David Price was supposedly sticking up for a teammate when he confronted Dennis Eckersley on a team flight recently, and another prominent Boston Red Sox player reportedly got Price’s back when the incident took place.
Fred Toucher of 98.5 The Sports Hub in Boston was told by a source that Dustin Pedroia “aggressively” cheered for Price when Price told Eckersley to “get the f— out of here” on a team charter plane last month.
Have a source close to Eckersley who claims that Pedroia "was cheering for Price aggressively. Enough for Eck to mention" on the team plane
— Fred Toucher (@FredToucher) July 27, 2017
The report was later confirmed by CSSNE.com and meshed with the original story from Dan Shaughnessy of the Boston Globe, which stated that Eckersley is not well-liked among the Red Sox clubhouse.
Eckersley, a Hall of Famer who pitched for the Red Sox for eight seasons, is known for calling it like he sees it. Despite the fact that he works for the team-owned television network NESN, Eckersley is never afraid to criticize players when he thinks they are playing poorly. Price was reportedly set off by Eckersley saying “yuck” during a broadcast when starting pitcher Eduardo Rodriguez’s stats from a rehab start were shown on TV.
As we mentioned before, this is not the first time a Red Sox player has called Eckersley out for being too critical. The current edition of the team has been criticized for being too thin-skinned, and Pedroia leading the applause when Price ripped Eckersely will do nothing to cool that talk.
