As the Japanese media hordes drooled over their dream pitching matchup Friday night – Atlanta’s Kenshin Kawakami vs. Boston’s Daisuke Matsuzaka – three good old American non-starters were making some noise of their own.
Long before another Daisuke disaster (six runs on eight hits in four-plus innings) was about to unfold, Jonathan Papelbon felt compelled to quell a disturbance he’d started regarding some comments he made on Sirius radio the other day. And, naturally, it involved the Yankees, for whom Papelbon said he would consider playing should the conditions be right. “Not only the Bronx, but anywhere,” he said when asked where’d he consider playing should he not re-sign with the Red Sox. “Anywhere is a possibility.”
That, of course, created something of a firestorm from which the Sox closer was forced to extricate himself. “I want to make that clear that I don’t want to go (expletive) play for the Yankees,” he said long before Kawakami left after six with a 7-2 lead on just two Sox hits. “Believe me. I got a ring here and I’m playing for a manager and general manager that’s gonna protect me, and for the best team in baseball. I’ve been on a team the past three years that’s been in first place more than any other (expletive) team out there. So why would I want to go anywhere else?
“What I was stating was a simple fact that guys nowadays don’t necessarily get the opportunity to be with a team for a long period of time. Do I want to be with the Red Sox for as long as I can? Of course. There’s no question about it.”
Papelbon stressed, “It’s not about the money … because if it was, guess what? I wouldn’t be closing right now. I’d be starting. It’s not about the money.” What’s important, he said, is being comfortable. “I have to look out for me and my family, and there’s no ifs, ands or buts about that. Those people come first in my life more than anybody else. For me and me being in this city and playing for the manager that I’m playing for and the general manager that I’m playing for, my family’s happy and I’m happy. So why would I want to go play anywhere else?
“But I also understand there’s a business side of things. Sometimes that doesn’t work out. Sometimes you can’t play in a city for 10, 15 years. I may not be as lucky as Wake (Tim Wakefield) to be able to be in that situation. It kind of (ticked) me off today because it made it seem like I wanted to go play for them (Yankees), which is nowhere even close, nowhere even in the ballpark of what I want to do.”
Long before Matsuzaka settled down briefly in the second inning, two other non-starters were quietly reminiscing about old times. John Smoltz still isn’t active – that’ll come Thursday in Washington – but he got a chance to visit with some of the people he lived with for all or parts of the last 20 years in Atlanta. Braves starter Derek Lowe, who pitched for the Sox from 1997-2004, talked about his times in Boston.
“You can’t erase 20-something years, and I’m not pretending to and I don’t know if they are,” Smoltz said. “Everyone’s handled it pretty cool. It’s kind of like not seeing a friend for 10 years. You ask what they’ve done, how they did it and you go on. So this has only been a short period of time.
“I’m not even mad about them not having me back. It was how it was portrayed afterwards. That’s not me. I’ve kept my mouth shut, moved on and said I was going to pitch again. The way it was handled and the way it looked I left, that’s the issue.”
Lowe, meanwhile, has mellowed since his rocky times in Boston. His last season, when he went 14-12, was so difficult that first-year manager Terry Francona had to tell him he wouldn’t be starting in the post-season.
“I remember telling him, you’re going to have a big outcome in that series,” Francona said. “I gave him that manager talk, and it came true. He had as much to say about that series as anybody, and that’s what I remember.” Lowe clinched the final game in each round.
All Lowe, who’ll start Saturday night, cares about is that he’s moved on, first to the Dodgers for four successful (54-48) years, and now to the Braves.
“It’s been four years,” he said. “They (Red Sox) went on and won a World Series since then. It’s a completely different team.
“You have to move on, but there are a lot of good memories from the eight years I played here. You look at all the playoff runs and the World Series in ’04. There are nothing but fond memories.”
Which brings us back to Papelbon. He’s planning to say the same thing, about the memories – and he expects to be in a Sox uniform when he’s saying it.
Long before another Daisuke disaster (six runs on eight hits in four-plus innings) was about to unfold, Jonathan Papelbon felt compelled to quell a disturbance he’d started regarding some comments he made on Sirius radio the other day. And, naturally, it involved the Yankees, for whom Papelbon said he would consider playing should the conditions be right. “Not only the Bronx, but anywhere,” he said when asked where’d he consider playing should he not re-sign with the Red Sox. “Anywhere is a possibility.”
That, of course, created something of a firestorm from which the Sox closer was forced to extricate himself. “I want to make that clear that I don’t want to go (expletive) play for the Yankees,” he said long before Kawakami left after six with a 7-2 lead on just two Sox hits. “Believe me. I got a ring here and I’m playing for a manager and general manager that’s gonna protect me, and for the best team in baseball. I’ve been on a team the past three years that’s been in first place more than any other (expletive) team out there. So why would I want to go anywhere else?
“What I was stating was a simple fact that guys nowadays don’t necessarily get the opportunity to be with a team for a long period of time. Do I want to be with the Red Sox for as long as I can? Of course. There’s no question about it.”
Papelbon stressed, “It’s not about the money … because if it was, guess what? I wouldn’t be closing right now. I’d be starting. It’s not about the money.” What’s important, he said, is being comfortable. “I have to look out for me and my family, and there’s no ifs, ands or buts about that. Those people come first in my life more than anybody else. For me and me being in this city and playing for the manager that I’m playing for and the general manager that I’m playing for, my family’s happy and I’m happy. So why would I want to go play anywhere else?
“But I also understand there’s a business side of things. Sometimes that doesn’t work out. Sometimes you can’t play in a city for 10, 15 years. I may not be as lucky as Wake (Tim Wakefield) to be able to be in that situation. It kind of (ticked) me off today because it made it seem like I wanted to go play for them (Yankees), which is nowhere even close, nowhere even in the ballpark of what I want to do.”
Long before Matsuzaka settled down briefly in the second inning, two other non-starters were quietly reminiscing about old times. John Smoltz still isn’t active – that’ll come Thursday in Washington – but he got a chance to visit with some of the people he lived with for all or parts of the last 20 years in Atlanta. Braves starter Derek Lowe, who pitched for the Sox from 1997-2004, talked about his times in Boston.
“You can’t erase 20-something years, and I’m not pretending to and I don’t know if they are,” Smoltz said. “Everyone’s handled it pretty cool. It’s kind of like not seeing a friend for 10 years. You ask what they’ve done, how they did it and you go on. So this has only been a short period of time.
“I’m not even mad about them not having me back. It was how it was portrayed afterwards. That’s not me. I’ve kept my mouth shut, moved on and said I was going to pitch again. The way it was handled and the way it looked I left, that’s the issue.”
Lowe, meanwhile, has mellowed since his rocky times in Boston. His last season, when he went 14-12, was so difficult that first-year manager Terry Francona had to tell him he wouldn’t be starting in the post-season.
“I remember telling him, you’re going to have a big outcome in that series,” Francona said. “I gave him that manager talk, and it came true. He had as much to say about that series as anybody, and that’s what I remember.” Lowe clinched the final game in each round.
All Lowe, who’ll start Saturday night, cares about is that he’s moved on, first to the Dodgers for four successful (54-48) years, and now to the Braves.
“It’s been four years,” he said. “They (Red Sox) went on and won a World Series since then. It’s a completely different team.
“You have to move on, but there are a lot of good memories from the eight years I played here. You look at all the playoff runs and the World Series in ’04. There are nothing but fond memories.”
Which brings us back to Papelbon. He’s planning to say the same thing, about the memories – and he expects to be in a Sox uniform when he’s saying it.
