Just when you though it couldn’t get any worse, enter John Henry. The Red Sox owner made an unscheduled appearance on the Felger and Mazz show this afternoon, and let’s just say he didn’t shine. Huge props to Mike Felger for going after him on every subject and not backing down. What I took away is that John Henry is full of shit and tried to blame the media for everything. “The chaos is much more external than internal,” said Henry. “You said, ‘The Red Sox are in ashes.’ That’s not how we feel about it . . . There’s not a sense of desperation, except when we turn on the radio.”
When Felger brought up the lack of effort displayed by the team in September, Henry responded “Did you watch any of those games?” he said. “I didn’t see any of our players doing anything other than busting their ass to win games.” I’m calling bullshit, I watched all of them and there was absolutely a lack of heart.
During the discussion of the “chicken and beer” issue, Henry was adamant that the Red Sox pitchers were doing their off-day conditioning. “Unless our training people are lying to me directly, the answer is yes, [they did their work].” He followed up to say they were “looking into” whether or not Beckett actually gained weight during the season, while most players lose pounds. Looking into it? Put him on a scale, or have him take his shirt off – investigation over.
Henry claimed he couldn’t speak about Theo’s situation but “As far as I know, he’s still involved.” He later went on to speak in the past tense about Theo.
When confronted about the claims by pretty much everyone that they had no idea what was going on in the clubhouse, Henry became irate. “You think Dustin Pedroia’s lying, too? Boy, you don’t know Dustin very well,” said Henry. “[So you think he’s] a liar, I’m a liar, [Lucchino’s] a liar . . . “
One of the worst comments he made was regarding the Carl Crawford signing. “Anyone involved in the process, anyone in upper management with the Red Sox, will tell you that I personally opposed that,” said Henry. “We had plenty of left-handed hitting. I don’t have to go into why. I’ll just tell you that at the time I opposed the deal, but I don’t meddle to the point of making decisions for our baseball team.”
How do you feel now, Carl, pretty welcome in your new home?
Give it a listen, but be warned: you won’t feel any better about your team afterwards.
