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The Buck Stops Here
9.19.02: Steve Buckley (SB) calling in to WEEI's Big Show with
Glenn Ordway (GO), Steve DeOssie (SD), and Sean McAdam (SA) -
rough
GO: So were you at the park after
the show yesterday?
SB: I went over to the park in the 4th
5th inning rest of game... walked around the room walked up to
Nomar, said hey, do you have a sec. Talked for about 7
minutes... "I don't want you to think I'm one of those guys
who rips you and doesn't show up"... he said, I know... then
we talked. Not saying anything isn't going to happen a week
from not, or down the road, but you actually diffuse it just
by showing up... I told him 'this is why I wrote what I
wrote'... I hung around (named everyone who was in there to
verify) so anyone else could come up to me... I'm not gonna
run away from anything... I was off last night, I told Kevin
Shea that I was going to walk up to him, not in a threatening
manner like 'see what I wrote' but just to talk about it.
Kevin kind of hung around until he knew it was OK... I would
by lying if I said we had a beer after, but it's not over
(Michael Silverman's piece referenced on trade) I have my own
sources...
GO: Buck has his own sources in
baseball that said they have entertained the possibility of
trading Nomar? Did you hear Larry Lucchino this morning?
SB: I did, and he's smart to say
that. Very intelligent and diplomatic response. But Nomar
has value now that he won't have a year from now.
GO: You wrote in your column that
Nomar called up to Charlie Scoggins and asked to change the
official scorecard....
SB: I screwed that up... I screwed
that up. No call was made by Nomar
SM: It's rare that a player himself
contacts official scorer... they say something to Kevin Shea
who goes to Charlie or Joe G. and say 'hey Nomar had a
question about that.'
SB: That's the way it was posed to me
(direct call), but I'll take blame... but I do have other
instances (of his requesting scorecard change), but I'll move
on...
GO: But you were wrong in reporting it
that way...
SB: He's got rabbit ears about scoring
changes... but re: the item in paper, I was incorrectly
informed on that. And I was absolutely at Fenway last night,
and I wanted to make that clear. You hang around, and move on.
SB: I just walked up and said hey Nomar... he said 'ohhhh'
looked down at locker, nothing remotely (aggressive), no
fingers in the chest, very professional encounter.
Gammons on Nomar Day on WEEI's
'The Big Show':
"It was a little overdone in my
opinion... NESN 'And now you've heard the truth'... c'mon.
It was almost like there was a big sponsorship or a contract was
up (Nomar's day)...
Beanetown?: "If Hoffman sells his
half, Billy thinks that frees him up. When he was here in Boston
(and we were down the Cape) he couldn't believe the incredible
knowledge of the talk show callers as opposed to hearing nine
Raiders' calls, seven 49'ers calls, and one call about warm beer
at the A's game"
Lucky Stars
Larry Lucchino: "There's been no discussion about trading Nomar
Garciaparra."
John Dennis: "Anybody who is even slightly
attuned with what's happening at Fenway Park and this baseball
team would have hard time disagreeing with the fact that you have
three special players on this team, and I mean special players on
this team, in Nomar, Pedro, and Manny. I'm wondering if their
presence on this team jives with your financial plan for the
immediate, intermediate, and long-term goals of this club Larry?"
Larry Lucchino: "Yes (without hesitation).
(JD: They do?) Yes, we've planned to retain the players that we
have, we've anticipated that. That doesn't mean that our payroll
is going to grow exponentially every year, it just means that you
try to build around your core players and supplement them, but
what you want to avoid doing is paying gigantic $6-7-8 million
contracts to players that don't contribute, which is exactly what
happened to us this year, and blew our payroll all out of
proportion." |
