After reading this winter meetings update from Chad Jennings of the New York Journal News, we may have figured out what Craig has been up to today in Indianapolis:
Craig assures me that it wasn’t him and we do have photographic evidence of his possessing a media credential, but I’m still skeptical. I’ve been to a pair of winter meetings and my favorite aspect of the manager press conferences was always when Japanese writers joined the fray to ask about a player and the manager clearly was hearing the name for the first time. Ron Gardenhire once gave a five-minute answer to a female reporter that basically boiled down to, “Lots of Japanese players are good and we like good players.” She wrote the entire thing down.
In one of the more bizarre moments I’ve seen, someone in the back of the pack asked Francona if the Red Sox would play Marco Scutaro at second and Dustin Pedroia at short. Francona responded with, “Why?” and the guy said because Pedroia might have better range.
That drew a how-do-you-respond-to-that type response, and when someone from MLB asked to see the reporter’s credentials, the guy mumbled and left the room. I honestly believe it was someone who just happened to wander into the room.