Does Big Papi Have ‘Mental Issues’ with Bobby Valentine?

November 6, 2012

Newly re-signed Red Sox slugger David Ortiz apparently now feels free to talk about his relationship with shipwrecked Sox skipper Bobby Valentine, but the local dailies – wait for it – have very different versions of Big Papi’s take.

From today’s Boston Herald:

David Ortiz defends vs. Bobby Valentine

Unlike Bobby Valentine, David Ortiz [stats] didn’t revisit the past.

Given an opportunity yesterday to defend himself against his former manager’s charge that he refused to play through a right Achilles strain after the Red Sox[team stats] fell out of contention, Ortiz said only that the team wouldn’t have re-signed him to a two-year, $26 million deal if he had a reputation for dogging it.

“To be honest with you, we won’t be talking about what we’re talking about right now if things would have been the way our ex-manager said,” Ortiz said. “Being here for the last 10 years, you (media) know pretty much how I go about my business.

Whatever that means.

But Ortiz was much more forthcoming in the Boston Globe (boink! sorry, paywall):

Ortiz wonders if Valentine has ‘mental issues’

Red Sox designated hitter David Ortiz was diplomatic when asked about former manager Bobby Valentine’s comments about him at an introductory news conference Monday at Fenway Park.

But in an interview with ESPNDeportes.com, Ortiz was far more revealing in his response to Valentine’s suggestion on national television that Ortiz “decided not to play anymore” after the Red Sox traded stars Adrian Gonzalez, Josh Beckett, and Carl Crawford.

“No. 1, never bite the hand that feeds you, because in the end that will come back to bite you,” Ortiz said. “I was one of those players that always showed support for him. In fact, I held a couple of player meetings.

“No. 2, the day that I returned from the DL, I told him that I was not sure what percentage health-wise I was in, but that I could not be out there without trying to help. When I told him that, I put my career on the side to help him and the team. Being in an incredible amount of pain, I went out there to support them.

“No. 3, after he went on national TV to say what he said, he sent me a text message trying to tell me that it was the media trying to change things. I did not respond to the message and I said to myself, this guy must have some mental issues or needs medicine or something? I said, I am dealing with someone crazy and I am not going to drive myself crazy, so it is better if I leave it alone.”

No. 4, think the news media will leave it alone?

Think again.

 

1 Comment | Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider

Funny, Valentine Gives Exclusive to Herald Edition

September 8, 2012

Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine, who sometimes seems to be only half there, gets half the Boston Herald’s front page today (via The Newseum):

Inside, Steve Buckley has the scoop:

Bobby V plans to be back

Choosing to whistle past the Fenway Park [map] graveyard, a defiant Bobby Valentine said yesterday he plans to be managing the Red Sox [team stats] in 2013.

“I expect to be, of course,” Valentine said late yesterday afternoon at Fenway Park before the Sox’ series opener against the Toronto Blue Jays. “Until I’m told that I’m not, why would I expect otherwise?”

Valentine, who is signed through 2013 and will earn $2.5 million next season, said he doesn’t “see any reason that I wouldn’t be in uniform, other than that they figured there’s someone better to do the job than I’m going to do here. Then maybe I’ll be in another uniform.

See your local bookmaker for the odds of that.

The hardreading staff’s favorite Bobby V pronouncement, though, appears in the pull quote:

As good as I am, I couldn’t even create this kind of mess.

Crosstown at the Globe, meanwhile, they seem to have already kissed Bobby goodbye. The broadsheet is all about John Farrell, the one that got away to the equally miserable Toronto Blue Jays. Michael Vega’s game report from the print edition (which led with a focus on Farrell) has largely been replaced, while a thumbsucker devoted to Farrell was added to the website today.

Back in the Herald, John Tomase says Farrell should stay put.

Farrell’s a keeper

No way Blue Jays should let Sox take their manager

The Red Sox [team stats] want John Farrell. Let there be little doubt of that. But here’s a question: If you’re the Blue Jays, why on earth would you give him to them?

The Red Sox are in disarray. Bobby Valentine is 99.9999999999999999999 percent certain to be fired, probably within hours of the season ending. If you’re Toronto, grasping for the tiniest thread of hope in the AL East, this is it:

Let the Red Sox keep flailing.

With Bobby V at the helm, there’s little doubt that’s just what will happen.

 

1 Comment | Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider

The Young Immigrunts Edition

August 16, 2012

(With apologies to Ring Lardner)

Today’s Boston bakeoff features the new Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program that allows young undocumented immigrants avoid deportation and obtain work permits for at least two years.

For once, the Boston Globe and the Boston Herald are perfect complements to one another: the Globe has facts, the Herald has opinions.

The Globe piece is a standard, albeit sympathetic, news report detailing the particulars of the new policy and documenting the efforts of would-be applicants to take advantage of it.

Earlier Wednesday, about 20 members of the Student Immigrant Movement gathered on Friend Street in Boston to share tips and pointers on filling out the application.

Isabel Vargas, who came to the United States from the Dominican Republic when she was 8 years old, told others at the meeting, held in the offices of Greater Boston Legal Services, that the opportunity to apply would transform her future.

“When I apply for a job, I don’t have to be all nervous about what Social Security number I’m going to give,” Vargas, 20, said.

Today’s Herald, meanwhile, has no news report but does feature two opinion pieces.

The first is an editorial:

Immigration muddle

President Barack Obama has created what looks to be a 50-state muddle as local officials are left to grapple with the consequences of his unilateral rewriting of the nation’s immigration policy.

Now make no mistake, we’re with New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg andNews Corp. [NWS] head Rupert Murdoch (the former owner of this paper) in their call for genuine immigration reform that will contribute to the country’s growth. The two men were in town Tuesday to make their pitch for just such a new and dispassionate look at the issue.

But Obama’s election year epiphany that he could implement his own version of the DREAM Act by executive order, granting at least a temporary amnesty to young illegal immigrants, has left states to sort out what exactly that will mean.

The second is an op-ed:

Obama ‘law’ helps illegals

What does President Barack Obama call a bill which has repeatedly failed in Congress?

A law!

The Department of Homeland Security yesterday began accepting applications for the “Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals” (DACA) amnesty program. The move will award renewable two-year grants of legal status, including work cards and Social Security numbers, to illegal aliens claiming to have arrived before their 16th birthday.

Huh – maybe this division of labor between the Globe and the Herald will catch on.

One could cover Red Sox games, for instance, while the other concentrates on the players’ submarining of Bobby Valentine.

Or one could cover the U.S. Senate race while the other makes Indian jokes.

Oh, wait – they’re already doing that one.

P.S. You really should read Lardner’s The Young Immigrunts (linked above). It’s a hoot.

 

4 Comments | Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider