RELEASE THE HOUNDS!

"Let the past be the past. The whining is getting old."

Especially the whining by the Boston media. Be thankful the Dodgers saved you from the rest of Crawford's deal. Whether he is good or bad from here on, it is clear that Boston never really wanted him. Had he hit well he would still be a punching bag for the team's failures because of the big contract. You can't punch Papi, Pedroia or Ellsbury. Yes he knew Boston would be tough. He is not the first player to underestimate how hard it is to deal with negative press.

I unfortunately RTFA. To summarize:

Whiny baby Carl Crawford should have known the media in Boston sucks. Other players have played well, so obviously it shouldn't be an issue. Stop being a #####. What have you done for me lately? If he plays well in LA, well, maybe it could have been partly the media's fault. But mostly Crawford is a baby.

Hey Carl, just be glad you don't have to read this #### every day.

Seriously, Peter Abrahams piece was "what a baby." Absolutely no thought given to "hey maybe we do suck and should change our approach."

There is a reason I get the majority if my news here. Other than Alex Speier there is no one in the Boston media who is worth seeking out.

Yep, ditto Jose. I'm inclined to be defensive when people whine about Boston, but yeah, they're all terrible. Who is the terrible LA writer that possibly posts here to defend himself (or has one very strange fan that posts here)? Simers? They've got like 8 guys in Boston as bad as him.

I like Chad Finn but he's more of a fan style writer (thik Bill Simmons) and that's about it. People like Shaughnessy, Gaspar, Abraham and basically everyone at the radio stations is awful.

With respect #2- If Crawford had "hit" and stole and ran the bases and played a decent outfield he would most definitely not have been the "punching bag for the team's failures".

Good thing he's escaped the Boston media. Now he can deal with T.J. Simers.

You can't punch Papi, Pedroia or Ellsbury

Yeah, Ells never took a hit.

Boston and NY are areas where you either are a media darling (Jeter, Pedroia) or you are a punching bag (A-Rod, Crawford). You can shift from one to the other and back again (Clemens) but it takes a certain personality to deal with it I'd suspect. I suspect going from Tampa to Boston was one of the hardest moves possible - from no media exposure to 24-7 from multiple sources. If you don't prep right you will be buried. I'd think Boston (and NY) would know this is likely and would hire specialists in handling media for the players to take advantage of - heck, I'd tell players 'as part of that deal you MUST spend 40+ classroom hours this winter in media handling classes'.

With respect #2- If Crawford had "hit" and stole and ran the bases and played a decent outfield he would most definitely not have been the "punching bag for the team's failures".

Agreed. It's entirely possible a decent Crawford would be enough to push them into the playoffs in 2011. As I recall it was a rather thin margin they missed by.

The Boston sports media is the worst thing ever. Is that really in dispute?

From what I've read, it's not just the Boston media that sucks but the fans, too. No room to breathe was a major complaint from players.

'as part of that deal you MUST spend 40+ classroom hours this winter in media handling classes'.

I believe the standard response from most players would be three words and start with the word "go" and end with the word "yourself." You can use you imagination to fill in the middle...but I don't think the nanny will allow what I had in mind there.

Ed Whitson laughs at your Boston misery stories.

Agreed. It's entirely possible a decent Crawford would be enough to push them into the playoffs in 2011. As I recall it was a rather thin margin they missed by.

Nah, that race was over in early September.

10- Agree, John, but didn't Randy Johnson shove a photographer while on his way to his first NY press conference while being escorted?

If the Boston media is the worst thing Carl Crawford has ever dealt with, he should consider himself an exceptionally lucky man.

Who is the terrible LA writer that possibly posts here to defend himself (or has one very strange fan that posts here)? Simers? They've got like 8 guys in Boston as bad as him.

Sure Simers is scumbag but unless you where the Purple and Gold, there's not much of a microscope here. Crawford may or may not bounce back but the local media won't be part of the reason.

If the Boston media is the worst thing Carl Crawford has ever dealt with, he should consider himself an exceptionally lucky man.

No kidding. By the time I was his age, I'd been out of grandparents for most of my life, & my last parent had died 7 years earlier.

I gather he's bragging about what a smooth ride he's had. Not cool, Carl.

Carl Crawford: Boston media was ‘worst thing I’ve ever experienced in my life’

Didn't he have to shower with an unobstructed view of Kevin Youkilis?

I think Carl grew up kinda hardscrabble. Houston IIRC?

The Boston media started out OK but then it went too far.

"If Crawford had "hit" and stole and ran the bases and played a decent outfield he would most definitely not have been the "punching bag for the team's failures"."

Certainly in 2012 when he was hurt and they sucked he would have been a punching bag. In 2011 he wouldn't have gotten blamed until they got knocked out of the playoffs if they had made it in the first place. The Boston writers were on him before 2011 even started, because they deemed him unnecessary and unworthy of the contract.

"If the Boston media is the worst thing Carl Crawford has ever dealt with, he should consider himself an exceptionally lucky man."

Crawford's quote could easily be attributed to Ted Williams, Yaz or many others. Say that when you have done it.

#firstworldproblems

If the Boston media is the worst thing Carl Crawford has ever dealt with, he should consider himself an exceptionally lucky man.

I'm sure he didn't mean it literally.

Never experienced the Boston media before

The guy who wrote the article appears to be based in LA, and is not part of the Boston media.

I don't recall the Boston media being particularly harsh other than pointing out he sucked. I think the experience of the media was more of Crawford's problem.

Boo Friggin' Hoo, Carl. You were terrible in Boston, and you were aloof in the way you handled it.

When he signed with Sox before the 2011 season, I think Red Sox Nation was genuinely surprised, and excited - but unsure how he would handle Boston. The expectations were very high - way too high, to be honest. There were people in Boston saying at the time of the signing that the dimensions of the ballpark were a potentially bad match for Crawford's skills (good defense wasted in LF; his power was lefty pull power in a park that doesn't reward any lefty pull power unless it wrapped around the Pesky Pole; his spped was big time, but his OBP wasn't huge, so how much is the speed really going to get used?; not sure where he would be a good fit in the batting order; etc.)

Look, he should've known this was not going to be an ideal fit for him, and taken the Angels money. It would've been a little less, but he would've been a lot happier. He went for the biggest money, though - so I've got no sympathy for the poorness of the fit in Boston.

It was "Knights of the Keyboards" Same Swing.

Logically if you had to deal with people who said 'you suck' everyday in every way possible, then pushed for millions more to boo and hiss at you wouldn't you find that hard to deal with? Regardless of income, that would make life hard. Your kids would hear it, your spouse, your friends. While you would get that anywhere as a ML player, places like NY and Boston amplify it 1000 times. The media training idea is something all teams should do to some degree, but in Boston and NY it would be idiotic to not do it. The teams should push all players who sign there to take courses because if they don't you could end up with more Ed Whitson situations or, if you are lucky, just a lot of bad press for the team but not much worse results. Look at Randy Johnson's years in NY - ERA+ of 100 over 2 years preceded by a 147 over the 2 previous seasons and 119 over the following two seasons. He was late in his career but there is no question that he did worse in NY than anywhere but Montreal (his very early seasons) and San Fran (his final season).

Teams and players need to be smarter - if you are going to a media centre prepare for it just like you'd prepare for a season of playing. Take lessons from experts, listen to guys who've 'been there', do the research. Of course, as a Jay fan I'm perfectly happy if NYY and Boston don't bother and players get chewed up there but logically they should be pro-active. The media in Toronto chews up hockey players like Boston & NY do to baseball players so I've seen it and it isn't pretty.

"By the time I was his age, I'd been out of grandparents for most of my life,"

My last grandparent died when I was 2 years old, I think. Obviously I don't remember any of them.

Apparently that's pretty unusual, and my older siblings do remember at least one.
Occasionally people ask me if I feel cheated, and:

- no, I don't miss what I never had.

- other than that one GP thing, I'm pretty much the luckiest man on the face of the earth, minus that disease thing and all. So it's all good.

I don't recall the Boston media being particularly harsh other than pointing out he sucked. I think the experience of the media was more of Crawford's problem.

Oh, that doesn't comport with my recollection. I recall a series of articles questioning his fit for the Sox (as Balboni posted above), along with a few complaining that he "refuses" to play CF even if it's best for the team. I remember some comments insisting that he is the proud owner of the dimmest intellect in the majors.

Having lots of experience hearing Crawford be interviewed and talk about stuff I can confirm that he's not a very bright guy. That's not something the media needs to be bringing up though unless it's actually relevant to something that happened. Also, saying that maybe Boston didn't do their homework well on him is rather generous considering that they admitted to practically stalking him before deciding to sign him to that contract.

Simers? They've got like 8 guys in Boston as bad as him.

How many dogs is that as dumb as?

Had he hit well he would still be a punching bag for the team's failures because of the big contract. You can't punch Papi, Pedroia or Ellsbury.

Just wanted to say "no." If Crawford played well in 2011, they would not have have tanked and would have made the playoffs. Crawford would have been celebrated as the excellent player that they thought they were getting.

As someone who follows the Sox pretty closely, I remember the coverage of him, before he started playing poorly, as generally positive. Yes, there was some questioning of the size of his contract. But there also was a lot of talk about his amazing workout routines and how he was part of this super-successful offseason the Red Sox had had. As the season went on, there was also some very sympathetic coverage of his struggles.

He always had the look of someone with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome to me.

"By the time I was his age, I'd been out of grandparents for most of my life,"

My last grandparent died when I was 2 years old, I think. Obviously I don't remember any of them.

Apparently that's pretty unusual, and my older siblings do remember at least one.

My mother's parents both died before I was born; her mother was in her mid-40s, her dad in his mid-50s, I think. My dad's parents lived to be elderly, but he was the youngest of 7 (or 9, if you include the second set of twins, who didn't live past childhood), so by the time I came along they weren't in great shape. I don't remember his dad, who died right before I started first; my grandmother died 6 weeks after I turned 13.

My stepchildren in my 2nd marriage, on the other hand, had 3 living great-grandparents until the youngest kid was at least 13. Geez. And the stepchildren's kids now have at least 2 that I know of.

Sad stuff on grandparents here. I remember 2 of my great-grandparents (one made it to 97, the other 104). I'm glad my 3 kids were able to enjoy my grandmother and my wife's grandmother for awhile and have memories of them. I missed out on one grandfather (died when I was 1) but otherwise was fairly lucky on that front. My kids still have all 4 grandparents (barely - my mom had lung cancer around 8 years ago but they caught it in time and cut out 1/2 of a lung, experimental treatment also helped).

Life is odd - my g-grandfather made it to 104, but his son (my grandfather) barely cracked 50. Go figure.

Boston media shot a man in Reno just to watch him die.

Life is odd - my g-grandfather made it to 104, but his son (my grandfather) barely cracked 50. Go figure.

Indeed. My dad died at 34, my mother at 56 (well, a day later she would've turned 57), but as noted, while my mother's parents both died young, my dad's didn't. He was youngest of the 7 kids who lived to adulthood to die, by more than a decade, even though he was the youngest by several years as well.

Under the circumstances, I'm counting on earlyish death myself (I'm 53 right now), so of course I'll probably live to be 100, which would be a truly catastrophic development from a finanicial standpoint.

JoyofSox over in the SOSH thread on this documents some of the negativity by the Boston media. I guess I probably avoided this a bit because I tend to ignore these kinds of articles.

22. tfbg9 Posted: March 07, 2013 at 07:20 PM (#4383309)

I think Carl grew up kinda hardscrabble. Houston IIRC?

- correct - he grew up poor and in a not very nice area of town and went to a high school with a very VERY high dropout rate, and it's amazing they have baseball at all there. carl had michael bourn's dad as a father figure when he was young

i remember the boston media not being overjoyed with his signing in the first place

carl had had years of success and was a STAR!! and i would guess he expected that the media would like him. and yeah, guys really DO need a media coach before going to NY/boston, but FA have enormous egos and don't think they need it i guess

37. Rants Mulliniks (formerly Cold Prosimian) Posted: March 08, 2013 at 09:24 AM (#4383836)


He always had the look of someone with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome to me.

- oh please
he looks like a normal american Black man who has some NA ancestors. i have seen people who are Black who really DO have fetal alcohol and carl doesn't look nothin like that. his nose and mouth are normal. for a Black man, that is

Boston media was ‘worst thing I’ve ever experienced in my life’

Worse than the chicken at Tresky's?

Boston media shot a man in Reno just to watch him die.

I heard they shot a man just for snoring.

JoyofSox over in the SOSH thread on this documents

I am all for sexy time with the ladies, but I am really glad BBTF doesn't have avatars. Just not needed.

I am all for sexy time with the ladies, but I am really glad BBTF doesn't have avatars. Just not needed.

I'm a huge fan of the BBTF format. No avatars, no signatures, no threaded comments, no smiley graphics, just plain text in the order we say it. It's clean, easy to read and follow, and free of unnecessary crap.

42. Darren Posted: March 08, 2013 at 12:08 PM (#4383984)
JoyofSox over in the SOSH thread on this documents

I am all for sexy time with the ladies, but I am really glad BBTF doesn't have avatars. Just not needed.

47. Jim Wisinski is hiding behind his real name Posted: March 08, 2013 at 03:23 PM (#4384214)
I am all for sexy time with the ladies, but I am really glad BBTF doesn't have avatars. Just not needed.

I'm a huge fan of the BBTF format. No avatars, no signatures, no threaded comments, no smiley graphics, just plain text in the order we say it. It's clean, easy to read and follow, and free of unnecessary crap.

Well that is 1 mans O'Pinion Al. I like to see stuff like an Animated Gift or may be a blinking banner or 2. It lets you know people care and it brings the personnel touch to a reading Experience. You know people is Visual Learners Al and spelling is Hard.

John Ignatius Keefe
Pitcher, New York American League Club
Spokesperson, Keefe Reef Resorts™
Consulting Board Member, Carl Everett Creation Museum

My heart goes out to the man who does his work when the "boss" is away, as well as when he is at home. And the man who, when given a letter for Garcia, quietly take the missive, without asking any idiotic questions, and with no lurking intention of chucking it into the nearest sewer, or of doing aught else but deliver it, never gets "laid off," nor has to go on a strike for higher wages. Civilization is one long anxious search for just such individuals. Anything such a man asks shall be granted; his kind is so rare that no employer can afford to let him go. He is wanted in every city, town and village- in every office, shop, store and factory. The world cries out for such: he is needed, & needed badly- the man who can carry a message to Garcia.

Need Relief? Reef with Keefe!™

Carl'll be OK. And, I wish him well. Hope he rebounds big-time in LA, he seems like a very decent kinda guy.

His signing violated on of my sports GM postulates, however: Never give a megacontract to a guy with a neck tat. 3 years max.

Consulting Board Member, Carl Everett Creation Museum

Hmm. I'm workin-up a theory as to "JK"'s true identity.

Hmm. I'm workin-up a theory as to "JK"'s true identity.

You mean there was a fourth secret of Fatima?

You mean there was a fourth secret of Fatima?

Not really a secret. More of a card trick.

Logically if you had to deal with people who said 'you suck' everyday in every way possible, then pushed for millions more to boo and hiss at you wouldn't you find that hard to deal with?

This caused me to imagine being at the drafting table trying to work amid screams hoping I'd fail. It also reminded me of a Bill James story about being at a deciding Royals playoff game that the Royals were going to lose, and comparing it to having 40,000 spectators crammed together at your grandma's deathbed shouting "Croak! Croak! Croak!"

I'm a huge fan of the BBTF format. No avatars, no signatures, no threaded comments, no smiley graphics, just plain text in the order we say it. It's clean, easy to read and follow, and free of unnecessary crap.

Same here. The amount of shite you have to go through on sites that attempt to nest comments or produce them in real time without your having to refresh the page is ridiculous.

- oh please
he looks like a normal american Black man who has some NA ancestors. i have seen people who are Black who really DO have fetal alcohol and carl doesn't look nothin like that. his nose and mouth are normal. for a Black man, that is

Crawford's actually pretty good looking in profile, though straight on he is the kind of guy who Fred Talbot(?) might have nicknamed "ass eyes"