It’s happening again. As we near the halfway point in the 2012 season, the Red Sox have picked up right where they left off last September. Injuries have certainly played a part, but at the moment Boston is a mediocre team at best as it hovers around a .500 record. In addition to a poor performance on the field, Buster Olney described the Red Sox clubhouse as a “toxic” environment over the weekend. Where have we heard that before? To David Ortiz, it’s all too familiar and he’s not going to stand for it this time around.
“First of all, this is the Red Sox right here,” Ortiz said according to ESPNBoston.com. “This ain’t no (expletive) organization that players just walk in for the first day and start doing whatever the (expletive) they want,” he said. “Players, when they walk into this clubhouse, they look around and they want to adjust themselves to what is going on here, and that’s how things are in this clubhouse.
“If (Olney) wants to make a comment like that, why don’t you ask me a question first. I run this (expletive) clubhouse right here. This clubhouse has no problem. The last problem this clubhouse had was last year when everything came down to what it was in (September), but since then everybody’s cool and everybody’s trying their best to win games.”
People love to criticize Bobby Valentine, and at times it’s deserved. But he wasn’t exactly dealt the best hand in the world. Valentine was expected to come in and put an immediate stop to the beer-drinking, fried-chicken-eating culture that plagued Boston last year. Not to mention, no one could have anticipated he would be without Carl Crawford and Jacoby Ellsbury and dealing with a banged up Kevin Youkilis and Dustin Pedroia. Under the horrendous circumstances, Valentine has hardly been Boston’s problem.
As far as the clubhouse being “toxic” is concerned, the media wants it to be that way. Whether the Red Sox have clubhouse issues or not, losing is going to create them in the eyes of writers, reporters and fans. The only way to stop it is to win some games.
Photo credit: Bob DeChiara-US PRESSWIRE
