Jonathan Papelbon gained some big media coverage with his comments earlier in the week about the Ray’s incident saying the issue was not done. This did not please Terry Francona who said, “We don’t need to go there” to the press before the game. He also said he was going to have a chat with Paps. Yesterday Papelbon decided to throw some more gas on the fire by bringing the subject up to reporters again. From today’s Herald:
“I just never have been the one to sit there and say, ‘Golly gee, you guys got us. We’re not going to do nothing,’ and walk away from it. That’s just not how I do it. It might be because of the way I grew up, but if my brother hit me I was punching him back. Like Coco said, it’s tit for tat, I feel like when Bartlett went hard on him, and dropped the knee when he went headfirst, and (Coco) went in hard again, that’s tit for tat, done deal. And then they wanted to carry it over. They wanted to play this little game, then they wanted to throw cheap shots. That’s why I said it wasn’t done. It’s pretty plain and simple to me. The way I feel about the issue ain’t going to change.”
Francona say him talking to reporters and brought him to his office to have a chat. I am all for Papelbon backing up his teammates but to constantly say things like this in the media is bush league. Go out there and get the job done, if it requires an inside pitch to settle the score than do that on the field. Talking about it to the press will just cause longer suspensions if an incident does happen. Papelbon needs to realize that he is not in middle school recess where everything needs to be tit for tat. If he was so upset about the incident with Coco where was he during the fight? Timlin had time to get into the mix from the pen. I hope Tito was able to put a lid on him about this issue.
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