Projo Sox Blog

BY JOE McDONALD
Journal Sports Writer

BOSTON -- The scrapes are still visible on the face of Coco Crisp after Thursday’s bench-clearing brawl, but he said he's fine and ready to hit in the lead-off spot and play center field tonight.

"Everything feels fine," he said. "I do have a stiff neck because I was down in the pile, but other than that I’m fine."

Tampa Bay pitcher James Shields, who got suspended six games and fined an undisclosed amount, called Crisp a "bush-league player" following Thursday’s game. When Crisp was told about it on Friday, he didn’t disagree.

"I believe that," he said. "I will agree with him. It’s true. But what Bartlett did was bush league, and he’s done it before. After he dropped the knee on me (Wednesday) I said, ‘OK. You want to play dirty?’ Especially with me sliding head-first and going in as hard as I can sliding head-first. When you put your knee down like that you’re blocking the plate like a catcher, so you should be taken out like a catcher. That’s how I feel. You can injure and end someone’s career by doing that."

Crisp jammed his thumb on the play.

"What (Bartlett) did was bush league, and I agree with what I did was bush league," said Crisp. "You did something that was shady, and I did something that was shady. I’m not going to disagree (with Shields’ comments)."

Shields said he did it the right way by hitting Crisp in the thigh and the Sox’ center fielder agrees.

"He throws hard and he didn’t try to throw it up near my head," said Crisp. "He did it the right way. There’s no hard feelings, but if he lost respect for me, then so be it. I have no loss of respect for anybody over there, even though some people were pulling my hair. I guess all is fair when you’re at the bottom of the pile."

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