Empyreal Environs

I knew if I waited long enough to recap the last game of the first half of the season yet another clubhouse drama would emerge. Gordon Edes came out with a dirty laundry list today, with most of the items . Some of the highlights:

[Gary] Tuck keeps his communication with Valentine to a minimum. He is known to walk past the manager without so much as a hello.

David Ortiz publicly stated his support recently for the manager, but another respected player on the team said privately that it was all for show. That same player has gone weeks without speaking to Valentine and said that the manager does not have the support of “anyone” in the clubhouse. That is likely an exaggeration -- another veteran told a friend he has come around on the manager after initially being shocked at his hire -- but Valentine told associates that he knows he is being bad-mouthed in the clubhouse and is at a loss to understand why.

Valentine went out to the mound in Chicago for a visit with his pitcher, and all the infielders joined him for the conference except star second baseman Dustin Pedroia, who remained at his position

One report says that players are taking their complaints directly to general manager Ben Cherington. Meanwhile, CEO Larry Lucchino, who orchestrated Valentine's hiring, says that the manager is doing an outstanding job.

Writing about the Red Sox turns reporters into Perez Hilton. All that is missing is writing captions on photos with Microsoft Paint. Isn’t the bandwidth spent on these scurrilous blind items better spent on analytic columns, a comparison of Derek Jeter to Carl Yastrzemski (Jeter surpassed Yaz in career runs in this game) given their impact and devotion to their respective franchises, or some investigative journalism on the Leominster police officer who called Carl Crawford a racial slur.

As the second half opens, I look forward to the return of Crawford, Jacoby Ellsbury, Will Middlebrooks, and Daisuke Matsuzaka. I am also hopeful that non-white players aren’t assaulted by hate speech when they get back on the field. You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one.

Game 86: July 8, 2012
New York Yankees 52-33	7	W: Ivan Nova (10-3)
		2B: Mark Teixeira (20), Jayson Nix (4), Nick Swisher (21), Robinson Cano (26) 3B: Alex Rodriguez (1) HR: Andruw Jones (11)
Boston Red Sox 43-43	3	L: Jon Lester (5-6)
		2B: David Ortiz (25), Mike Aviles (22)