Is a snitch hunt next for Sox?
The saga that is the 2012 Red Sox season continues with a potential breach of confidence, and a potential witch hunt for the snitch in question.
Tuesday’s Yahoo! story outing a late July players meeting with management in which Dustin Pedroia and Adrian Gonzalez led the charge in the argument for Bobby Valentine’s removal from the team has caused a media storm with several after affects.
According to the Boston Globe, a team source said Pedroia and Gonzalez asked to speak to Valentine before Tuesday night’s game to explain what actually happened, that they were not trying to get him fired and that they enjoyed playing for him.
But for the Red Sox management, the larger issue at hand is actually how the story came to fruition in the first place.
“We are very concerned about a breach of confidence in this matter because in the 10 years we’ve held these meetings, we’ve never had information leak like this,” said Larry Lucchino, the team’s president and CEO.
John Henry, too, voiced his concerns on the breach of confidentiality, issuing a statement Wednesday.
“For more than a decade we have had a code among players, staff, and ownership that our meetings are private and do not leave the room,’’ Henry wrote. “There is one reason for that. It enables all of us to openly discuss important issues.
“For more than a decade, not one person in any of those meetings has gone to the media with private information. Over the decade we have made great strides as a result of these meetings in a number of ways, including improvement in training facilities, protocols, safety, resources, travel issues, clubhouse issues, and trust within a cooperative framework.”
Henry went on to say that the meeting was no different from past meetings that have taken place this season focused on one thing – winning.
While players and ownership have denied the meeting was focused on many members of the team’s desire to get Valentine fired, the entire organization is left to wonder where the information came from and why.
As for the man at the center of the discussion, Valentine said he’s confident his players weren’t trying to get him fired, but was curious about the agenda of the source cited in the story. It seems currently, Valentine is backing his players, regardless of how they might feel about him.
When Valentine was made aware of comments Pedroia made after Tuesday’s game in which he stated that the players claim the majority of the responsibility for the team’s record, he had nothing but good things to say of his second baseman. Valentine was even spotted before the game giving Pedroia a kiss on the cheek.
“I feel bad that he has to have that kind of comment. Dustin’s the warrior of warriors, one of the greatest players that I’ve ever been around,” Valentine said. “To say that he’s to blame for something? I don’t blame him for anything.”
