The situation: Howard, who clubbed 22 homers in 88 games last year as NL Rookie of the Year, launched a ball to center in the sixth inning with a man aboard and the Phillies behind, 3-1. Howard was slow out of the box, watching in flight what had the chance to be his team-record 11th spring homer. The swirling wind held the ball up, and Adam Stern parked himself under it just shy of the warning track. Beckett, displeased with Howard's sauntering, let him know it.
''He was jogging after a pop up," Beckett said. ''It's not like I wanted to fight the guy. I wanted to make a point. You look like a jackass whenever you hit a ball like that and you're pimping it and you're out. I'm kind of about respecting the game. Even if it is a home run, I don't think it's the right thing to do. I'm not the type of guy to not say anything.
''I was just expressing my concern with the way he's playing the game. He didn't do that last year. He won Rookie of the Year, he hit a bunch of home runs, I guess you get one year in the big leagues and things just change."
Howard's take: ''See, I'd hit it, and at the contact point I didn't know where it went. If I was going to do something like pimp it or whatever, he'd have known."
Beckett spoke his piece and, Howard said, ''For me it was over. I really wasn't thinking about it anymore."
But, when Howard went out in the top of the seventh to play first base, Beckett, standing in the dugout, kept hurling words his way.
''That's where I handled it wrong," Beckett said. ''That's probably where I should have been a bigger man. I'm going to go out on a limb and say it's my fault."
Howard, on what he heard Beckett yell: ''He's like, 'Fly ball.' He threw in some curse words and called me a couple names. I was like, 'It's over,' but he started popping back off."
And that's when Howard abandoned his position, crossed the foul line, and walked toward the Sox dugout. On the way, he dropped his mitt and spread his arms, clearly willing to oblige if Beckett wanted to come on out.
