Personal Responsibility

I was talking with my brothers about the September collapse by the Red Sox for the final time. It's time to move onto 2012, but here's my last comment.

My summary - it comes down to personal responsibility. I know that the concept of someone admitting they were wrong in these days may be like a foreign language to our society. We see examples in everyday life. Criminals caught in the commission of a criminal act plead not guilty. We dishonorably discharge soldiers who carry out orders from their superiors while these superiors go unchallenged. It's a "not me" mentality out there. My parents like my brother better. My girl friend dumped me. It's always someone else must be responsible for my actions.

The Boston Red Sox players are responsible for their lack of preparation & lack of professionalism during their historic September meltdown. It's not Tito, Theo or the strength coach who was let go as a scapegoat. It's the players. Maybe they will be embarassed enough to get the proper work ethic back next year.

As Petey said, we played badly. True. If you work hard & lose, that's one thing. If you lose because you are not prepared to play your best, that's unforgiveable. No one should need to tell a professional player what to do to be ready to play his best. Not to mention the salaries involved.

The player needs to have pride in his own performance not to let his teammates down, not to let the organization down, not to let the fans down. Unfortunately, that's exactly what happened with a few players. That's the problem - no personal responsibility. I'm moving on now.