Now the public is waiting to see how Francona handles this, just as it waited to see how Grady Little handled Manny Ramirez's situation last season. A couple of Sox players were also interested in how their new manager would handle the situation, one indicating, "I don't think it's a big deal, but right off the bat Terry has to handle a situation. I know he'll handle it and be fair because that's the way he's been so far."
Francona was content not to pursue the issue with Martinez yesterday. "No, not today," he said. "I wouldn't do that on an offday. That can wait until tomorrow."
Francona indicated he had a policy on players staying around for the whole game, but "in fairness to him [Martinez] and everybody else, that wasn't conveyed correctly on my part and I take responsibility for that."
Does something as basic as that have to be conveyed?
"It's my responsibility to do that, yes," Francona said. "I don't think he was trying to do anything, well, it's not malicious, but that's more my responsibility to make sure it's conveyed."
An associate and friend of Martinez who did not want to be identified said yesterday, "In no way was Pedro disrespecting Terry Francona. Pedro has a lot of respect for Terry. I think Pedro was so disappointed that he didn't pitch better on Opening Day that he was very frustrated at himself. This was in no way something against Terry or anything to do with [Martinez's] contract. He has a lot of pride and he puts a lot of pressure on himself. People just don't understand how much he cares about his performance on the field."
A team source said Francona likely would sit and talk with Martinez before today's game to make sure the situation never occurs again. According to a source at Channel 4, Martinez did some long and short tossing for about 10 minutes yesterday at the park.
Much has been made of Martinez's contract talks with the team, which to this point have yielded no answers to the pitcher's future in Boston. Could it be he does not feel respected by the organization?
