Defensive Indifference

We interrupt your regularly scheduled steroid rant to bring you a story that has nothing to do with needles or Roger Clemens’ bum. You know, the kind of story that makes you smile and laugh and reminds you why baseball is great. We apologize for this inconvenience.

You may recall that there was a bit of a scandal in Boston in 2004 when first baseman Doug Mientkiewicz made off with the World Series ball for the Red Sox’s first championship in 86 years. There were negotiations, threats of litigation and more before the ball finally came to rest (on loan) in Cooperstown.

Well there was a similar scandal this year, but maybe because it was the first World Series in four years instead of 86, people in Boston just didn’t care as much. First it was Jason Varitek who had it. Then it was psycho closer Jonathan Papelbon. Then no one. Then everyone … seemed to … stop … caring? Well, the mystery no one was monitoring anyway was solved by the Hattiesburg American in Papelbon’s home state of Mississippi. Turns out Papelbon does have the ball … or what’s left of it:

“My dog ate it,” said Papelbon, who has a home in the Canebrake subdivision.

“He plays with baseballs like they are his toys. His name is Boss. He jumped up one day on the counter and snatched it. He likes rawhide. He tore that thing to pieces. Nobody knows that. I’ll keep what’s left of it.”

I guess the Red Sox could get all mad at Papelbon like they did at Minky, but I highly doubt they will because if Jon Papelbon isn’t actually insane (and I mean that in the best way possible), he seems to do a great job of trying to convince the entire world that he is. I mean, in the story’s accompanying picture he’s wearing his own game jersey while he hangs out in his house — a move I don’t think I’ve seen any other pro athlete pull off. He also talks about doing the tango for his next dance and getting tipsy off of glasses of milk.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 19th, 2007 at 5:04 am and is filed under Video, Lunatics, Red Sox. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.