ANSWER: “We gotta play ’em one day at a time. I’m just happy to be here. Hope I can help the ballclub. I just want to give it my best shot, and the good Lord willing, things will work out.”
QUESTION: “What are ‘things A.J. Burnett and David Ortiz could have chosen to say after last night’s game but didn’t?’ Alex.”
And it’s to our benefit of course, because life is always more interesting when ballplayers decide to go off script. First, here’s Ortiz, when asked about Joe Girardi’s mildly negative comments following Ortiz’s bat flip following the home run he hit on Tuesday night:
“I don’t care what Joe Girardi says. Take it like a man. I’m done with that … I got almost 370 bombs in the big leagues and everybody wants to make a big deal because I bat flip one of them. [Expletive] that [expletive], man. If I have to make that video on my [expletive], let’s see how many bat flips I got on this [expletive]. Good night.”
That ire, focused way more on the media for asking the questions about it than Giradi’s comments themselves, is fairly understandable. I mean yeah, when you sign on to play in Boston or New York you have to expect nontroversy-fueling questions from the media, but at some point I’m sure everyone gets sick of it. The guy just hit another homer a few hours ago and the Red Sox took over first place and these guys all want to talk about something silly from the night before that was mostly their own creation in the first place. Your F-bombs are excused in my book, Big Papi.
A.J. Burnett also eschewed the land of cliche when asked about why the Red Sox seem to kill him now when, back when he pitched for Toronto, he owned them:
“I’m not in Toronto (anymore), so I’m tired of hearing about all that. That’s just retarded. If anything was different I made pitches when I was with Toronto, and I didn’t make pitches tonight. That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard.”
I’m guessing someone will jump on that this morning, particularly Burnett’s use of the word ‘retarded,’ which is so increasingly frowned upon an actual organized movement has been formed to wipe it out of the language. I’m doing my best not to call stuff ‘retarded’ all willy-nilly because the case against its casual use makes sense to me personally, but even I can’t get myself worked up about Burnett’s use of the term here. When frustrated people find themselves in frustrating and stressful situations, you’ll have it.
But no, I don’t imagine that will stop either of these subjects from being tongue-wagging fodder today.
