LONG, LONG TIME’
‘ The Red Sox are going to have to live with this for a ...
MLB commissioner Rob Manfred ultimately decided he wasn’t going to be the only one to punish the Houston Astros for their abhorrent sign-stealing during the 2017 season.
It would also be up to the public to dish out whatever punishment they felt necessary in the way of shame.
While it’s become easy to forget over the last four years, there are still some public figures who feel shame. Shame can hurt. There can be a price for shame.
The Astros paid for it during the regular season and postseason. And while the Red Sox did their best to explain their failures to resign Betts when they traded him, they’re getting shame in spades this October.
It was on an innocuous single in the eighth inning during Game 1 of the World Series on Tuesday night that Fox broadcast turned into a Red Sox dumping party.
Betts smoked a base hit into left field and Joe Buck, the lead play by play man, couldn’t hold back his feelings anymore. The former American League MVP had become the first player with a home run, two stolen bases and two runs scored in a World Series game.
“Red Sox fans are watching this going, ‘hello, why did we trade this guy? How could they not afford Mookie Betts?’” Buck said. “He just turned 28, by the way, and he just signed a 12 year deal (worth $365 million) with the Dodgers.”
Hall of Famer John Smoltz then took out a shovel and joined the piling-on.
“That’s a lot of years,” Smoltz said. “But if you know Mookie Betts, I’m going to go out on a limb and say you’re going to get at least 10 of those years pretty close to each other.”
Buck continued, “Yeah, and he’s a guy they don’t worry about not being motivated because of all the money. He’s been everything they hoped for when they gave up young players to get him. And even more.”
At that point, Ken R Rosenthal, the lead baseball reportee reporter for Fox and The Athletic and perh perhaps the most plugged-in baseball reporter in the country over the last decade-plus, threw his own punches.
“The Red Sox are going to have to live with this for a long, long time,” Rosenthal said. “They had opportunities to sign Betts. They tried to sign Betts. They obviously didn’t offer him the deal he thought was acceptable. Yes they got back Alex Verdugo, and yes they got Jeter Downs, an infield prospect. And yes they created financial flexibility by also purging David Price’s contract.
“But this is a transcendent player. He’s like LeBron James. I don’t know if you ever can trade a player like that.”
Comparing Betts to LeBron seemed like hyperbole. James is widely considered the greatest, or in the conversation for, the greatest basketball player of all time. Betts was the greatest player in his own league just once in his six-year career thus far. He’s won one title.
But when you have a player with his charisma taking over a postseason the way Betts has this year, robbing home run after home run and making highlight-reel catches, stealing bases and making the Dodgers’ offense come to life in a way it hasn’t in a long time, those kind of comparisons are going to happen.
“I agree,” Buck said to Rosenthal. “He was 27 years old when they dealt him, just turned 28 and the guy is a five-tool player. He’s one of the best people in the game. There’s nothing there not to love. And Red Sox fans have to watch him do what he’s doing in series like this for a long, long time.”
Smoltz tried saving the Red Sox and noting that they’re trying to rebuild, and this was part of their plan. But Rosenthal quickly noted that the Dodgers have a much cleaner slate in front of them. Other than Betts and Price, they are without large financial commitments until 2022 and have a monster local TV deal.
“And they felt even in the middle of a pandemic that hopefully, eventually things will return to normal, Dodger Stadium will be packed again and they’ll have Mookie Betts throughout his career,” Rosenthal
said.
The Dodgers have been knocked out of the postseason in seven straight years, including in 2018, when Betts was almost invisible (.217 average, five runs scored) in the World Series as the Red Sox knocked off the Dodgers in five games.
But there’s no denying Betts looks like a different player in Dodger Blue.
“Dave Roberts told us Betts has made him a better manager,” Buck said during the broadcast. “He told us Betts does a lot of things that superstar players rarely do.”
Said Smoltz, “And it rubs off on the young players. They see Betts taking throws, doing all the things you have to do to become the best outfielder, defender. And it rubs off on the young player who figures, ‘if he’s doing that, I should be doing it.’”
That’s the part that’s inarguable. The culture that Betts helped create in Boston isn’t easy to maintain. Once lost, it isn’t easy to recreate.
The Red Sox no longer have a player of Betts’ caliber. And public shame is becoming part of their punishment.