Boston Red Sox: Odd timing in renewed David Price/Dennis Eckersley feud

A recent interview with Dennis Eckersley had the former Boston Red Sox player once again bringing up an incident between he and David Price from two years ago. It’s time to put this “feud” to bed.

A story revolving around the Boston Red Sox, one that should have been never much of a story to begin with, reared its ugly head again. And it comes at a time when Boston has more important things to pay attention to.

Take, for example, the fixing of Chris Sale or figuring how to get good performances from more than two-fifths of the rotation. Or how about the fact the Red Sox should be focused on a playoff push, not an incident that took place more than two years ago.

The incident resurfaced thanks to a snippet of an article written by Boston.com columnist Chad Finn about Dennis Eckersley in which Eckersley briefly discusses the situation that occurred with David Price:

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"“I don’t plan on saying a word to him, I don’t plan on seeing him, never. [Broadcasters now board the plane before players.] I don’t really give a [expletive] one way or another. I don’t think he really cares one way or the other.”"

The focus of the article was more on Dennis Eckersley himself and the struggles and ups-and-downs of his career while this quote was the only mention of the 2017 incident.

For those in need of reminding, Price confronted Eckersley on a team flight after Eckersley uttered a one-word quip about an Eduardo Rodriguez performance. Words were had, disrespect was given, apologies were attempted and nothing was really settled.

David Price did eventually say he could have handled the situation better and tried to have a sit down with Dennis Eckersley that didn’t pan out. It all should have ended in 2017.

Yet here are.

Let sleeping dogs lie

The incident dogged Price for most of the 2017 season, in which he was merely a middle-of-the-road pitcher. Admittedly, it was nice to see a player sticking up for a teammate to outside criticism (but there was probably bigger battles to take on than over a one-word quip of “yuck”.)

David Price addressed the situation once at the start of spring training in 2018. It should have been the end of it, as Price enjoyed probably his best season in a Boston uniform, helping the Red Sox to a World Series title.

This season has been an inconsistent one for Boston, but David Price has been the most stable of the starting rotation and Boston is still in the thick of a playoff race.

There’s no point in dredging up the past at this point in the season, especially when the troubles seem to be on a personal level between these two. Take it to the offseason or better yet, let these two really go at it when Price is out of Boston or retired. (Yes, I also understand the irony of talking about on this platform, keeping the information train rolling along.)

It’s likely long past the point for Price and Eckersley to bury the hatchet. But this incident is in no way affecting the team’s play in 2019. The Red Sox have hurt themselves this season, not a silly “feud” that in no way needed to be reignited. There’s more important things for Boston to worry about, like making up a three game deficit in the wildcard race.

Because let’s face it, unless a switch is flipped in the play of Chris Sale, Rick Porcello, and the newly-acquired Andrew Cashner, winning the AL East is a pipe dream. And the wildcard might be all they have left.