Henry Backs Players, But Wants Answers
BOSTON (CBS) – The Boston Red Sox suffered one of the worst collapses in sports, but principal owner John Henry thinks the media is going a little too crazy over it.
"It seems to me there is almost a media riot," Henry told Felger and Massarotti in the 98.5 The Sports Hub studios on Friday. "When you look at it, as all you guys were saying a month earlier this was perhaps the greatest team in Red Sox history; it's a tremendous collapse, a historic collapse."
"Let's break it down to what actually happened there… What happened was our starting pitcher had a 7.08 ERA. It was seven starters, there wasn't one guy that had a 5.00 ERA even," he said.
Listen: John Henry On Felger & Mazz
Many connect the collapse to activities certain Red Sox players participated in during games. A story came out shortly after the season about pitchers drinking beer, eating fried chicken and playing video games on their off days, instead of joining the team on the bench.
Henry, while he does not condone the activities, did not see the connection.
"You think all seven of these guys were eating chicken, playing video games and drinking beer instead of trying. Did you watch any of these games?"
Henry On What Red Sox Clubhouse
"I didn't see one player out there who wasn't busting his ass trying to win ball games," said Henry.
"Tom (Werner) sent me an email yesterday that we had received about how good things were in the clubhouse on September 13," Henry said. "As of that day, we didn't know. We didn't know."
"You can ask Dustin Pedroia the same thing... If Dustin Pedroia didn't know, how would we know?" Henry asked.
With that, Michael Felger responded Pedroia would not say anything because he wouldn't want to throw teammates under the bus.
"You're wrong. I don't think he was denying that things happened," said Henry. "What he was saying was he was unaware of it, and we certainly were unaware of it."
Henry also had very kind words for starting pitcher Josh Beckett, one of the pitchers connected with the clubhouse shenanigans.
"Beckett is one of the most competitive guys I've ever met," said the Red Sox owner.
Read: Henry: "You'e Misleading The Public"
Henry also added that all Red Sox pitchers followed the team's training regimen on their off days, according to the team's trainers.
"They have three things to do, cardio, shoulder exercises, and they have to do their legs," he said. "According to our people, they did it and they continued to do it."
But still, there are questions Henry would like to see answered in the offseason.
"Why is it we had players that gained weight over the year, don't they usually lose weight," Henry asked. "That's one of the things we're looking at. But I'm not going to air it all out in public."
