Jacoby Ellsbury agreed to a deal with the New York Yankees last night, a move that, ten years ago, or even eight years ago would’ve caused much weeping and gnashing of teeth among the locals.

While there was some of that going around last night (@KeithOlberman tracked a bunch of the mouthbreathers) the reaction was definitely more muted, at least among the fans I was watching and interacting with.

We all knew he was gone, right? And that the Yankees, given their spending habits, were a likely destination, right? Did anyone think that a Boras client like Ellsbury was not going to go to wherever gave him the most money?

The fans and media probably would not have been kind to Ben Cherington had he re-signed Ellsbury to the seven-year $153 million deal that he reportedly got from the Yankees.

Three World Series titles have made Red Sox fans a little more secure and less anxious over whatever the Yankees do. Even after they had won in 2004, when Johnny Damon left for the Yankees the following year, there was still considerable outcry, now, I think we see the cycle the Yankees are in, and it’s not as worrisome to us. The media will still try to make the Yankees scary to the fans, but I think most of the true fans have moved past that feeling. We can still hate the Yankees, but we’re not intimidated or scared of them.

Good for Ellsbury. He’s got two World Series titles under his belt, having played a big role in both of them, and now has the big payday. I don’t begrudge him one bit, and while I’m not sure the spotlight and circus of New York is a great fit for him, I wish him well.

The worst part of this, in the short term anyway, is going to be forced to listen to Johnny Damon as he makes his inevitable media rounds to talk about his experience in leaving the Red Sox for the Yankees. He’ll be on with Mut and Merloni this morning, and I’m sure many other outlets in the next few days.

It should be fun though, watching media people who criticized Ellsbury harshly for the last few years try and change tact and tell us how he’s going to come back and haunt the Red Sox in the future.

It was interesting watching media people last night as they insulted the fans when the news broke:

Nick Cafardo this morning:

Ellsbury was a beloved player in Boston and now the fans who once lashed out at media for being critical of his injury situation likely will boo him unmercifully every time he steps to the plate in Yankee pinstripes. He has gone the way of Johnny Damon, Wade Boggs, and Roger Clemens, and Ellsbury never will live it down. He will be called a traitor and other unsavory names when he steps up the plate.

Beloved player?

Shaughnessy:

There will be some local effort to paint Ellsbury as the Fourth Horseman of the Pinstripe Apocalypse. Wade Boggs, Roger Clemens and Johnny Damon all chose the Yankees (Clemens got himself traded to New York after two years in Toronto) after long careers with the Red Sox. All three won championships and Boggs and Clemens actually rode horses in Yankee Stadium.

Now Ellsbury. Are you going to boo him the way you booed Damon, Ray Allen and Adam Vinatieri?

Probably.

Steve Buckley:

Oh, it won’t be fair, Ellsbury being treated that way after all he did for the Red Sox, but that’s the way it is. Tickets to a Sox game are among the highest-priced in the big leagues; you put up that kind of money for a baseball ticket and you can boo anybody you damn well please. No, you don’t get to throw stuff. And if you have any civility at all, you don’t cuss in front of the kids.

But boo? Boo Ellsbury? Again, take a look at your ticket. Better yet, take a look at your credit card receipt. If it has your name on it, you go right ahead and boo Ellsbury if you feel compelled to do so. And don’t you let some sports pundit or gasbag talk-show host legislate your emotions.

A whole lot of finger-wagging going on out there.

Published by Bruce Allen

Automattician.

17 thoughts on “Ellsbury Signs With Yankees, Media Strikes Out At Fans”

  1. Steve Buckley‏@BuckinBoston
    Jacoby Ellsbury played on two WS-winning teams with #RedSox. Now he’s a Yankee which means he gets forever booed at Fenway. Fair? Unfair?
    8:59 PM – 3 Dec 13

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  2. Ellsbury never got over how he was treated by the #RedSox + fans when he was hurt a few years ago . Bolts to #Yankees 5 weeks after WS. #MLB

    — RyanAsselta (@RyanAsselta) December 4, 2013

    Ryan Ass pulled a Gresh! Gresh is the King of Blaming the fans for the actions of members of the media. Yes that Gresh, the mediot that is also the King of the Ellsbury Bashers.

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  3. Don’t think it was the fans as much as it was the team for the dispute he had with them in 2010 regarding the severity of his rib injury

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  4. I love how there is a boilerplate “IF X SIGNS WITH X TEAM, WILL HE GET BOOED WHEN HE COMES BACK TO BOSTON SPORTS VENUE” template prepared by these guys. On the flip side, we know how the reaction would have been if the Sox had handed out the same contract, as you said. We’d get months of “Larry ripped the booster seat right out from Ben the second he could start pushing the NESN product over a viable team.”

    Didn’t Sir Kevin Paul Douchepont recently lament newspapers and traditional media being as influential? He’s got a case study in one big reason why today.

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    1. No originality, no creativity and the alleged “beat reporters” are mirror images of the radio and tv douchebags and newspaper columnists. What a plum gig…

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  5. Player who will be overpaid signs contract with team notorious for overpaying players. Yawn. I fail to see the shock and outrage. Looks like more afternoons of music for me. #NoHotSportzTakesToday

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  6. Good on Buckley. I hate when these writers tell fans how to act and then does the disappointed dad routine when they don’t.

    I rarely ever boo and wouldn’t boo Ellsbury either, but I don’t begrudge anyone who would. Screw the Yankees.

    (And woo! I made the main post on the BSMW!)

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  7. Felger and Mazz open with Mazz’s victimhood. “The Boston fans and the writers have been killing Mazz for years any time he criticized Ellsbury, therefore they’re all hypocrites for not complaining that the Red Sox did not match this completely outrageous contract offer!” And I change the channel.

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    1. Felger & Mazz, Felger especially were unbearable today. Loving the fact that Ellsbury left, but much more so loving the fact that they can proclaim Mazz as being right all along. Then Felger launched into what has become his favorite activity, bashing the fans to death because they’re not calling in droves bashing the Red Sox for letting him get away. Some fans call into argue with Mazz’s over the top bashing of Ellsbury for the last few years, and because of that they’re hypocrites for not immediately calling in and bashing the Sox for not signing him to an outrageous contract? Fans aren’t allowed to like Ellsbury, but not want to sign him to an obviously bad contract? There’s no medium with him. Its absurd. Everything has to ultimately go in a direction that’s either anti-team, anti-player or anti-fan. And worst of all he went into this diatribe within the first 5 minutes of the show. So he immediately bashes the fans for not calling in and bashing the Sox BEFORE ALLOWING A SINGLE CALL ON THE SHOW.

      At a later point in the show, Felger goes through a list of all the $20+ million dollar per year contracts and how they haven’t worked out. At one point they got to the Teixiera contract, and admit that hasn’t worked out. Funny, Mazz whined and moaned about the Sox not signing him for YEARS and they spend about 5 seconds on that. 3 hours, 59 minutes and 55 seconds on how right Mazz was about how Ellsbury sucks and how great it is that he’s gone.

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      1. This is how no-talent Massarotti is. Guy takes a victory lap for an opinion that most everyone shared.

        #firemazz

        @firemazz

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  8. Actually, Shank, we cheered for Vinatieri, but don’t let facts get in the way of a good fan troll. They played a video thank you and he ran out onto the field before the rest of the Colts, getting a rousing ovation from the fans (I was there). In the days following, Felger and others lambasted the fans because we booed *when he came out to kick field goals for the opponent.* He ended up missing either one or two FG’s that night. Unfortunately Brady threw 4 picks and the game didn’t turn out well for the home team.

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  9. Milque Toast Mlike Salk wasting this interview with John Farrell and asking him the same question 15 times in 15 different ways. re: AJ and Clubhouse chemistry

    These guys and their chemistry…People like Salk, and there are a lot of them, think talent doesn’t matter so long as everyone ‘plays the right way’ and appears to get along well. This is the same tiresome narrative that places 100% of the blame for the Red Sox poor W-L record on Bobby V. I got a real kick every time a guy like Ross or Gomes mocked the mediots that asked about “worst to first” during the post-season.

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  10. John Farrell cited the statistic WAR and specifically the notion of “the cost of a win” in response to a question from Salk & Holley about the contracts signed by Gomes and Victorino last season.

    It’s fascinating that while the baseball team has won three rings in part by embracing the use of new baseball stats, the mediots have for the most part, remained in the 20th century. They still love to talk about batting averages and RBI guys and pitcher win totals. Alex Speier and Adam Jones are the only non-dinosaurs that come to mind.

    re: cost of a win http://www.beyondtheboxscore.com/2013/10/15/4818740/how-much-does-a-win-really-cost

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  11. Heard the interview with Damon, only thing missing was Damon smacking himself in the head with his sneaker and saying, “Dude, that was my SKULL!!

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  12. Aren’t these ‘pundits’ the same ones who gave Ells a hard time for taking care of his injuries in past years and siding w/ thuggier Sox players who wanted him on the field at all costs at all times? They are a horrendous embarrassment.

    To the extent that Ells was never fully onboard w/ the other Sox players, I mostly wondered what was wrong w/ the rest of those players that they couldn’t work with their teammate. Whatever, and congrats to him on his new contract although as always I continue to hope the Yankees go 0-162. One of these years it will happen…

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  13. It is pretty funny seeing sports media hacks–neanderthals of human existence–hop on the ‘trader/traitor’ meme with a whole bunch of feigned ‘assumed intelligence.’ These are people who chose their line of work for four pretty basic reasons: To get into sporting events for free; No math or hard-thinking is involved; they have no other skills; and to eat copious amounts of food dumped in their laps by adoring ‘sponsors.’ Everyone knows this to be true.

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