It's the story that will never die! After John Henry took it upon himself to storm 98.5 The Sports Hub on Friday, Jon Lester spoke to the Boston Globe's Peter Abraham and told his side of the story:
"There's a perception out there that we were up there getting hammered and that wasn't the case," Lester told The Globe via telephone from his home in Georgia. "Was it a bad habit? Yes. I should have been on the bench more than I was. But we just played bad baseball as a team in September. We stunk. To be honest, we were doing the same things all season when we had the best record in baseball."
Lester said the drinking was confined to starting pitchers who weren't in the game that day. "It was a ninth-inning rally beer," he said. "We probably ordered chicken from Popeye's like once a month. That happened. But that's not the reason we lost.
"Most of the times, it was one beer, a beer. It was like having a Coke in terms of how it affected you. I know how it looks to people and it probably looks bad. But we weren't up there just drinking and eating and nobody played video games. We watched the game."
This doesn't surprise me. Winning hides all of this crap. If it were the Red Sox heading to the World Series instead of the Texas Rangers, suddenly this team shows how loose they are. The chicken & beer festivities get compared to the 2004 squad taking shots of Jack Daniels before Game 6 of the ALCS and the World Series.
Lester also has a now not so shocking take with the Terry Francona situation:
Lester has not spoken to deposed manager Terry Francona, communicating with him only through text messages.
He said he was sorry to see Francona leave the team, but believes it might be for the best.
"I love Tito and he did a great job for us when he was here. On a personal level I was more than grateful for what he did for me and my family," Lester said. "But there comes a time when your authority is no longer there. You kind of run your course. People knew how Tito was and we pushed the envelope with it. We never had rules, we never that that iron-fist mentality. It you screwed up, he called you on it. That was how it worked.
"I never say guys purposely breaking rules or doing the wrong thing in front of him and rubbing it in his face. But this particular team probably needed more structure."
Francona is a "player's manager". He doesn't do this because he treats the players like men. That's why he let them drink beer. These are grown men who get paid millions. This team needs structure? More like this team needs to suck it up and be professionals. Francona wasn't managing a Little League squad.
Finally, Lester talks abouta ll the accusations being thrown his way:
During a lengthy interview, Lester said he did not have permission to speak on behalf of Josh Beckett, John Lackey or the other starters, but felt he had to.
"Consider us a unit when it comes to these accusations," he said. "We either fall together or rise above it all together whether they like it or not. Things got magnified because we lost and sources started telling people what happened, which has me upset because if you're going to say something, be a man to put your name to it. But we're not bad people and we're not a bad group of guys.
"Are there things I regret? Sure there are. But nothing happened that had me unprepared to pitch. I don't blame people for wanting answers because we had a hell of a team and we lost. You can't have a team that gets paid like we get paid and loses and not expect people to want answers."
Lester also denied that poor physical conditioning was a reason for the team's 7-20 September collapse. He said that pitchers typically gain weight during the season.
"It's probably because of how we eat," he said. "We have some crazy hours with the travel and you get in at 4 a.m. and you get room service or something quick. But unless your body fat is going up 10 percent or something like that, you don't have a problem.
"I've heard what people are saying in Boston. I can tell you that guys were in the weight room. Guys were doing their shoulder [exercises] and guys were prepared to pitch. If we win a few more games in September and make the playoffs, none of this comes out. But we didn't and that's on us as a team and on me personally. I take a lot of the blame for this, a lot."
Three things that pop to mind from the very first sentence:
1) That Lester, Lackey, and Beckett have at one point talked about all of this crap coming out.
2) That Beckett and/or Lackey told Lester to keep his damn mouth shut.
3) That Lester was troubled by these accusations, decided to try and set the record straight, and decided to finally return one of the hundreds of phone calls and emails he had to have recieved by the media.
Lackey and Beckett have a "f*** the media" mentality and could block all of this out. They don't give a damn. Lester realized that neither of them were going to budge, and he at least tried to set the record straight and at the end of the article he sounds like he gets why everyone is pissed. He's taking blame for his part of the collapse and thank God that he is. That way the media hounds get off of him and think it's needed to trade a 27 year old lefty that could be an ace in about 25 other organizations.
Does it sound like it's damage control? Absolutely. But then again, that's exactly what Henry did. This city can be forgiving as long as a player can man up and realize he made mistakes. He has done that. Now can we stop hearing about this until after the World Series? It's getting pretty damn bad. Like A-Rod breaking the news he was opting out of his contract six outs before the Sox won a World Series bad. A gag order would be wonderful right about now.
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