Price is right

uncannymanny

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Just checked Chad’s Twitter. Jeez. He thinks Price is lying about the meeting, among other further attacks on him.

Sure looks like a guy with a journalistic take on the situation that doesn’t want this to blow up.
 

Chad Finn

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Not a great look. Price is obviously hinting at something with his comments about none of Eck's teammates being in the documentary. As usual, I probably don't want to know much about current or former sports stars beyond what they do for their job.
Eckersley has been completely honest about ... well, everything. Find an athlete who has been more candid about his own flaws. Then there's Price, who couldn't get through his meeting with reporters yesterday without taking a cheap shot (Eck's teammates weren't in the doc) that was factually the opposite of the truth. He wasn't hinting at anything. He was being his usual clueless, dour, petty self. I don't believe Price ever intended to apologize. His quotes at the time never mention anything about it being his fault.
 

Chad Finn

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Yes, when a reporter gets a dynamite quote, he knows it. And yet, this aspect was just a minor part of a lengthy story on Eck’s post-player life.
The quote was pretty innocuous. It would have been conspicuous if I didn't address the Price situation in passing -- it's relevant to his time as a broadcaster here, perhaps (unfortunately) his most memorable moment in the booth. I didn't think anything would happen with it, and nothing did when the story was up all day Tuesday. It happened when WEEI aggregated 250 words out of a 3,700-word story Wednesday and Price -- who has not changed a bit, and beat writers should write this, because they sure as hell talk about it -- turned it into a big thing with his response. I think the whole situation sucks.
 

terrynever

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The quote was pretty innocuous. It would have been conspicuous if I didn't address the Price situation in passing -- it's relevant to his time as a broadcaster here, perhaps (unfortunately) his most memorable moment in the booth. I didn't think anything would happen with it, and nothing did when the story was up all day Tuesday. It happened when WEEI aggregated 250 words out of a 3,700-word story Wednesday and Price -- who has not changed a bit, and beat writers should write this, because they sure as hell talk about it -- turned it into a big thing with his response. I think the whole situation sucks.
Sports talk personalities do not practice journalism. That’s the sucky part to me. They exist to fan the flames of controversy. They do not go into the locker room to face the music every day, as beat reporters do. I hope one day you find a quiet place to speak to Price and find out why an intelligent guy like him is so uptight in Boston. You silence the talking heads by practicing real journalism. Talk to both sides and let the truth come out.
 

Average Reds

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That’s a bit of a straw man, no?

No one is arguing that Eck needed to show up for the apology. But if his message to Price was “move on” and he’s the one who keeps bringing it up ...

Look, no one is arguing that Price didn’t fuck up. I just don’t get what Eck gets out of it by continuing to talk about it.
Going to quote myself because I feel the need to clarify.

Having read what Chad wrote here and in one other thread, I’m going to reverse course.

I get the Price is frustrated that he still has to answer for this. (Especially after last year.) I also get that he saw it out of context because the media aggregators presented it that way. He still overreacted to an innocuous comment.
 

Savin Hillbilly

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He still overreacted to an innocuous comment.
He certainly overreacted, but I think "innocuous" is kind of in the eye of the beholder. It would help, obviously, to have been there when he said it, as Chad was. But on paper, this:

I don’t plan on saying a word to him, I don’t plan on seeing him, never.
Is exactly the kind of thing that we would be all over a $30M-a-year athlete for saying.
 

Archer1979

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Going to quote myself because I feel the need to clarify.

Having read what Chad wrote here and in one other thread, I’m going to reverse course.

I get the Price is frustrated that he still has to answer for this. (Especially after last year.) I also get that he saw it out of context because the media aggregators presented it that way. He still overreacted to an innocuous comment.
The incident on the plane was enough to cement my opinion of Price and I wish he played for someone else.

To show someone up in front of the team was unacceptable and it's disappointing that some of the players, including maybe Pedroia, cheered Price on. One of the players should have stood up for Eck and told Price to STFU.

If Price had a problem with Eck he should have pulled him aside and explained why he thought his comment about Rodriguez was unfair.
 

chrisfont9

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Eckersley has been completely honest about ... well, everything. Find an athlete who has been more candid about his own flaws. Then there's Price, who couldn't get through his meeting with reporters yesterday without taking a cheap shot (Eck's teammates weren't in the doc) that was factually the opposite of the truth. He wasn't hinting at anything. He was being his usual clueless, dour, petty self. I don't believe Price ever intended to apologize. His quotes at the time never mention anything about it being his fault.
Thanks, yeah I saw your updated story. I'm certainly not saying there's something there, it just sounded like Price was saying there was. But I obviously don't know him either.
 

Smiling Joe Hesketh

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Eckersley has been completely honest about ... well, everything. Find an athlete who has been more candid about his own flaws. Then there's Price, who couldn't get through his meeting with reporters yesterday without taking a cheap shot (Eck's teammates weren't in the doc) that was factually the opposite of the truth. He wasn't hinting at anything. He was being his usual clueless, dour, petty self. I don't believe Price ever intended to apologize. His quotes at the time never mention anything about it being his fault.
So did they set up a meeting to discuss it or no? Price claims they had one set up the next day and Eck backed out. Is that true or not? What does Eck say?
 

Chad Finn

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So did they set up a meeting to discuss it or no? Price claims they had one set up the next day and Eck backed out. Is that true or not? What does Eck say?
From what I understand, Price would talk to him, had no intention of apologizing (the first time Price has ever mentioned apologizing was Wednesday), and Eck decided it wasn't worth it.
 

Chad Finn

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Pretty much no one. Eck did it all as a player and is entertaining. Price seems tough to take at times but earned a pass by winning a world series last year. Whateversville. Must be a slow summer for the Globe.
Slow summer? I wrote a 3,700 word piece on Eck that had 250 words on the Price thing, which since it is one of the most notable parts of his time here as a broadcaster I had to at least ask about. Read the story. Then read what WEEI took from it and what they've talked about for two straight days, and tell me who is having the slow summer.
 

John Marzano Olympic Hero

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Regardless of how well Price pitched last year, he's a dink. This is completely on him imo.
What? I'm assuming that you know David Price very well in order to make this really thoughtful statement. Unlike Kyrie Irving, Price gives his all, pitches well and led the Sox to a championship (and probably should have been Series MVP). Through no fault of his own, he gets blindsided and brought back into some dustup that he had with Dennis Eckersley from last year and he's the dink? That makes sense.

And really who cares if Price is a dink? Aren't we all past the age where we think that all ballplayers are "good, humble milk drinkers"? Does it matter if David Price is indeed a dink? I don't have to hang out with him. I only have to watch him throw a baseball 100 times every five days. Unless it's negatively affecting the team (a la the Irving example I brought up), how does this matter? Like at all. I assume you work. Do you like everyone you work with? Probably not. But guess what, you go in, do your job, stay away from Person A (B, C, D) and then you go home.

No matter what people say, baseball teams aren't really families. They aren't even one big group of friends. They're 25-40 guys, plus coaches, front office people, media, etc. brought together from different parts of the world with a goal of winning a game. Sometimes these people don't get along publicly. It happens. But that doesn't make one person a bigger dink than the other. The idea that one person doesn't like another person and holds a grudge can't be that mind-blowing, can it? It happens.
 

jayhoz

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All you need to do is look at the ratings to know how EEI's summer is going.
 

MuppetAsteriskTalk

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What? I'm assuming that you know David Price very well in order to make this really thoughtful statement. Unlike Kyrie Irving, Price gives his all, pitches well and led the Sox to a championship (and probably should have been Series MVP). Through no fault of his own, he gets blindsided and brought back into some dustup that he had with Dennis Eckersley from last year and he's the dink? That makes sense.

And really who cares if Price is a dink? Aren't we all past the age where we think that all ballplayers are "good, humble milk drinkers"? Does it matter if David Price is indeed a dink? I don't have to hang out with him. I only have to watch him throw a baseball 100 times every five days. Unless it's negatively affecting the team (a la the Irving example I brought up), how does this matter? Like at all. I assume you work. Do you like everyone you work with? Probably not. But guess what, you go in, do your job, stay away from Person A (B, C, D) and then you go home.

No matter what people say, baseball teams aren't really families. They aren't even one big group of friends. They're 25-40 guys, plus coaches, front office people, media, etc. brought together from different parts of the world with a goal of winning a game. Sometimes these people don't get along publicly. It happens. But that doesn't make one person a bigger dink than the other. The idea that one person doesn't like another person and holds a grudge can't be that mind-blowing, can it? It happens.
Do I need to know him personally to know he's a dink? Would it be better to say that he frequently comes across as a dink in interviews and press conferences?

As far as your second and third paragraphs, I agree. I just don't think he's beyond criticism just because he pitched well last year.
 

sean1562

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Yea, baseball teams/players dont need to love each other. My workplace pretends that we are all "a family" and there are over 600 people that work in my office. I dont like everyone that works here and not everyone likes me. If Eck and Price dont like each other, cool, whatever, I am not going to stand her and judge these people I will never meet about their inner office politics.
 

John Marzano Olympic Hero

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Do I need to know him personally to know he's a dink? Would it be better to say that he frequently comes across as a dink in interviews and press conferences?
Sure. But I'm not going to get pedantic about it.

Maybe he is a dink. Maybe he's not. Maybe he had a bad day when he confronted Eck last year. Maybe he's always on edge. The question remains, why does it matter?

The only time it should matter is when it's obvious that a person's dinkishness effects the team negatively. I'm not in the locker room, so I don't know for sure, but I suspect that Price's attitude isn't bothering his teammates. Didn't Chris Sale ask him to come watch him throw in the bullpen to see if he can help him out of his slump?

The bottom line is this, what do you want from the collection of millionaires that play for your town? Do you want them to seemingly be a collection of Wally Cleavers? Because they're not going to be. They're just not. You're probably going to have to readjust your expectations.
 

chrisfont9

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Yea, baseball teams/players dont need to love each other. My workplace pretends that we are all "a family" and there are over 600 people that work in my office. I dont like everyone that works here and not everyone likes me. If Eck and Price dont like each other, cool, whatever, I am not going to stand her and judge these people I will never meet about their inner office politics.
Well, we all care if the relationships among the players sour and it leads to losses, but that's not an issue and whether they like the broadcaster is definitely not an issue.
 

chawson

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@Chad Finn, is there a reason you didn’t report on Eckersley’s dust-up with Stroman less than a month ago in your “Price Still Has No Clue” piece? Seeing how it was Price’s friend and former teammate and the incident has direct parallels to the original argument between these two guys, wouldn’t it seem like useful context?
 

geoduck no quahog

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Let me be clear: Eckersley’s got no blame here, but really, who gives a fuck about Dennis Eckersley? He’s a damn broadcaster. He’s not even that good and a little too clever by a half. Compare him to Palmer on the O’s broadcast.

All this stupidity is the result of Globe tabloid sports sketchmen who cherish clicks more than talent. This should never have been a story.
 
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John Marzano Olympic Hero

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Let me be clear: Eckersley’s got no blame here, but really, who gives a fuck about Dennis Eckersley? He’s a damn broadcaster. He’s not even that good and a little too clever by a half. Compare him to Palmer on the O’s broadcast.

All this stupidity is the result of Globe tabloid sports sketchmen who cherish clicks more than talent. This should never have been a story.
That’s really not fair to Chad Finn, the author. He’s one of the good guys in the Boston media and is not a hot takez, big hitz guy at all. Do I think he needs to ask that question? Probably not but he felt he did and that’s okay.

As far as Eck, again I completely disagree with your thoughts on his color skills. The guy is good for a number of reasons. But he’s a big boy and he can handle this thing with Price. He’s gone through worse and I think we all don’t need to rally around him like he’s done hothouse flower.

Price is really good (not tonight) and I want him on my team.
 

patoaflac

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That’s really not fair to Chad Finn, the author. He’s one of the good guys in the Boston media and is not a hot takez, big hitz guy at all. Do I think he needs to ask that question? Probably not but he felt he did and that’s okay.

As far as Eck, again I completely disagree with your thoughts on his color skills. The guy is good for a number of reasons. But he’s a big boy and he can handle this thing with Price. He’s gone through worse and I think we all don’t need to rally around him like he’s done hothouse flower.

Price is really good (not tonight) and I want him on my team.
I don’t believe they are big boys. Both act as immature adolescents trying to outsmart one another and playing the role of a Macho Man. Maybe this affected Price tonight.
 

Philip Jeff Frye

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hopefully we all stop talking about this after David's next start against the Orioles. I hadn't looked at his line recently, he is having a great year. Hopefully he can sustain this for the next few seasons.
So this didn't work out too well, did it?
 

Red(s)HawksFan

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The head scratcher for me in all this Eck-Price stuff has little to do with whatever their beef is. How is it that Eck does his job as color analyst without interacting with the players? For years, I've heard stories from Remy about being at the park hours before the game, popping into the clubhouse, hanging around, and chatting with players and coaches...basically having his finger on the pulse without necessarily getting any closer to the players than any of the beat reporters. You get the same feel from other broadcasters (certainly national guys).

Meanwhile Eck's doing the same job, but in two years he's never had an opportunity to run into Price and hash things out? They had their run-in on the plane and then that's it? Never once had a chance to meet up since then? I'm not talking scheduling time to clear the air, I'm talking passing each other in the hall or in the dugout or somewhere in the park and just stopping for two minutes to say "hey, no hard feelings" or whatever needs to be said.

And it goes both ways. I certainly don't think this is all on Eck. Price is as much to blame. I can't imagine they've both gone two years without at least an opportunity to say something to one another. They've both passed up chances.

Frankly, I don't care if they get along or not, or if they ever settle whatever their issues are. It doesn't change how I view either man. But holy shit, is the entire drama stupid.
 

InsideTheParker

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The reason I am inclined to believe Eck's version of things is Price's use of Twitter (or whatever it was then) to trash David Ortiz while he has still on the Devil Rays. It seems to indicate a habit of mind to attack and try to establish a kind of dominance with words. The "yuck" uttered by Eck in re the performance of Eduardo in AAA is a typical unguarded, spontaneous remark we have come to enjoy from Eckersley. It may have been ill-advised, and perhaps not ideal for a color guy, but there is no reason to believe it was mean-spirited. Eck goes out of his way to appreciate good performances as well.
 

Mueller's Twin Grannies

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The head scratcher for me in all this Eck-Price stuff has little to do with whatever their beef is. How is it that Eck does his job as color analyst without interacting with the players? For years, I've heard stories from Remy about being at the park hours before the game, popping into the clubhouse, hanging around, and chatting with players and coaches...basically having his finger on the pulse without necessarily getting any closer to the players than any of the beat reporters. You get the same feel from other broadcasters (certainly national guys).

Meanwhile Eck's doing the same job, but in two years he's never had an opportunity to run into Price and hash things out? They had their run-in on the plane and then that's it? Never once had a chance to meet up since then? I'm not talking scheduling time to clear the air, I'm talking passing each other in the hall or in the dugout or somewhere in the park and just stopping for two minutes to say "hey, no hard feelings" or whatever needs to be said.

And it goes both ways. I certainly don't think this is all on Eck. Price is as much to blame. I can't imagine they've both gone two years without at least an opportunity to say something to one another. They've both passed up chances.

Frankly, I don't care if they get along or not, or if they ever settle whatever their issues are. It doesn't change how I view either man. But holy shit, is the entire drama stupid.
Simple answer: Eck doesn't want to do that stuff. He's not a Jerry Remy-type personality and never will be. And this may be neither here nor there, but given what's been discussed about Remy over in the media forum it's entirely possible he did all that extra hobnobbing to avoid going home and having to deal with his family's issues. Or maybe because he'd been around the team long enough that he knew a lot of the guys in the clubhouse and forged relationships. Eckersley has been doing commentary for a couple of years now and isn't always on the broadcasts. You also get the sense that he's just kind of aloof and can turn the page as soon as the red light goes off. It's a job that he gets paid to do where he can just mark out over good performances and critique poor ones and probably make some people laugh. But once the broadcast is over, he's out the door. He's kind of a rock star in that regard and I'm willing to bet that, more than anything else, is what left him speechless when Price tore into him on the team plane: no one had ever loudly and publicly disrespected him like that and he didn't know what to do. He may have avoided the meeting for the same reason: not wanting to kill his high-on-life general attitude or have to deal with someone he likely considers beneath his level (as a ballplayer) giving him shit for having an opinion. I'm just armchair psychoanalyzing here and may be completely wrong, but every interview I've ever seen with Eck has left me feeling he's just one of those dudes who doesn't let anything break-a his stride and just reacts in the moment and then moves on.

I think there's an important distinction to be made: Jerry Remy has been a broadcaster for decades and has made it his second career whereas Eck is a talking head who was probably brought in because he's entertaining, unfiltered, and will draw more viewers. It's just a gig for him and when it's over, he'll be onto the next one. For Remy, this job is his life outside of his normal life and all he's really known for a long, long time. Two different mentalities, two different approaches. Neither one is wrong, either, just different.
 

John Marzano Olympic Hero

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I sure am glad that Dan Shaughnessy was able to weigh in on this. The nuance and wit he brought to this incredibly cataclysmic event was incredible and not predictable at all.

And dragging Wade Boggs so that he can complain about how difficult it was for him with the Boston media back* in the day and Price doesn't understand how lucky he is, was just the cherry that this shit sundae needs.

* Which, BTW Wade, was due to you own stupidity and ability to keep it in your pants and going on Barbara Walters and crying for 20 minutes. So yeah, things are different now.
 

lexrageorge

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I think there's an important distinction to be made: Jerry Remy has been a broadcaster for decades and has made it his second career whereas Eck is a talking head who was probably brought in because he's entertaining, unfiltered, and will draw more viewers. It's just a gig for him and when it's over, he'll be onto the next one. For Remy, this job is his life outside of his normal life and all he's really known for a long, long time. Two different mentalities, two different approaches. Neither one is wrong, either, just different.
Agree completely. Remy also started his NESN career as a broadcaster 3 years after his playing days ended. When he started, he had played with most of the guys on the team, so it was easy for him to spend time in the clubhouse before and after games and bond with the team during road trips. Being friendly and chatty with the players became part of his MO early on.

Meanwhile, Eck started out as a studio analyst, and so he never had to leave the NESN studio to do his thing. By the time he filled in for Remy on the broadcasts, few if any of the guys he played with were still playing, and if there were, I doubt any were on the Red Sox.
 

JMDurron

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The incident on the plane was enough to cement my opinion of Price and I wish he played for someone else.

To show someone up in front of the team was unacceptable and it's disappointing that some of the players, including maybe Pedroia, cheered Price on. One of the players should have stood up for Eck and told Price to STFU.

If Price had a problem with Eck he should have pulled him aside and explained why he thought his comment about Rodriguez was unfair.
Eck basically "showed up" Rodriguez to the entire NESN viewing audience, over a rehab start, and that's what started this entire thing. Eck made a typically Eck-ish comment about Rodriguez's rehab start, which was slightly outside of the norm in terms of tone (don't run down a player in your org and just leave it hanging like that on the home broadcast) and lack of context provided (who cares what his stat line was in a "is he healthy enough to pitch" rehab start?). I still love Eck as a color commentator, he entertains me, but it was outside of the norm of what a player in an organization might expect to hear about himself while rehabbing from the home team's broadcast.

We have had some indicators based on previous comments from Alex Cora that there was some active management on his part in working with Rodriguez mentally, and I recall that some of us on SoSH were struck by how atypical it was for a player to be called out in the media by Cora at that time. There is (or at least was) something slightly different about Rodriguez and how the team has seen fit to approach him from a psychological standpoint. It's not a huge leap (although it is not one supported by any explicit evidence) that Price took it on himself to call out Eck in such a way as to make the story from that point onward about David Price vs Eck, as opposed to being about Eck's comment. If he calmly pulls Eck aside and explains why he thought the comment was unfair, even if Eck apologizes for it on the air the next day, the story is still all about Rodriguez and how poorly his rehab stint went statistically. If there's even a chance that doing this aided Rodriguez in either the short term or the long term from a performance standpoint, then it was a solid move as a teammate, and one that we may have unknowingly reaped the benefits of as fans.

If the players on the team saw Price as sticking up for one of *them*, why on Earth would one of them speak up against Price when he called out Eck for (what could be percieved as) slamming a teammate on the broadcast? David Price is obviously not someone who generally holds the sports media in high regard. He's used Twitter to communicate directly with the fans without sports media filtering during at least his time in both Tampa Bay and now Boston. From what accounts I can recall from last season, he is apparently held in high regard as a teammate. The potential scenario above strikes me as entirely consistent with those reported/observed traits of David Price.

With all due respect to Chad Finn, I don't care how David Price treats the media, so long as his teammates are at least content enough with him to not disrupt their ability to perform. It's completely understandable that the local sports media would hold Price in contempt (for which we clearly see evidence of in this thread) as a result of his behavior towards them. I'm not a huge fan of Price's melodramatic response to the Eck quote in Finn's article, and it's certainly not how I'd handle it, but Price strikes me as someone who clearly understands that he is in the entertainment industry while playing sports, and who doesn't seem to care very much about how he is perceived by the public at large.
 

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Eck aptly describes with with a single word a single E-Rod performance, he isn't judging the player.

Price embarrasses himself, cherry picks from a great body of work, makes it into a big deal by attacking Eck's character publicly.

Chad Finn touches on the incident appropriately in a few words, placing it in a much larger context.

EEI embarrasses themselves (as per daily), cherry picking the few words and making a big deal out of them.

Price embarrasses himself by making more, and deeper, personal remarks about Eck.

I think you can see who I've decided are the good and bad guys.