Tonight's Red Sox this Week program with Dan Roche featured half an hour with Jonathan Papelbon. I will give props to Dan Roche-he never really struck me as a journalist but it was a very nicely constructed interview; there was a nice combination of serious questions and fluffy questions. There were previewed segments that ended up not being forthcoming but that wasn't necessarily his fault. If there's one thing you can say about Papelbon, though, it's that the man could put probably make Josh Beckett smile if he put his mind to it (he described his World Series ring as a man-engagement ring.)
Highlights:
With the recent hullabaloo in the NY press about Goose Gossage calling Joba Chamberlain out for displaying too much emotion on the mound, it was a natural thing to ask Papelbon about. Papelbon is, for the most part, okay with celebrating; as long as your celebration isn't Derek Lowe-esque and it's in proportion to the importance that that out represents for the team and the outcome of the game.
He talked a little bit about being on Letterman and his teammates-how important they are too him, how ribbing each other keeps them close. He, like pretty much everyone else in the world, loves Mike Lowell. And that hideous black lace shirt he wore for Mike Lowell's dance competition? He wouldn't have worn it for anyone else. It also turns out that his wife picked it out for him. Which does bring up a concern about his wife's fashion sense (I think I remember a picture of her in a stole). Or maybe she was just mad at him.
He talked about Manny's double play. He's sure that Manny forgot how many outs there were and that's why he took the time to high-five the fan. Maybe that's true or maybe he saw the piece that Baseball Tonight put together and the clip of Manny flipping the ball out of Yankee stadium with two outs, running back in, looking up, and Pedro giving him that little smile and reminding him that that was only the second out (that was my favorite clip in the collection.)
The last thing they talked about, after all, was Papelbon's history of embellishing his resume. In Cookie-Off Two he said that he was a taster for the Honey Baked Ham Company, in Cookie-Off Three he looked absolutely perplexed when Roche asked him about it. He came clean tonight claiming that he did work for the Honey Baked Ham Company while he was in high school but that his job was glazing the hams and bringing out free samples when the line got too long. According to him, before they could bring out the samples to appease the customers, they had to taste them to make sure they weren't bringing out horrible pieces that would drive the customers away. It could be true. It could also be another fabrication-one created to cover himself for stealing pieces of meat. I can't really tell with Jonathan Papelbon but I love the man dearly.
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