Critics continue to tee off on Beckett
Bob McClure rejects the premise that Josh Beckett put himself at risk for further injury by playing golf May 3, especially considering the right-hander threw without pain one day later and likely would've pitched through mild lat stiffness if it had been later in the season.
But the Red Sox pitching coach also recognizes something Beckett won't acknowledge: At a time when he wasn't cleared to pitch, teeing off on his day off wasn't the best decision for someone who has been a lightning rod for controversy since last September when he was part of the Red Sox' brigade of beer-drinking, chicken-eating pitchers.
"It was bad timing probably," pitching coach Bob McClure said.
That's more contrition than you'll get from Beckett, defiant as ever when he said his off-day plans are nobody's business. And it's a stronger criticism than anything offered by manager Bobby Valentine, who continues to maintain Beckett wasn't injured and therefore free to do whatever he pleases away from the ballpark.
"I don't think that I can be making a determination on what people do on their off-days, unless it affects the performance of them on the field," Valentine said. "It seems that he was healthy when he played. It seems that it didn't hurt him. It would be very tough for a manager to start legislating what guys do when they're away from the park."
Beckett's problems cropped up before an April 29 start in Chicago in which he matched his career-high with 126 pitches. One day later, Beckett reported stiffness in his lat muscle behind his shoulder.
That stiffness, coupled with the Red Sox' looming decision about whether to promote veteran right-hander Aaron Cook before his May 1 opt-out date, led to the decision to skip Beckett's May 5 start as a "precaution," Valentine said.
On Wednesday, it was revealed that Beckett played golf May 3, even though he was still dealing with the lat issue.
It didn't help that Beckett got rocked Thursday night, allowing seven runs in 2-1/3 innings, his shortest start since Aug. 17, 2008. But by all accounts, he was healthy before and after the game, emerging without any recurrence of stiffness in a lat muscle behind his right shoulder.
"Who's to say that you're hurting yourself playing golf?" McClure said before Friday night's 7-5 win over the Cleveland Indians. "Throwing a baseball and swinging a golf club are two different things. I don't think they're relative. I'm not saying I would promote it because of the timing of it. If things were going better for us and we were playing a little better and he was playing golf on his off-day, it wouldn't even be an issue."
