We’re less than two weeks into the 2017 MLB season, and we’ve already got a nice feud boiling.
This one comes to us from the AL East, where the Red Sox have been hit hard by a flu bug. That’s dominated the coverage recently, including when broadcaster Dave O’Brien had to leave the booth mid-game due to symptoms.
Buck Showalter is apparently a little tired of hearing about this. He said as much last night:
“I don’t know where we are with the flu today,” Showalter said. “I haven’t gotten updated by [head athletic trainer Richie Bancells]. Everybody in the league has had that issue. I’ve had it and it’s a different strain, I’ll tell you. It lingers for a long time.
“Some of them seem to be a little more noteworthy, it seems like, but our guys have fought their way through it. I know we’ve got a lot of guys that aren’t 100 percent with it, but so do a lot of clubs. So nobody really wants to hear somebody else complain about it. Our guys have done a good job not broadcasting it to the world.”
Showalter is generally fairly intelligent, and this seems to be a combination of mild annoyance at the Boston media machine talking nonstop about a legitimate team health issue and an attempt at riling things up a bit ahead of an early-season series. His comments have done just that, leading to a few hot takes like this one from CSN NE’s Evan Drelich:
Showalter’s a calculated man, usually.
The only thing the 60-year-old does on accident is forget to use the best reliever in the majors, Zach Britton, in a win-or-go home playoff game.
(Perhaps Showalter had the flu last October and felt a little dazed, but was too noble to say anything?)
Sick burn, Evan. He continued:
Sox president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski has nothing but experience in this game. He can’t remember something like this in his 40-plus years in baseball.
The Red Sox have had players quarantined. Quarantined!
Yes, what possible sense of Boston exceptionalism might Showalter be chafing against after spending the better part of a decade in the AL East?
The final piece to Showalter’s puzzle is likely a form of motivation for his own clubhouse; if indeed the Orioles have been dealing with some flu of their own, having your manager declare to the world that you’re tougher than a division rival going through a similar issue (similar according to Showalter, not according to me) would be welcome.
For neutral fans, though, this is great! It’s only April, and there’s already a nice potential for random hot-tempered episodes when these teams play. This is the exact kind of thing where, when a brawl breaks out in August, analysts will say “Of course this goes back to April, when Buck Showalter took a swipe at the Red Sox over flu talk.”
A good season-long simmer is the best way to prepare baseball beef.
