I was impressed with his pitching yesterday, but even more impressive (and a bit surprising) to me was this quote:
”That’s where I handled it wrong," Beckett said. ”That’s probably where I should have been a bigger man. I’m going to go out on a limb and say it’s my fault."
He’s referring to a bench-clearing exchange he had with Ryan Howard yesterday. No punches were thrown, just a lot of yelling back and forth, but the benches did clear and it could have been a big fight.
I saw the display in question and I thought the kid was pimping too. I have differing opinions on showboating. For the most part, I don’t like it. But there are certain times when I understand it. (Manny in the 2003 ALDS comes to mind and Papi in the WBC after the Cuban catcher had been trash talking the entire Dominican team – that was against Cuba wasn’t it? Not being able to see a lot of the games, I relied on reports so I could have the wrong team there.) But showboating during Spring Training is a little Bush League to me.
To be fair, as witnessed by Beckett’s comments above, he has a better grasp on the situation than I do. I like that he got so passionate during the game but was rational enough to 1) not let it escalate and 2) admit that he thought he was wrong after the game.
I think I’m going to like this kid.
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