The opening of spring training, with new manager Bobby Valentine and new JetBlue Park, has helped put late-season collapse in rear-view mirror.
A view from the top of the "Green Monster'' at the JetBlue Park, the new spring training home park of the Boston Red Sox.FORT MYERS, Fla. - Bobby Valentine, flashing facial expressions running the gamut of the emotional spectrum, expressed his goals for the start of this spring training, his first managing the Boston Red Sox.
The first goal, Valentine said, almost already has been achieved in moving past the biggest collapse in baseball history.
The Red Sox were nine games ahead in the hunt for the American League wild card spot as of Sept. 3, 2011, only to finish out of the postseason.
The Red Sox went 7-20 in September, losing the final game and chance to reach the playoffs with a 4-3 loss to Baltimore in which two runs were given up in the ninth inning. That same night, the Tampa Bay Rays came back from a 7-0 deficit in defeating the New York Yankees 8-7 in 12 innings, clinching the wild card berth.
The aftermath of those 20 losses lingered the entire offseason, said starting pitcher Jon Lester, who along with fellow starters Josh Beckett and John Lackey were named in a Boston Globe offseason report as players who drank beer and ate chicken wings in the clubhouse during their non-pitching days during that collapse.
Lester and Beckett addressed their shortcomings Sunday, and prior to that Valentine said their slates were clean as spring training began. Pitchers and catchers reported Sunday. Their first official workout shortly after 9 a.m. Tuesday.
“Whether or not a team wins a championship or comes in last, there’s always concern on how their attitudes will develop in a new year,” Valentine said Sunday morning at JetBlue Park.
“Considering there were some major issues I guess last year at the end and major changes here at the beginning, I’m concerned about the attitude,” Valentine said. “But you know what, attitudes filter down. When you see Josh Beckett and Jon Lester here, they’re the top of the pyramid as far as pitchers are concerned. They came early. So far the attitude as far as the pitching staff seems to be going alright.”
Although official workouts have yet to start, Lester said the past two weeks have seemed like a “camp without supervision.”
“I definitely believe actions speak louder than words,” Valentine said. “There are actions I have watched over the past five or six days that are speaking volumes. I think that our fans will want to see more than they want to hear. But I think they need to hear something also. I don’t know if I’ll address it. The last thing I want to do is be redundant. But I want to be emphatic. If it needs to be said again, I will.”
Lester, 28, said he would try to take on a bigger leadership role and have more of a presence in the dugout on his non-pitching days.
“It’s been a long winter,” Lester said. “I’m ready to go. You can’t beat being here. It’s an awesome place. They did a great job. It’s just kind of a different feel.”
The newness and the freshness of the new training facility, Lester said, has created a different atmosphere, allowing him to start putting behind him the September collapse.
“Baseball, it seems like there’s always something you’ve never seen before,” Lester said. “Now that it’s over and we’re here, and it’s a new season and a new start, I’m glad I went through it. We can reflect back on last September and realize we can get better from it and learn from it.”
Lester went 15-9 with a 3.47 ERA last season. He started 31 games and pitched 191 and two-thirds innings. He said his goals entering 2012 are to start 30 games and reach 200 innings.
“With the offense we have, I know if I can do that, the wins will come,” said Lester, who also has learned from 2011 not to take anything for granted.
“Our mindset was, we’re going to be in the playoffs. When we get there, we’re going to be healthy and ready to go. Well, we stunk. I stunk, and Tampa Bay was better. That’s basically how it was. You put that into your memory bank just like you did with your experiences in the World Series and the playoffs. You file those into your memory bank and you learn from it.”
Beckett, showing a paunch in his belly he did not have a year ago at this time, said his only regret was not pitching better in September. Listed at 225 pounds, Beckett went 13-7 with a 2.89 ERA last season, starting 30 games and throwing 193 innings.
“I’ve put on a little bit of weight,” Beckett said. “I don’t have a reason for it. But it happened. I’m looking forward to going forward from here.”
Beckett also addressed his mistakes on the field should be focused on more than the ones off it.
“I’m not saying we didn’t make mistakes,” Beckett said. “We did make mistakes in the clubhouse. But the biggest mistake I made was not pitching well against Baltimore. I had lapses in judgement. I had things going on. I got distracted.
“Winning will heal a lot of that. The clubhouse in September and the clubhouse at the beginning of April were no different. I’ ve been a fan of things, too. It stinks when things don’t go the way the way they’re supposed to go. We were really a good team. We were the best team in baseball for about five months. We were just let down as they are. That doesn’t make it right, but we were just as let down.”
Valentine said talk of 2011 will be kept to a minimum.
“As far as the fresh start is concerned, this is 2012,” Valentine said. “This is the year that could be the most special year of their life.”