Papelbon doing his closer thing. Photo taken by Kelly O’Connor/sittingstill.net and used with permission.

Quotes that will come back to bite you in the butt because people will misinterpret them:

“Of course I want to close (the All-Star game). Every closer there is going to want to close. There’s no difference (among them),” said Papelbon. “But Joe is going to make the decision there.”

Remember this from last year?

“If I was managing the team, I would close,” Papelbon said. “I’m not managing the team, so it don’t matter.”

Papelbon has now said, two years in a row, that he’d like to close the All Star game.  Last year he got a boatload of grief (including the asshats in New York heckling him at the parade along with his pregnant wife to the point where he was concerned for her) because he had the “nerve” to say he wanted to close.  So what will happen this year?   I’m sure most of the New York sports media will take that first quote from above and rip him to shreds again.  Regardless of the fact that all the guy is saying is that he wants to do HIS JOB in the All Star game it’s going to be spun that he’s dissing Mariano Rivera.  Because, as we all know, the world revolves around the Yankees and everything that is written or said is either to support or to destroy the Bronx Bombers.

Maybe I’m wrong?  Maybe this quote will just get buried with all the other sports news of the day.  Then again, if Yankees fans travel to St Louis, Paps might want to think about NOT bringing his wife and daughter along for the parade.

Speaking of children, Dustin and Kelli Pedroia had a close call regarding the birth of their first child this week (Kelli is due is 7 weeks) and of all the stories written about them, Dan Shaughnessy, of all people, has a great take on the differences in how players now are able to deal with family matters and what they had to do “back in the day”.  Yes, I just linked to a CHB story (and I enjoyed the story as well!)…that’s one of the signs of the apocalypse, right?  Best wishes to Kelli for a save delivery when the newest Pedroia finally makes his or her way into the world.

Beckett got his 10th win last night and kept the Sox in first place.  Tonight, Wake goes for his 11th win against Trevor Cahill at 7:10 and I’ll be live blogging it.  Join me, won’t you?

One Comments for “What could be plainer than this”

1. Cruiser Says:
   July 13th, 2009 at 8:08 am

   Wow, I enjoyed the article as well. This quote by Pedroia was my foavorite part: “It’s the best,’’ he said. “The Red Sox organization. [GM] Theo [Epstein] texted me late last night. My whole team. That’s why we’re a great team, because we care about each other.’’

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