David Ortiz: Boston Is "Becoming The Shithole It Used To Be"

On Sunday, Buster Olney called the Red Sox clubhouse "toxic." Just dropped it in a notes column like it was no big thing. He followed up the next day with a little more detail:

The unhappiness that exists among the Boston players and staff is multilayered and deep. Calls and texts and complaints about daily events and exchanges are being sprayed all over the baseball landscape as some involved share their frustration with friends and family and agents. Some already are talking about looking for work elsewhere down the road.

Short on specific details, long on implications. Everyone hates everyone. Yup, sounds like the Red Sox! It might've been ignored, if David Ortiz hadn't addressed it today in ear-grabbingly profane terms. Peter Abraham reports he was set off by questions about his contract, but Ortiz took the opportunity to air some grievances.

CSN New England has video, and the Highlights:

"I'm just tired of dealing with the drama here. This is baseball, man...We're supposed to have fun, to have our performance out there at the highest level. Every day is something new, some drama, some more shit. I'm tired of that, man. I'm here to play baseball, man."

Are you having fun, David?

"Not really. Too much shit, man. Too much shit."

More:

"It's becoming to be the shithole it used to be. Look around, bro. Look around. Playing here used to be so much fun. Now, every day is something new, not related to baseball. People need to leave us alone, play ball and do what we know how to do."

Bobby Valentine offered that reporters might have caught Ortiz "on a bad day." Ah, but this and has always been what passes for baseball in Boston: loose lips and terminally sinking ships and sharks with recorders and notepads just circling, drooling. The Red Sox clubhouse provides no shortage of back page tinder, which leads to the media frenzy, which makes players unhappy and leads to the next blowup. It's like an asshole snake eating its tail, every fricking year. You don't like it? Should have stayed in Minnesota, or just don't re-sign next year. Which sounds more and more likely with each passing s-bomb.