After Josh Beckett got smacked around by the Indians last night he faced the press.

To nobody’s surprise, the press asked him about the golf-between-starts-despite-maybe-having-a-bad-back thing.  Beckett defensively told the press to mind its own business when it comes to his free time:

“I spend my off days the way I want to spend them,” he said. “My off day is my off day. We get 18 off days a year. I think we deserve a little bit of time to ourselves.”

18 days off a year, huh?

Seems to me the Red Sox stopped playing in early September last year and have yet to start back up. Seems to me has had nearly 9 months a vacation time.

More to the point, what kind of world does this assclown live?

Mr. Beckett, you get paid great sums of money to play baseball. In fact, to be more specific, you get paid great sums of money to play baseball well.

Now, obviously, since your contract is guaranteed fans just have to bite the bullet and watch you cash your checks one way or the other, even if you pitch like you did last night.

But what fans, and your employers, don’t have to tolerate is your recreational activities getting in the way of the “playing baseball” part of the equation.

We can’t say for certain that his playing golf injured (or merely aggravated) his back issues.

But then again we can’t say that a player will get hurt riding his motorcycle (hey there Jeff Kent) or playing a game of pick-up basketball (how ya doin’ Aaron “F***in’” Boone?) yet teams never get vilified for insisting that their players do neither for fear of injury.

If people want to question your common sense, or maybe more accurately your commitment to your team & your craft because of boneheaded moves like this then you probably have only yourself to blame.

(I am definitely curious to hear what Red Sox fans have to say about this)