Few have fallen faster in fans' eyes than Josh Beckett has in Boston.
A big reason why the Red Sox won the title in 2007, Beckett was booed off the mound last Thursday in a loss to Cleveland in which he gave up seven runs in 2 1/3 innings at home to an offense that nobody will mistake with the 1927 Yankees.
The pitching performance wasn't the real reason fans were fuming. They were mad because Beckett went golfing the day after being scratched from a start because of a strained latissimus muscle (the largest in his back). And that came after last year's sideshow, when Beckett and his pitching buddies would reportedly spend games in the locker room drinking beer, eating fried chicken and playing video games.
Fans weren't the only ones who took their gloves off. Yahoo! Sports' Jeff Passan was vicious in his criticism:
"They took the beer out of the clubhouse, but nothing changed. They switched the man in the manager's office, but he's no better. The rot in the Boston Red Sox organization runs too deep for cosmetic upgrades, and nobody better personifies it than Josh Beckett, the clueless, defiant egomaniac who's poisoning another Red Sox season."
Beckett was back on the mound Tuesday against the Seattle Mariners, and performed like he got the message. He threw seven shutout innings on his 32nd birthday as the hot-and-cold Red Sox won their fifth in a row.
Bobby Valentine called him the "king of the hill." Skeptics might call him king of the day. It was against the Mariners, the worst hitting team in baseball last season. It's a step forward, but the Red Sox have made a habit of following those up with two steps backward.
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