Bobby Valentine (AP)

Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine joined the Dennis & Callahan show Wednesday morning to discuss his team and the first five games of the 2012 season. With the Red Sox at 1-4 and coming off a loss to the Blue Jays, the Sox are looking to right the ship and improve what they have struggled with thus far in the season.

“We just haven’t put it all together yet,” Valentine said. “When we put it all together, I think we’ll all be happy. That’s what we’re waiting for.”

Things got slightly contentious later in the interview when Valentine was asked about criticism from former Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling last month. Valentine had previously dismissed what Schilling said — saying “Consider the source” to reporters in response — and Valentine said he and Schilling have spent time with each other, even as recent as spring training. However, Valentine said that doesn’t mean Schilling has an accurate feel of this Red Sox team.

“I think he knows a lot about baseball, and I did hang around with him a bit,” Valentine said. “I don’t think he knows anything about our team.”

Following is a transcript of the conversation. To hear the interview, go to the Dennis & Callahan audio on demand page.

As someone who has very strong opinions and is willing to share those opinions with anyone who will listen, how do you avoid saying in something that can get you in hot water like Ozzie Guillen?

I have no idea.

Do you think the Ozzie thing was handled appropriately by the Marlins?

I haven’t followed it totally. It seems like a situation that, you know … I don’t know how to comment on Ozzie’s situation. I hope he comes out of it OK. Ozzie and I have been friends for years and I hate to think that it’s a big problem, but it looks like it is a big problem.

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Curt Schilling

Former Red Sox pitcher and current ESPN analyst Curt Schilling called into the Dennis & Callahan show on Thursday morning to discuss the Bobby Valentine hiring. While some in town were excited by  the choice, Schilling said he was more surprised than anything that the Red Sox chose Valentine as their next manager.

“This one was just a stunning one for me,” Schilling said. “I didn’t see the fit. Personality-wise, Bobby’s a different bird. … He’s a different animal. He’s a smart guy. I had a chance to work with him this year at ESPN. He’s got some very interesting takes on managing. It just caught me off guard because when I think about the baseball ops people and what they want to do and how they want to do it here, I just didn’t see him being the guy that was on their list.”

Valentine is known as a manager who is not afraid to ruffle some feathers. While managing the Mets in 1999, Valentine was ejected from a game for arguing a catcher interference call, so he returned to the dugout later in the game in a fake mustache disguise. Valentine guided the Mets to some of their most successful seasons at the turn of the millenium. He was also responsible for an epic collapse in 2002 in which the Mets went 6-21 in August and 14-14 in September to finish last in the NL East. Valentine was fired after the season, and there were reports after the collapse of inappropriate behavior in the clubhouse during the season, something that may currently be too familiar to Red Sox fans.

Schilling said that while he was encouraged by Valentine’s proven ability to handle a big market in New York, he was concerned about the way Valentine’s career ended with the Mets.

“We all know that Boston is different than every place else,” Schilling said. “It’s not about just getting the team on the field and playing hard. There’s a lot of other things that come with managing here. I think Bobby is equipped to handle it. He’s done it in New York. But there’s a lot of questions around the fact that this is exactly why Bobby ended up leaving the Mets job. The thing that happened here this year happened in New York.”

Following are more highlights from the conversation. To hear the interview, go to the Dennis & Callahan audio on demand page. Read the rest of this entry »

Curt Schilling

Former Red Sox pitcher and current ESPN analyst Curt Schilling called into The Big Show to discuss the conditioning issues that impacted the 2011 Red Sox and that ultimately contributed to the firing of strength and conditioning coach Dave Page this week. Schilling suggested that the issue had little to do with Page.

“He is as honorable and as hard-working a man as I have ever been around in sports,” Schilling said of Page. “He’s absolutely a casualty of what these players did.

“This was a guy who would lose sleep at night when we lost games,” Schilling, whose working relationship with Page dates to when both were with the Diamondbacks. “Dave Page has absolutely zero responsibility for this.”

Instead, the former All-Star said, the issue was one that reflected directly upon Red Sox players.

“You can’t instill pride and integrity in people. It’s something you’re born with. You have to have it,” said Schilling. “The thing that sickens me is we’re talking about grown men. They have a responsibility and an accountability first of all to their families, to the team, to the organization and to the fans. It clearly didn’t motivate these guys when they were going through the worst collapse in the history of the game last year to change anything. … There’s a personal accountability piece that is unbelievably lacking.”

Schilling suggested that it is critical for the Sox to bring in another player who will force his teammates to remain accountable. He cited the influence of Orlando Cabrera, who was able to get through to teammate Manny Ramirez in 2004 after the Sox acquired Cabrera at the trade deadline.

Asked if the Sox could address the conditioning issues without getting rid of the players who were responsible for them, Schilling said, “Only if you bring in a game-changing presence in that clubhouse. It’s a player. Read the rest of this entry »

Curt Schilling

Former Red Sox pitcher and current ESPN Baseball Tonight analyst Curt Schilling appeared on Planet Mikey to speculate on the Red Sox manager search and share his thoughts on the prospect of former teammate and coach Dale Sveum getting the managing job in Boston.

“I don;t know the other candidates,” Schilling said. “I just know that Sveum is a guy … he will manage in the big leagues someday. He will get a multi-year big league job at some point because he has that kind of presence and he’s a smart, smart guy.”

Schilling played with Sveum in 1992, when Schilling was beginning to break out in Philadelphia and Sveum was a reserve player in the twilight of his career for the Phillies. Sveum worked as the third base coach for the Red Sox in 2004-05, when Schilling was an ace for Boston in the last years of his career.

Schilling said that Sveum would be a great fit as the Red Sox new manager because of his experience in Boston and his personality.

“He’s not a guy that wants to be out in front and wants people to understand that his team won because of his managing job,” Schilling said. “He’s a guy that goes about his job quietly and does his job professionally. … The players that played around him respected him, and he got more out of his teammates as a bench player and a reserve guy. There are not a lot of guys that can do that.”

Following are more highlights of the conversation. To listen to the interview, go to the Planet Mikey audio on demand page. Read the rest of this entry »

Curt Schilling

Former Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling called in to the Mut & Merloni show Monday to discuss the news that Jon Lester acknowledged there was drinking in the clubhouse during games this season, although Lester downplayed the situation and insisted it had nothing to do with the September collapse.

“I mentioned something last week that I had talked to a couple of people that I’m very comfortable [with], are being up front and honest about this. And the one message I got was that Jon Lester never stopped busting his ass to the bitter end from a work perspective,” Schilling said.  “Unfortunately, I asked that when you think about his September, his final run of starts, you just have to attribute that to just lackluster performance. I was kind of hoping that wasn’t the case.

“But as far as Jon goes, I’m happy that the kid I knew, and the young man that I knew, wasn’t kind of dragged into this.”

Schilling said it’s not uncommon for pitchers to have a beer in the locker room after being lifted from a game. But if pitchers were exhibiting that behavior on days they weren’t pitching, that crosses a line.

“I was more concerned that this was something that was happening around guys just because. They were going up and having a beer in the clubhouse,” Schilling said. “I think for some of these guys that’s exactly what it was. But I would bet you that when it had to do with Jon Lester, the beer he was having was after he was out of a game. And given how they pitched in September, there might have been more than one beer.”

Asked if Josh Beckett should be next to come forward and explain his behavior, Schilling said all the pitchers should.

“I think they all have to. I don’t know how you get away from [it],” he said. “I mean, you were directly responsible for the largest collapse in baseball history as one of the pitchers that went down on the ship. As the leader of that staff, I think absolutely, he’s one of the two guys that absolutely has to.

“In my mind, there’s only one way to do this. It’s to sit in front of the media and say, ‘Listen, this is what happened. It’s horrific. It was stupid. I made a bunch of mistakes on top of other mistakes. It cost us a chance to go to the playoffs. It cost our manager his job. And I’m sorry. And I’m going to do everything I can do to make up [for it].’ Unless it’s a complete mea culpa, I don’t know that there’s any other path here, especially for these fans.”

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Curt Schilling

Former Red Sox pitcher and ESPN baseball analyst Curt Schilling joined the Dennis & Callahan show Thursday morning to share his thoughts on an article published Wednesday outing some of the gory details of the Red Sox failed season.

Schilling, who sounded emotional when addressing the current Red Sox players’ silence in the wake of the reports, said he thinks the players need to start taking responsibility for their actions that led to the worst September collapse in baseball history.

“My biggest fear is that one or more players is going to come out and try to defend what’s happened instead of just doing a mea culpa and saying, ‘You know what? Wow was this wrong. Wow did we screw this guy. Wow did we cost you. I don’t know if there’s anything we can say or do to make this up, but we’ll do everything,’” Schilling said. “I don’t see anything other than that. Otherwise you can’t come back.”

Schilling said he was especially hurt and disturbed by accusations made about Terry Francona, and he even went so far as to say Francona may have the makings of a slander lawsuit on his hands because of statements made by anonymous sources about a pain-killer issue.

“I wonder legally whether he has recourse because the team trainer, the team doctor and the ownership, the executive people on this team I would imagine are the only people with enough knowledge of Tito’s medicinal habits to make that comment, to have that news out there,” Schilling said. “This was somebody out to ruin this guy’s life. Because now, I look at this almost like I look at a sexual harassment case. It doesn’t matter if he did it or not. He’s going to have to answer questions about this for the rest of his life.”

Schilling also called out Josh Beckett and Jon Lester for their behavior and condemned the leaders of the team for allowing their teammates to act irresponsibly.

Following is a transcript of the conversation. To hear the interview, go to the Dennis & Callahan audio on demand page. Read the rest of this entry »

Curt Schilling

Former Red Sox pitcher and current ESPN baseball analyst Curt Schilling joined Dennis & Callahan Tuesday morning for his weekly appearance. Schilling talked about the Red Sox’ chances of making the playoffs, as well as who is to blame for the September collapse and who will be back next year should Boston miss the postseason.

“I think more of it’s on Theo [Epstein] than Tito [Terry Francona],” Schilling said. “The environment around what they’re doing now, the guy managing this team is the only guy that can keep them together. I would argue that with another manager in this position right now, you’d have some in-fighting, some big time in-fighting going on right now given what they’re going through.”

Both Epstein and Francona have received considerable criticism for Boston’s historically bad September. Epstein has been hammered for overpaying for players who have underperformed in Boston, while Francona has been criticized for simply allowing the collapse to happen as manager. Schilling said that he would not be surprised if neither were back next year if the Red Sox complete their collapse and miss the playoffs.

“I could see a scenario where neither the general manager nor the manager was here next year,” Schilling said. “One of them by his own choice and the other one by being associated with [the collapse]. Again, I think firing Tito would be the ultimate mistake. I think you’d have to start all over here with this group of players and a new manager.”

Following are more highlights from the conversation. To hear the interview, go to the Dennis & Callahan audio on demand page.

On who will step up and lead Boston to the playoffs: “Starting pitcher, that’s it, that’s the only person that can do this. One of their starting pitchers and is going to take the ball and throw a one-hit game through eight innings. This is the exact reason I said what I said last week [that Boston would miss playoffs]. I could not see one of their pitchers doing this job in the last ten days, just from a mindset perspective.”

On if Baltimore having nothing to lose hurts the Red Sox’ chances: “This is the worst possible opponent you can possibly have. You’d rather be playing Tampa right now, honestly. The hard part is they had a run-in earlier in the year where everything’s now coming back to fruition, things are coming back to haunt them a little bit. I remember Kevin Gregg making some comments. And you know what? When you’re in last place, that’s the kind of stuff that motivates you.”

On Erik Bedard’s and John Lackey’s recent pre-game distractions: “The guys that I played with, those things always caused them to throw shutouts and throw four hits. Those were never, ‘This is why we’re doing bad.’ That fear of failure thing, you just push yourself to a level you didn’t have. Make no mistake about it, if you watch the way [Monday's Red Sox game] was played and the way Tampa is playing, they’re in the playoffs right now. Every pitch, every out, every move, every ball is October baseball right now. And I just can’t fathom that they have not been able to find a way.”