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Frankly, I haven't followed it all that closely but living in New England and getting Comcast out of Boston and NECN and occasionally bumping into "discussions" on the endless such shows on A.M. radio out of Boston it is tough not to hear about everything. {Then again my Dad still buys the Globe 3 or 4 times a week.}

The Red Sox had a historic collapse.

They have the news conference with Tito after the last game in Baltimore.

Word came out that Tito was gone..............that the Red Sox had wanted him to stay oh so badly but Tito thought it was "time for a change." {Tito screwed it all up though when he made a parting comment after his last news conference that the Red Sox have "never backed me up."..........Oops!}

Theo, Lucchino, and the other part owner Tom Werner have the "squeamish" news conference where they all tried to outdo each other as to how much they wanted Tito to stay and how much he'd done for the team and what a great guy he was and how if they ever had another child they'd probably name him "Tito" and this type of thing..............None of them had any idea about the "they never backed me up" comment. Extremely perplexed about that. They also didn't know much about "clubhouse problems." First they heard about it {the owners.} Theo had been open previously about some players "conditioning" being a concern, etc. Funny thing is that though no one knew much about anything they did know that Francona had "lost control of his players" or intimated such.

John Henry {the "ghost"} couldn't "make" the news conference because he "fell" on his yacht. {I guess a big wave came through Boston Harbor at the wrong time.} He hit his foot or he hit his head or maybe it was that he hit his foot on his head or hit his head on his foot. He had to go to the ER I'm told. I'm not sure if he got a police escort there. He did get back to the yacht soon enough to watch his "beloved" soccer team play over in England........... All the locals in Boston were real happy about that when they heard it.

So then the Press started seeing they had the makings of not just a story here but a real "humdinger." They all started foaming at the mouth and the hair stood up on the back of their collective necks. They began panting as if they were home with their "significant other" at the midnite hour.

"Leaks" and "pontifications" began to appear everywhere:

Francona lost control of the team.

Lackey was definately a "problem.".............Next. Beckett was definately part of the "clubhouse problem." They were doing things they shouldn't have been doing.

Ortiz wasn't a "big" part of the problem but there had been an incident where Dave busted into one of Tito's aprez game news conferences and loudly complained about an RBI the official scorer had taken away. Very inappropriate and kind of a microcosm of the Red Sox "I" instead of "We" season.

Youkilis was a problem. He was the only Red Sox player who'd publically come out in 2010 and questioned Ellsbury's "heart" after Jacoby missed most of the season due to injuries. The wound from this had never truly healed. Despite his great year Ellsbury was still pretty separate from his teammates being very close to Jed Lowrie and virtually no one else. Youkilis is kind of a pain i-t-a I take it.

Wakefield commented to the Press that the Red Sox "should bring me back" so the fans could "see me break the record." {I don't know what record he's talking about. Some record.}

It came out that the troika of Beckett-Lackey-and Lester were drinking in the locker room during games. Ordering fried chicken. Playing pool.

It was revealed that Tito had had a "tough year." His marriage was "on the rocks." He was living in a hotel. He was on pain medication. One of his children found a bottle of pain medication and voiced concern. Tito went and spoke to the M.D. {who was prescribing the pain medication??} and said that the M.D. told him there wasn't a problem................that he wasn't addicted.

Tito refutes the Boston Globe article intimating that Tito was "detached" this year from the team Tito said he'd "gotten to work earlier than ever" and "put in more time than I ever did."

Apparently John Henry was riding in his car in Boston and turned on a.m. talk radio only to hear Mike Felger and his cohort downing Red Sox ownership and Henry specifically. Henry became so upset he pointed his car toward the WEEI radio studio and drove over there. He knocked on the door and demanded equal time on Mike Felger's show. {Which he got.} During the hour or hour and a half the Red Sox owner was on the radio show he preceded to throw Carl Crawford and a number of others under the bus. {Crawford is signed for 5 or 6 more years.} He stated he never really wanted Crawford that he felt at the time the Red Sox had enough left hand hitting and so forth and so on.

It came out that not only was it like a college fraternity in the Red Sox clubhouse but that in response to a request by Francona to the "Troika" that they be on the bench more during games  to "support their teammates" the "Troika" had obliged by being on the bench with paper cups filled with libations. This of course caused a major uproar.

It has been indicated by almost everyone that Beckett was the "ringleader." There was discussion of whether "Josh has gotten married, is expecting a child.............do you think he just lost interest?" Josh got out of Boston at the end of the season in the "blink of an eye."

Jon Lester comes out and admits to the clubhouse drinking and chicken ordering and basic lollygagging. He says it is nothing different than they did when they had the best record in baseball earlier in the season and that it was almost a positive thing..............kind of like "rally caps." Lester also says that it was time for Tito to move on because he has "lost the Red Sox ear." {Of course when Lester was so sick with the cancer and coming back to play Francona  treated him like a son shielding him from the Press and being there for him every step of the way.}

Curt Shilling goes on WEEI and says that Lester is a "good kid" and a "hard worker" and that he is not "the problem"............intimating that Beckett and Lackey are the "problem."

Varitek comes out and says all this extra curricular "stuff" is being vastly overstated that the Red Sox simply "stunk" late in the year and had played embarrassingly on the field. Varitek claims there was no disharmony in the clubhouse, etc. etc. He says he "never saw anyone drinking in the dugout" nor did he ever see anything of an alarming nature in the clubhouse.

I was watching a sports show on Comcast out of Boston last night and I genuinely thought two of the reporters were going to get into a fight. One was a "beat" Red Sox reporter who covered the team and the other was more of a radio/television guy. The "beat" reporter was accusing the radio guy of saying certain things were true when he really hadn't "been there" and the radio guy was saying that the "beat" reporters had never talked about any of the problems in the clubhouse, etc before they were all revealed in a torrent after everything went bad. The two reporters started making derogatory personal comments at each other on the show.

Kind of a mess. Tawdry, as they'd say. Makes for great reading and watercooler material though. Lotta fun.

Oct 19, 2011 -- 2:33PM, Carp wrote:

Youkilis is a donkey- Don't forget he got into that fight in the dugout with Manny. 

You also forgot "The Muddy Chicken Show"- Formerly "The Laser Show" with "Pedey" as they like to call him here in Massatwosheets.

When it was revealed to him that Theo was going to Chicago he backpedaled mighty quickly from how great he thought it was to be in Boston to how much he loves Chicago and that his wife is from there.

Lester did 'tater up nicely tis season, his face looking so bloated that something had to be up.   He's said enough to become a fall guy for the clubhouse antics.  Maybe he will be a Yankee by spring training.

The only players on that team I would want are Ellsbury and maybe Josh Reddick.

I love the "quotations"; are they supposed to accentuate a point?

Get a life Lifer! I poo bigger than you.

Great stuff Walt... I love it! And to think all this time we thought the chowdaheads were the drunks!