Per the Boston Globe:
Red Sox pitcher Jon Lester admitted today that he drank beer in the clubhouse during games this season and that "it was the wrong thing to do." But he was adamant that such behavior was not to blame for the team's September collapse.
"There's a perception out there that we were up there getting hammered and that wasn't the case," Lester told The Globe via telephone from his home in Georgia. "Was it a bad habit? Yes. I should have been on the bench more than I was. But we just played bad baseball as a team in September. We stunk. To be honest, we were doing the same things all season when we had the best record in baseball."
Lester said the drinking was confined to starting pitchers who weren't in the game that day. "It was a ninth-inning rally beer," he said. "We probably ordered chicken from Popeye's like once a month. That happened. But that's not the reason we lost."
We're kind of torn on this subject. Lester is certainly correct in that a few starting pitchers drinking beer in the clubhouse during a game in which they were certain not to play didn't impact what happened between the lines. But teams are funny. Workplaces are funny. If you create and allow a culture in which it appears some of your best players just don't give a [redacted], you are impacting your team. Not to mention -- and this might seem a little square, but so what -- we're not sure it's even appropriate to have alcohol in a professional clubhouse or locker room, period.
