So I've been waiting for a story to come along all off-season for a story to come along that would get me motivated to write again, and here it is. No, I'm not talking about the A-Roid controversy, the World Baseball Classic and all of its mind-numbing glory, or even the impact of Boof Bonser's injury on the Twins' rotation (No!! Not the Boof!!). No, I'm referring to the story that crossed the wire in the past 24 hours that Jonathan Papelbon went all backstabber to Esquire magazine, saying, among other things, in reference to former teammate Manny Ramirez, "It’s like cancer. That’s what he was. Cancer".
Full disclosure: I can't stand the Red Sox. It bothers me everytime Kevin Youkilis throws his helmet or otherwise throws a hissy fit like an overgrown eight year old. Before his departure from the team, it used to bother me when "Mr. Ketchup Sock" would spew bile packaged as fact, and throw, well, a verbal hissy fit when someone so much as disagreed with him. It bothers me that their fan base, known affectionately to some as "The Pink Hat Nation", actually believes that "Big Syringe" err, "Big Papi" David Ortiz, came to Boston from Minnesota as a glorified role player and became a superstar overnight the all-natural way. It bothers me everytime I see a guy with an all-too-fresh looking Boston hat that might as well have "Fan since 2003" stiched on the side, just as much as it bothers me when I see his girlfriend in a pink Ellsbury t-shirt, most likely wondering something to the effect of, "How come that one guy ran back to the square when the other guy caught the ball?". In fact, the only everyday player on that team that I do respect is Dustin Pedroia, mostly because he won an MVP award while sleeping nightly in a matchbox.
But I digress. Is there any reason that this class act had to bash a guy who hadn't been on his team's roster in over six months? A guy who, as I've said before and will surely say again, is the greatest right-handed RBI machine of our generation? A guy who has one more World Series ring than you do, and ohbytheway, one more World Series MVP than you do? Was he so bad back then? I'm also guessing that Captain Courage here probably didn't discuss any of this beef with Man Ram at length at any point face to face last season. Look, I'm not going to defend how Man Ram obviously tanked it last year to get out of Boston, and I too was among the many who thought that his contract negotiations, or lack thereof, this off-season were slightly humorous. But come on now, it was over six months ago. Nobody forced you to answer that question. Get. Over. It.
And really, it's not even so much the cowardice of the delayed reaction that bothers me as much as it is the wording that he used. There's a high-profile case of a cancer survivor who rose from dire circumstances to regain levels of great athletic success not just somewhere in MLB, but two on his own team, including one on the same pitching staff! Is a little sensitivity too much to ask? Use the word distraction, but not the word cancer. Maybe it's my fault for expecting more from a Red Sox player, but do try, try, to stay classy Mr. Papelbon.
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