The Boston media are never going to be kind to those who don’t deserve kindness. In fact, they are even pretty hard on those who do. Whether Josh Beckett was mistreated by writers and reporters or not during his tenure with the Red Sox depends on your viewpoint. Either way, Beckett seems to think it was the media that ran him out of town.
“Once they want you out of there, they want you out of there,” Beckett said Tuesday according to WEEI.com. “By them, I don’t necessarily mean the fans. There are certain people in the media who painted me out to be a monster with horns, and that’s just not the case. I said that in my press conference, people out here hear from certain media members that [portrayal].
“They don’t write what people say because that’s not how they want perception to be. They’ve done it to a lot of people. I got a text message from one of the head security guys over there. He’s like, ‘You’re not the first person I’ve seen this happen to.’ Once those people want you out of there, they want you out of there. They’re going to keep on, keeping on, keeping on until they get what they want.”
Adrian Gonzalez already expressed a similar opinion when asked about his experience. Beckett, who was an enormous part of the Red Sox World Series run in 2007, compared himself to former closer Keith Foulke. Foulke led Boston through the playoffs in 2004 and was eventually forced out in 2006 after he started struggling.
“You just try and be yourself, and if that’s not enough, what are you supposed to do?” Beckett asked. “Act like somebody else?”
While I’m not going to say the Boston media has treated Beckett fairly over the past few seasons, you would be generalizing far too much if you blamed the media for his departure. Ultimately, it was Beckett’s poor performance on the mound. He was 5-11 with a 5.23 ERA before joining the Dodgers. Whether its was an attitude problem, a physical problem or both, the Red Sox decided to pay Beckett like an ace when they signed him to a four-year, $68 million extension and he did not pitch like one. Had he pitched well, none of this would have happened.
