With the greatest collapse in franchise history comes plenty of speculation about what went wrong. After the Red Sox lost a nine-game Wild Card lead in less than a month, people wanted answers. A team can’t just implode without providing a few reason as to what caused it — especially a team in Boston.
Over the weekend, David Ortiz provided some insight into what went wrong in the Red Sox clubhouse during the final month of the season. While it should not come as a shock to anyone considering what players were doing during games, Big Papi admitted during his interview with WEEI that some of the players on the team probably didn’t care.
“Probably, yeah,” Ortiz said when asked about guys not caring about winning and losing. “It probably happened, but seeing [that] … as an owner and manager of the team, you keep that in mind for yourself. … You guys know the guys who care. That’s the thing. People know. What bothers me the most is whenever makes it want to sound like nobody cares. There’s a lot of guys that care.
“I care about winning games, I care about doing well, I care about doing the right thing to win games. … A lot of people, for example, people want to make a big deal about me complaining about me not getting an RBI. That’s my job. If I don’t get RBIs, I won’t be here. I was complaining about something that I earned and the scorekeeper doesn’t want to make it happen … that’s what I’ve got to complain about.”
Ortiz is, of course, referring to this infamous blowup he had when he thought the scorekeepers were trying to cheat him out of an RBI. No matter how you look at it, Big Papi’s comments further prove that Terry Francona lost his clubhouse and there is a serious need for a culture change in Boston. It sounds like there was a country club atmosphere on Yawkey Way this season, which does not exactly breed fierce competitors and guys who want to win. Whether or not the overall attitude of the team can be changed heading into 2012 remains to be seen.
