Going Gets Tough, Beckett Gets Angry

 

 

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By CHARLIE NOBLES

Published: May 29, 2005

MIAMI, May 28 - When you've become a World Series most valuable player at age 23, thrown a fastball 97 miles an hour and periodically inspired comparisons to Roger Clemens, a legendary fellow Texan, you enter the world of the Florida Marlins right-hander Josh Beckett. You begin to understand the varied forces pulling on him these days.

 

 

In Beckett's mind, there is no place for failure. And when failure occasionally happens, as it inevitably does, he has difficulty dealing with it. Thus far this season, on at least two occasions, he has swung a bat in anger at objects after disappointing performances. He has also lashed out at opponents at least twice for perceived insults.

 

The most recent episode was last Tuesday against the Philadelphia Phillies. In the sixth inning, Beckett became indignant when Phillies outfielder Kenny Lofton flipped his bat after Beckett walked him. Beckett had words with Lofton as the teams' benches emptied onto the field.

 

Beckett said he didn't like the way Lofton threw the bat. The Marlins' pitching coach, Mark Wiley, went to the mound to tell him Lofton had been flipping his bat that way for years. Marlins Manager Jack McKeon had a more animated conversion with Beckett about it once he left the game.

 

"I got hot with him," McKeon said. "Why should you pay attention to that stuff? Pay attention to what you're going to do to get the next guy out. You can't let little things like that bother you. You do and then they snowball. Then you lose control."

 

The 25-year-old Beckett - who faces Tom Glavine in Sunday's finale of a four-game series with the Mets at Dolphins Stadium - is somewhat repentant about the incident.

 

"Sometimes I'm my own worst enemy," he said. "It gets back to wasted energy. I need to just focus on the things I can control. After something happens, you can't control it. It's over. I have a real hard time with that - just turning the page."

 

Beckett remains adamant, however, that the Mets' Victor Diaz tried "to show me up" in an April 21 game. Diaz trotted out of the batter's box as he watched a long fly bounce off the wall instead of go for a home run.

 

"I have more career wins - which is not saying much - than he has career home runs, so how do you give up and it not even go out?" Beckett said of Diaz's downshifting into a home run trot.

 

Discussing the incident made Beckett think of Paul O'Neill, the former Yankees outfielder. Beckett said he liked the way O'Neill would put his head down and simply run hard no matter if it was a home run or not.

 

"I'd rather give up five home runs to a guy like Paul O'Neill rather than give up one to somebody who doesn't respect the game," Beckett said.

 

But, he was told, some might ask who appointed Beckett as the game's guardian.

 

"I'm protecting myself," he said without hesitation. "I don't want to be shown up. That's also protecting the game. Nobody wants to be shown up. If I strike someone out, I'm not going to ... heck, I don't even know how you would act to show somebody up, because I've never done it."

 

Though McKeon stresses that Beckett is making significant progress toward living up to the comparisons to Clemens, he acknowledges that Beckett's competitive fires become blazes a little too often for his comfort.

 

On May 1, after a poor outing in Philadelphia, Beckett took a bat and beat it against a wall in the tunnel leading from the dugout to the clubhouse.

 

"I was just testing its durability," he sheepishly told The Palm Beach Post about his bat. "I wasn't sure how strong it was. A concrete wall usually tests it pretty quick."

 

Twelve days later in San Diego, unhappy again with his performance, Beckett showed his temper once more. He threw a cup of water, meaning for it to hit the dugout wall. Instead, it doused the Marlins' president, David Samson, sitting nearby in the stands.

 

Beckett then turned his rage on something called a T-Sock, a device for taking batting practice in tight quarters. He said he was merely "modifying" it with a bat.

 

"It's better now, don't you think so, Trean?" Beckett said Thursday, referring to catcher Matt Treanor. Nevertheless, the Padres sent him a bill for the damage.

 

Beckett said it had just been his way of letting off steam after a less-than-desirable performance. "I can't let it build up," he said. "It's not like it's premeditated. I just spend a lot of energy beating myself up over things."

 

McKeon has been trying to convince him that there is a better way. He seems confident that Beckett, 6-3 this season with a 2.63 earned run average, is destined for an even more distinguished career.

 

"He's a cocky kid, and you can't take that away from him," McKeon said.

 

"He's a good kid. And at times you don't want him to lose that fiery attitude. But one thing I've tried to tell him is, if you can have self-control on the mound, you need to have self-control off the mound. If you can't have it off the mound, then you're going to have the same emotions on the mound."

nice to see Samson getting drenched

 

you know where Josh was really aiming

I personally don't believe him that he wasn't aiming for Samson. He has anger problems, and he should have made such a big deal out of the Lofton incident. Whenever we see that he gets mad, the catcher, Wiley, and Jack have to come out and calm him down. I don't want Josh to get known for having a bad temper.

 

Whenever he gets mad he just has to say to himself: "GOOS FRABA"-Anger Management (LOL)

Good

 

I'm glad he gets pissed when he doesn't do well.

Oh, for the love of God... or should I say for the love of the game! In this time and age of the "anger management" crap and political correctness bs, are we now starting to forget that all of us have a temper? Now we are making it sound like the kid has an anger problem, rage is getting the best of him, he can't control himself... blah, blah, blah... All of that is just another way of celebrating mediocrity and the dissapearance of human emotions. Roger Clements flipped a bat at Piazza, he threw a fastball 2 inches away from Cabrera's nose in game 4 of the WS, does he have a temper problem? Randy Johnson will make you scream like a girl if you take up too much of the plate, Pedro Martinez will make you lie flat even if you are 80 years old... are we to say they all have temper problems? They all have tempers allright... but that's part of whom they are. And people respect them. It's like you need to be sorry of all your actions even before you do something. Tell that to Ty Cobb, Bob Gibson or Koufax... the great players don't give a s***... intimidation should be part of the game. The journalist who wrote this pice of garbage obviously has never played baseball before... he might think it is the equivalent of synchronized dancing but just on the ground... :thumbdown

He should get pissed when he doesn't pitch well. I wouldn't mind him disemboweling fans if he has a bad outing if it helps him concentrate.

Its funny to hear about the things he destroys or throws in his rage.....as long as he isn't hurting anyone or himself.

He threw a cup of water, meaning for it to hit the dugout wall. Instead, it doused the Marlins' president, David Samson, sitting nearby in the stands.

 

:lol :lol :lol :notworthy Josh is my new hero.

It's good to see he gets angry when he plays bad, it will motivate him to do better.

Last year Beckett used to scream so much bad words into his glove after a rough inning. I noticed he doesnt do it much this year or not even at all.

Last year Beckett used to scream so much bad words into his glove after a rough inning. I noticed he doesnt do it much this year or not even at all.

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He did it yesterday.

Last year Beckett used to scream so much bad words into his glove after a rough inning. I noticed he doesnt do it much this year or not even at all.

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He did it yesterday.

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Yeah thats were i got the Idea from when posting because i wasnt so sure he did it i just saw him put the glove in his mouth for like a fraction of a second

If he has to throw these tantrums atleast we know he has enough sense to hit a concrete wall with a bat, not his fist. Last thing we need is for him to pull a Kevin Brown and go on the DL with a shattered hand.

 

hopefully though his temper is something that he'll get under control with more maturity.

Maybe Josh thought that when Lofton flipped the bat, it indicated that Lofton expected a ball and not a strike. That could rub any pitcher the wrong way. And it's kinda stupid that the whole Phillies team marched out there on the field. They are the ones who should've been yelled at.