The Post Mortem: Beckett is a Punk

Sorry for being a touch late today, hard to focus with Somali pirates vowing revenge against our nation.

We can debate whether Josh Beckett's pitch to Bobby Abreu was intentional or not.

It was.

At least mild-manager Mike Scioscia believes so.

"Usually the pitcher will show a little bit of remorse and say that wasn't a part of it. But obviously, we didn't see any of that with Beckett," Scioscia said. �That was as blatant as anything I've seen in this game. What happened today absolutely crossed the line, and I think it was inexcusable. I really feel the league has to look at it."

The lying Red Sox and Beckett will deny that. But what can't be argued is that Beckett's reaction was clearly uncalled for (illustrating that he did indeed do it on purpose hence being so defensive).

Beckett was at Angels Stadium on Friday during the ceremony to honor Nick Adenhart. And cheers to the Red Sox organization -- in particular manager Terry Francona -- for being so classy. Only two days removed, however, Beckett should have shown more composure in this situation. The Angels were obviously on edge. And yes, as a competitor, it's hard not to be so competitive when people are calling you out. But come on, you have to be better than that.

Should teams treat the Angels with kid gloves for the rest of the season? Don't be ridiculous. Nobody would expect that. Certainly not the Angels. But as the first team in town following Adenhart's death, maybe you can show a little composure as a human being.

We all feared that some a-hole Red Sox fan would do something stupid over the weekend -- it's surprising that it turned out to be a player.

The on-field display, however had to be cathartic for the Angels. Torii Hunter and Justin Spier don't seem like the kind of guys to lose their cool like that. Obviously some tensions and emotions were boiling, so it's not surprising that they were the "aggressors" as one report put it.

Again, hopefully that is a sign that the team is starting to move along.

AND FINALLY
When the most compelling part of the Master's is the race in the middle of the pack, well, that pretty much says it all.