Rays outfielder Luke Scott was plunked on Friday night against the Red Sox at Fenway Park. Dustin Pedroia had been hit earlier in the game, so the beaning was presumably just evening things out. But if that were the case, you would think they might go after, you know, a good player.

Add that to Bobby Valentine’s postgame comments and it gets a little more complicated. Actually, it just gets a little more stupid.

“Maybe it was the Ghost of Fenway Past remembering he bad-mouthed all our fans and our stadium, directing the ball at his leg,” Valentine said.

I enjoy that Bobby V is taking notes on which players have not enjoyed their experience at Fenway Park. If he managed the Cubs, we would be seeing bench-clearing brawls every single day. But let’s be fair to Scott, his comments were hardly offensive, though we already know his true feelings about Red Sox fans:

“As a baseball player, going there to work, it’s a dump…I mean, it’s old. It does have a great feel and nostalgia, but at the end of the day, I’d rather be at a good facility where I can get my work in. A place where I can go hit in the cage, where I have space and it’s a little more comfortable to come to work…You’re packed in like sardines there. It’s hard to get your work in. … You have to go to their weight room if you want to lift. From a fan’s perspective, it’s probably pretty cool to go see a game at a historic park. But from a player’s point of view, it’s not a place where you want to go to work.”

Hardly worthy of a plunking, but it’s somewhat understandable because Bobby V wants to win over the Boston fans.

Rays manager Joe Maddon summed up the whole thing rather nicely, calling it “ridiculous, absurd, idiotic, incompetent, cowardly behavior.” As usual, Maddon is right.

[via Rays Index]