Beckett can't have it both ways. Either he was hurt enough to be resting or healthy enough to be playing golf. And if he was healthy enough to be playing golf, he should have volunteered to pitch instead of entrusting a 6-hour game to Darnell Freaking McDonald. All that said, it doesn't matter. The Sox are irrevocably broken. This is just another detail in a pathetic overall story.

The stats tell the story. And the data points that JB's performance is on the decline and beer, chicken or golf have nothing to do with it.

Beckett got his money, what does he care. The Red Sox got a serious PR problem. People really don't like this team. Ticket sale for next year will be affected if fans don't perceived changes from management.

JD Drew left; John Lackey and Daisuke Matsuzaka are unavailable, so a new official Red Sox whipping boy was urgently required, and Beckett had always shown potential in that way. Aside from the comedy value of sports reporters giving etiquette lessons to the people they always wanted to be, what exactly does this sort of tut-tutting accomplish?

Maybe. Maybe not. I guess you don't believe there is any mental or motivational aspect of sports. I strongly disagree. Call it heart...concentration...attitude...whatever. There ARE intangibles involved. Beckett (and many of his mates) just don't get that. They all need to get their heads in the game. I'd just like to think they cared about winning as much as having a good time. Too many on this team seem to think they have accomplished something just by virtue of their inflated salaries and have nothing to prove...no need to win any more. They simply don't care enough to give it their all. I just want them to be bothered at least as much as the fans that they're losing like this. They ought to be embarrassed.

Are the players answers to the press impolitic? Yes. (Isn't that what every reporter wants? Hell yes!!) A PR professional would help somewhat on image. But I can't help but think the ongoing micro examination of these players has gotten out of hand. Baseball is not football. It is long, and slow. It needs space and time. The intensity that rewards football performance often strangles baseball players. It is far more psychological than physical. For all our congratulatory baseball acumen in Boston, we mistakenly worship football players in baseball player unifiorms. Trot Nixon, Butch Hobson. The list is long. We despise the soft flakiness of the Manny Ramirez's - yet it is their ability to filter out everything that allows them to bat in the 8th or 9th inning - and not choke. There would be no 2004 world series win without a team of these "idiots" that we historically don't like in Boston. We tolerate them when they win, and run them out of town when the inevitable slip-ups occur.

What is he, the President of the United States? Playing both golf and baseball, I know that those are completely different motions, so if he felt he wasn't going to exacerbate his injury, then I'll believe him. That's one thing I can't stand about the nation. Don't ever boo your own players, especially the ones that brought you a championship in the last five years (see game 5, 2007 ALCS). They booed him at opening day and I was horrified. I'm starting to understand why Ted Williams spit on every bag in Fenway when he hit 400 home runs.

Don't we all do whatever we want on a day off?

Just because someone's a good baseball player (or a good anything, for that matter), doesn't mean he's a nice or even a decent guy. Prima donnas aren't team players and there's not much that can be done to change that.