John Lackey says the overreaction to the Red Sox drinking beer is ‘retarded’

The beer and fried chicken controversy that came to light after Boston’s collapse in September of 2011 is not going to go away until the team starts lighting it up. Even then, the stench will linger. Despite the fact that an entirely fresh season is set to begin in just over a week, John Lackey found himself having to answer questions about the mistakes the Red Sox made last season in an interview with the Boston Globe that was published on Tuesday. Lackey, who will miss all of 2012 after undergoing Tommy John Surgery, could have been a bit more thoughtful with his choice in wording.

“Guys having a beer after their start has been going on for the last 100 years,’’ Lackey told Dan Shaughnessy after making it clear that he wished they didn’t have to talk about it. “This is retarded. It’s not like we were sitting up there doing it every night. It’s not even close to what people think.’’

As we all know, the Sox hurlers were doing a bit more than simply having a beer after a start. We can understand why Lackey is frustrated with having to deal with missing an entire season and still answering questions about what went on last year, but the way he phrased it is regrettable. I am certainly guilty of having used the word “retarded” in an inappropriate context before, but I’m not a professional athlete with a microphone in front of me. Don’t expect an apology anytime soon, but Lackey certainly could have come up with a better term to express his frustration with a situation that just won’t go away.

H/T Big League Stew
Photo Credit: Bob DeChiara-US PRESSWIRE