David Price vs. Dennis Ecker
Two years later, Dennis Eckersley is still talking about David Price. Why? I have no idea. Price responded in what was a brilliantly crafted response to the media:
“The fact that it was over two years ago now,” Price told reporters. “The fact that he wanted to move on but since then
he’s went on the radio and talked about it,done it again. In 2017, I addressed it. Told you guys in front of the camera that I wished I had handled it differently. I did it again in 2018 on Day 1. Said the same thing. We had a meeting set up in 2017 here at the field. Got here early. An hour and a half, 2 hours after I get here, they come and tell me he’s not coming. We had a meeting. He backed out. I was going to tell him, I apologize, I didn’t handle it the right way and it continues to come up. There’s no reason for it.“Honestly, I just think it’s trash. He had an unbelievable career, 25 seasons. He’s a Hall of Famer. I saw his special on MLB Network. It was cool. One thing that stood out to me is he had zero former teammates in that interview. Not one talking about him. It was him talking about himself. If anybody ever does a special about me after baseball, I won’t need to go on that interview. I will have former teammates, former coaches, they can all vouch for me. He didn’t have that. To me, that’s all you need to know. That tells the entire story right there. My teammates will vouch for me, my coaches will vouch for me. He doesn’t have that, so he has to vouch for himself.
“I’m going to stick up for myself at all times. I don’t care what backlash I get, the negative attention, I’m fine with that. But I’m going to speak up for myself, stand up for myself and he either needs to move on or we can meet. One of the two. If he says he wants to move on, stop talking about it. That’s the way that I feel about it.”
“I’ve already tried to reach out to him,” he said. “If he wants to meet, we can meet. I’m fine with it. I’ll apologize to him face-to-face. I’ve done it — this is my third time now in front of the media. But I’m sure he’ll speak about it again.”
I stand with Price. He crushes Eck with so many valid points. It’s hard not to side with him. Price brings up the MLB Network special on Eck. Then proceeds to say how no former teammates were involved in the special. If that’s not the ultimate checkmate, I don’t know what is. I’ve heard at least 100 former teammates speak positively about David Price. Everything I’ve heard and read is that he’s an awesome teammate. Apparently, nobody feels that was about Eckersley.
Also, if Eck were right, he’d show up to the meeting. Instead, he backed out like a coward. Price answered these questions brilliantly. Pitching is an art form. Pitching isn’t the only thing he’s an artist at. Dropping dead bodies with words is another. I love David Price. I stand by him through whatever happens.
