, report it, but there are a lot of story lines in Fort Myers and it would be nice to see a lot of those as well.

[Jwmann2]

I have no problem with a pitcher sipping on beer on his off day. But this is just to get the media to shut up. The clubhouse is a place to hang out, and although other teams say they've banned alcohol, it's just to pat the media and fans on the head. We all know everyone is going to keep drinking.