Someone should’ve told Carl Crawford that only the strong and the productive survive in Boston.
Add the Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder to a substantial list of athletes who have signed hefty contracts and failed to live up to it. But there’s a big difference in floundering while attached to a big contract in Toronto or Los Angeles like Vernon Wells can attest to, and doing so in ravenous media markets like Boston or New York.
Crawford failed miserably for two years with the Boston Red Sox after signing a 7-year $142-million contract. He was traded last season to the Dodgers and is looking forward to a new start but he’ll never forget the way he was treated in Boston by the media says Dan Knobler of CBS Sports.
“It just wasn’t the right place for me at the end of my day. I didn’t do my homework. Maybe they didn’t, either.
“That smile turned upside down quick,” Crawford said. “I think they want to see that in Boston. They love it when you’re miserable…”
“I feel like I’ve got a lot of baseball left,” he said. “But over there, I felt like my career was almost over.”
“I took so much of a beating in Boston, I don’t think anything could bother me anymore,” he said. “They can say what they want — that I’m the worst free agent ever — and it won’t get to me. But it bothered me the whole time there.”
When he played for Tampa Bay, Crawford was amongst the best players in the game, hopefully he’s past all the injuries and maybe the sunny climate in Los Angeles will restore his ability to play baseball at a high level, or at least Magic Johnson will be hoping so.