you should be ashamed of yourselves (according to foulke apologist)

i just read this lame ass article by tony massarotti regarding foulke's comments following game 2 of the recent indians series (the one with the grand slam in the 9th - as if you had forgotten). the article starts out with this...

we set the expectations absurdly high here, though that is hardly anything new. And then, when our standards are not met, we seem to take great pride in lambasting those who fail to measure up.

is this some kind of joke? this is major league baseball, right? isn't the expectation of having your closer actually close a game within the realm of what would be considered normal? massarotti says foulke "performed even worse" when making comments like "if they don't want me to do the job, tell 'em to go tell management" and "i've done a lot of good for this team. let 'em boo." next massarotti makes up this stuff about how johnny from burger king (read: boo birds) expect foulke to keep his mouth shut and take the heat. truthfully, i don't know of a single fan that is at all concerned with how foulke responds to the boos off the field. we're all a bit more focused on what he does on the field.

for his poor performance in that game, foulke deserved the heat the crowd was giving him, all of it. yes, the strike zone was postage stamp small and the ball was hit to the shallowest part of the stands, but it wouldn't have been a grand slam without the hit and two walks that preceeded it.

it's true foulke did a fansastic job last year and was pivotal in the sox winning the world series, but that was then. all the reminiscing about him being lights out last year won't do us a damn bit of good right now. should he be given some slack for last year's performance? i don't think so. having a bad game is one thing, it's unavoidable, and the stretch of games preceding this one were pitched well. but trying to distract fans from the fact you got your ass handed to you in the top of the 9th by reminding them of past glory seems pretty cheap.
i have faith that foulke will find his form again and as long as he does he can say whatever he wants. he may sound like an idiot doing so, but that's his right.

as for massarotti, i hope his attempt to shame red sox nation, at least that made up segment unhappy with foulke speaking his mind, works.