It is no secret that the Boston Red Sox have had a season full of trials and turmoil, and it may have all come to a head when they decided to trade $262.5 million dollars worth of payroll to the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Red Sox unloaded Carl Crawford, Adrian Gonzalez, Josh Beckett and Nick Punto to the Dodgers for a host of younger players, the package headlined by James Loney.
The Red Sox are giving up on the season and clearly building for the future, but what could have caused them to get rid of most, or all, of their star power? Well it may have something to do with the story that came out of the Boston Globe yesterday. Only four of the current players attended Johnny Pesky‘s funeral on Monday, and the organization could have had enough.
David Ortiz, who attended the funeral, said his teammates “probably” should have attended, “but I’m nobody to say who should and who should not.”
“Me personally, I was close to Johnny and when it comes down to his funeral situation, there’s no reason why you don’t show up when a friend passes away,” Ortiz said. “I felt like I needed to be there for him and his family. Everybody has their particular reasons why some of the guys didn’t show up. We came back from New York very late and some of the guys probably had some things to do that day and that’s probably the reason why some of the guys didn’t show up.”
There has been dissension in the clubhouse all season long, with players and manager Bobby Valentine butting heads constantly. It obviously needed to be remedied and the organization has chosen to stick with their manager over players.
Valentine and the players took offense to the media scrutinizing the small number of current players in attendance, but 100 people from within the organization showed their support.
“If this is about Johnny Pesky, I’m not talking about it,” pitcher Jon Lester said. “All it is is gossip, and has nothing to do with what’s going on in here.”
I think it’s very insulting to the family—the Pesky family—for people to be thinking that an organization that loved him so much did anything other than the right thing,” Valentine said. “That’s my answer to that.”
“I’m sure everyone had a situation why they weren’t there,” Pedroia said. “I wish I could have been there. Obviously, everyone knows how we feel about Johnny. We love him and we’re all here for his family.”
Obviously the players were not mandated to be there, but you would think an icon like Pesky would draw a larger turnout than just four current players.
Jeff is an NFL Featured Columnist for www.RantSports.com. He contributes mainly to the New York Giants and NFL Rumors pages. He also will occasionally touch on the NBA, MLB Trade Rumors and humorous videos involving all sports.
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