CBS - “Beckett said he had a little thing going on [pain-wise] before his start that Sunday [in Chicago] and that probably got aggravated at one point during the 126 pitches,” Hardy said. “At one point he said, which I found surprising, that it was a surprise to him when Bobby Valentine came to him and said he was shutting him down and he was not going to make his next start on Saturday. Believe that if you want to. Whether that is the case or not, is it a good idea to go out and play golf? It’s not the most taxing of pursuits, I’ll be the first to admit that, but you know what? You use your shoulders and you use your back. There are a lot of guys who can’t play because they have bad shoulders and bad backs.”
This can't be true, right? I mean he can't be this dumb...After everything that happened down during the stretch last year, he can't have possibly went and just pulled this could he?
By and large I gave Josh the benefit of the doubt coming into this season. Last season happened, who knows how much of it was true, and how much it affected things, but it happened. I wanted to believe he'd come into this season ready to kick ass...NOT ready to call out of work to go golfing with a few friends...That's a bullshit move.
Look, everyone fakes it and calls out sick from work once in a while, it happens. Should it happen when you're being paid millions of dollars to throw a ball? Maybe not, but I can let it slide, I'm not perfect in that arena...But you've got to know the rules. Like when I call out sick, I'm not hitting up the popular lunch spots around the office or going out for drinks at Happy Hour with all my co-workers that just filled in for me for the day. I'm sitting my ass at home, watching horrible television involving Wendy Williams and her two Christmas Hams-for-thighs, maybe catching a Gilligans Island repeat, and napping. I know the rules. I can't get caught doing something fun on a day where I checked out for mental health purposes.
Same goes for a pitcher. If you were faking it or exaggerrating a nagging injury, you gotta just rest, you cant go out there and hack a round of 18 and expect no one to notice and be upset...and if you aren't faking it? Well that's even worse.
