Mass Live: Interview: Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News

This is the MVP story that never ends, yes it goes on and on my friends…

Grant:...I’ve long known about the passion of Red Sox fans, but feel I’ve got a much clearer understanding at this point. Not saying that’s good or bad. But I do have a better understanding and appreciation of it. There were a couple of things, however, that bothered me. Most of it stemmed from the WEEI interview. The station called me and asked me if I’d jump on for a couple of minutes with their hosts. I started to try and explain that there was no anti-Red Sox bias, evidenced by my vote of Youkilis, and that obviously my opinion was way out of line with those of my colleagues. The hosts cut me off to start ripping me halfway through my explanation and things deteriorated from there. Accepting culpability, I guess, would not have made good radio.

I later heard the hosts question Terry Francona about my integrity and heard Tito disagree with my vote but suggest that I am a conscientious reporter. What disappoints me most was that on a day when the whole thing should have been about Pedroia winning, there was this whole mini-furor over a vote that ultimately didn’t have any impact on the outcome. I called Tito to say I’m sorry he had to answer questions about me. I’ve sent Dustin an email to also apologize if this “incident” took any shine off a very special day for him. That’s my sole regret in this whole process.

Do I wish folks could disagree without resorting to name-calling? You bet. But what reaffirmed my faith in the general goodness of fans was that almost every time I sent a response to somebody, I got back a note that said while they disagreed with me, they appreciated my responding. Let’s move on to something a little more pleasant, shall we?