Josh Beckett, in a lengthy interview with WEEI.com's Rob Bradford, said he will not apologize for being distracted from baseball by the birth of his first child. The Sox ace—who was 13-7 with a 2.89 ERA in 2011—stated that family is now a clear priority over baseball in his life. Frankly, no one can argue with this approach. Family and children should be the focus of everyone's life. Beckett stated:"If somebody reads this or somebody thinks I'm wrong, they can go [expletive] themselves. That's the truth. That's what's important to me. I'm not saying baseball is not important. I could differentiate on the day I was pitching. I went out there and I was still as competitive. I'm not saying my mind was only focused on just this pitch because I did have other things on my mind. Whether you want to understand that or not, I don't care because I know who I am and what I'm trying to do."
Of course, on the other hand, we all deal with family distractions and manage to carry out our jobs in a professional manner—as best we can. Having said that, most of us are only a car ride and minutes away from getting to the birth of a child—Beckett (who had a private plane on standby for a flight to Boston) had far more complicated logistics.
Beckett also defends the time he spends between pitches—especially against the Yankees—and, to be fair, he was 4-0 against the Empire in 2011. Beckett stated:
"My side was: What is pitching? Pitching is upsetting the timing of hitting. What is hitting? Hitting is timing the pitcher. So for me, instead of standing on the rubber already and waiting for their whole walk-up song, [expletive] it. I can play the waiting game."
Can't really argue with that. The bottom line is that Josh Beckett is still Josh Beckett. He's not going to change his style, his pitching or his body type for us. As long as helps the Red Sox win, and abides by the new rules, that's fine with us.