Boston Red Sox John Lackey Lashes out at Media, and for Good Cause

It's been a terrible season for John Lackey. I've documented it along with numerous other members of the media. Lackey has not pitched well or with any sort of consistency.

Last night certainly started in a familiar manner for Lackey as a walk, a single, a double and an error contributed to the Sox finding themselves in a 3-0 hole entering the second inning. Rather than allowing that rough inning to cascade into a series of bad innings, Lackey battled back. It was exactly the type of pitcher the Red Sox thought they were getting when they signed him for more than $80 million back in December of 2009. 

Following the game Lackey lashed out at the media. Lashing out at the media is nothing new in sports. It's been common since there was media. There are times when these sorts of outbursts aren't really warranted. Sometimes a player just like anyone other person in the world will choose to take out frustrations on people who aren't really the root cause of the problem that is causing the frustration. 

Last night was not one of those times. Unless you are of the opinion that John Lackey is a total liar (I for one am not,) then you've got to feel for him a bit. It seems that about a half hour before the first pitch of what was probably his biggest start to date in a Red Sox uniform, he received a text from a member of the media which revealed personal non-baseball issues were about to become news. 

I'm all for taking players, coaches, and owners to task for performance and strategy related issues. I also think if a serious crime has been committed then that's worthy of coverage as well.

I'm not big on divorce and family illness though. It's just a low blow.

I think most of us as fans realize that being a sports star does involve dealing with some things that most of us don't deal with. In general most people don't have their jobs evaluated and assessed by millions of people in public forums on a daily basis. A bad day or night at work for most people is just that. It can be forgotten the next day and it's over.

For a professional athlete the criticism can last for days, or even weeks. That's part of the game though. They get paid a ton of money and no job is perfect. 

Family issues should be off-limits though. This isn't Manny Ramirez beating his wife.

John Lackey is going through a divorce. It's something that millions of families go through every year and for most families it's a major issue. The details of Lackey's personal issues with his wife really aren't our business. Yes, the information is out there but from a "need to know" perspective this isn't really anything for fans or media to be keeping up with. 

Is it impacting his pitching? Maybe it is? We don't really know and writing about it won't solve the problem. If you want to critique Lackey's pitching or his demeanor or even his contract, then those are all fair game.

He's just a baseball player though. He's not a politician preaching and voting for family values and then leaving his wife. That's called "hypocrisy," and this is just a divorce.