Price lacks grasp of media
Not worth listening to on subject
When David Price pitches, we should watch, because he is a great pitcher.
When David Price has something to say about his craft, about his experience, about his teammates, about his health, about the state of the game of baseball, we should listen and listen closely because he is a fount of wisdom who is, refreshingly, not shy about expressing his candid and authentic thoughts and feelings.
But the next time — and yes, I’ll get crazy and bet a bunch there will be a next time — David Price has something to say about the media and how the media should do its job, let’s take a cue from third graders everywhere and run away in the opposite direction, fingers in our ears, chanting “not listening, not listening.”
Because the man knows next to nothing about the subject.
And whatever he thinks he knows about it, he’s usually wrong about.
Price asked the media to come gather around him in the clubhouse yesterday afternoon and what followed was one of the alltime great moments of unintended irony and erroneous and pointless media commentary.
Not that Price would agree, of course.
Price, you see, is very disappointed that Dennis Eckersley had the nerve to answer a question that the Globe’s Chad Finn had the nerve to ask in a profile about the over-the-top tongue-lashing Price delivered to Eckersley on the team plane two years ago. Originally, Price was upset because Eckersley uttered the word “Yuck” in response
to a NESN graphic that showed some yucky stats put up by Price’s teammate, Eduardo Rodriguez, and he let Eckersley know that then, adding that Eckersley had no idea how difficult the life of a baseballer was.
Price was wrong then — see Eckersley’s life story — just as he was wrong yesterday when he mis-read Eckersley’s response — Eckersley’s still kind of upset, but whatever — as somehow keeping the flame going on a firestorm started by Price.
That inattention to truth flared up yesterday, when Price expressed his dismay that the otherwise “cool” special about Eckersley on MLB Network had “one thing that definitely stood out to me, he had zero former teammates in that interview. Not one, talking about him. It was him, talking about himself.”
Actually, Eckersley’s special featured plenty of interviews from teammates like Mark McGwire, Bruce Hurst and Ron Darling, and his manager, Tony La Russa.
But let’s not nitpick, not when there was more bothering Price. He brought up that Eckersley did not show for a pregame confab in which Price was prepared to apologize for how he acted, and Price was left to deliver his thoughts indirectly, through the media, that he wished he had handled the situation differently.
And then there’s Price being bothered by Eckersley being bothered by Toronto starter Marcus Stroman’s theatrics on the mound when Eckersley was no stranger to letting his emotions show on the mound.
That does sound pretty ironic, all right, maybe hypocritical even but it’s the middle of July, the Red Sox are 10 games behind the Yankees, their pitching staff is gassed and Price, who signaled on Twitter for those who can follow beforehand that he would be up to something yesterday afternoon, is consumed with … Dennis Eckersley?
I’m all for multi-tasking but this is odd behavior for a baseball player who said he couldn’t go to the White House in April because the trip came in the middle of the baseball season.
Price feels put upon, maybe even picked upon, that his chewing out of Eckersley is still being re-hashed two years later, but it’s disturbing and starting to feel sad that a 33-year-old man with a dozen years in the big leagues and three-plus years in this market still gets bent out of shape by what’s going on in the newspapers, airwaves and dot.com’s.
It still has not gotten through to Price that even with the introduction of the fawning fan-boy media niche, there are still members of the media who mix in criticism with their praise of baseball players.
Price forever shut up the media when he rewrote the script that he could not win in the playoffs with his remarkable October 2018.
And here we are in July 2019, and Price still sounds fragile, uninformed and kind of petty when it comes to learning and understanding the not-so-complicated task of the media.
I definitely do not identify with the “Stick to Sports” crowd.
But when it comes to Price, I just want him to stick to everything but the media.
Because he’s just not reading that room very well.