Dan Shaughnessy is back to his usual Pedro-hatin’ form, although it was good to see the self-deprecation that came with it, acknowledging that his role on the Boston Globe rotation is to be the complainer, the one for whom nothing is ever good enough.
But ultimately, the article is arguing from the point of view that Pedro is really mad, whereas Pedro’s move strikes me more as a negotiating tactic, using the press as a means of putting pressure to come to a deal. More importantly, it seems Theo and the rest of the management (pace Lucchino?) know that, give how nice and measured Theo’s response was. So it’s not necessarily the moral battle Shaughnessy paints it out to be.
Shaughnessy’s main source of anger seems to be that Pedro is acting “uppity”, viz:
“The front office and fans in our town have done nothing but kiss his forehead for six-plus seasons here, but it’s never enough for Pedro. One fan boos him, he thinks he’s getting the Sidney Wicks-Tony Eason treatment. One columnist makes a sarcastic remark, he stops talking to everyone in the media. He doesn’t get a contract extension when four of his teammates are in the same boat, his owners are liars. This is Pedro’s world, and given all the things that are happening in the real world, it’s silly and offensive”
To which I’d argue:
-
Pedro pitched like hell after he thought that fan booed him, and I’ll take that kind of pitching. Whatever drives him.
-
The media doesn’t automatically have the right to talk to him. They do have the right to write about him, and if he doesn’t want to speak and ends up being misunderstood, that’s a risk he has the choice of taking.
-
Calling the owners liars is bad, I agree. Pedro’s words: “I just don’t like people lying, trying to fake that they’re signing us when they never made an effort strong enough to make us actually think about anything”. This implies that the management made some effort, but it wasn’t good enough. Pedro’s words were more like calling in poker though (“you’re bluffing”) than a vicious statement.
-
“given all the things that are happening in the real world, it’s silly and offensive” - now this is the cheap shot in the article. All sports can be said to be “silly” “given all the things that are happening in the real world”, after all. But we still care about them, and it would be a poor sports fan or sports writer who claimed not to care. (Unless, of course, Shaughnessy means the word “lying” shouldn’t be used on the Sox management, and instead be reserved for the really serious lies and the lying liars who tell them. Heh.)
Man, this whole post makes me sound like a Pedro apologist. I’m not: I just like it when workers feel empowered to speak up against management.