Kevin Millar Recalls Confronting Dan Shaughnessy During 2004 ALCS
BOSTON (CBS) -- If a pro athlete ever tells you that he doesn't see or hear what's being said about him in the media, he's lying. That's at least what former Red Sox first baseman and World Series champion Kevin Millar believes.
Millar joined Toucher & Rich on Thursday, and he was asked about his now-famous confrontation with Dan Shaughnessy, who wrote when the Red Sox were down 3-0 to the Yankees in 2004 that the team was a bunch of frauds.
"He walked in and I started yelling at him as far as just simple as this: 'Your hair sucks,'" Millar recalled. "Yeah, that's how it goes: 'Hey, your hair sucks, Dan.' And that's when I was loud, and it was caught on tape, I just told him, I said, 'You called us frauds. They might be better than us. The Yankees might be -- that's OK. But I don't think we're frauds because we're down 0-3.'
"That's how it goes. Obviously then we win, and then he's writing a book about how we reversed the curse. So it's the same thing. He's got a job, I understand that. I never had a problem with Dan Shaughnessy. It was just ... don't call us frauds. There's a few things you can't attack, like integrity. And when media does that, you're going to get confronted."
The conversation touched on David Price's fight with Dennis Eckersley this year, and Millar was asked if he remembered ever being upset with any other media members during his playing days.
"I remember sitting in the room with David Ortiz and we were watching ESPN, and John Kruk said something about our defense or something, I forget what it was," Millar said. "And I'm like, 'Who in the hell does he think he is talking about our defense?' So the thing about it is this: When you're working with a team -- and I know sometimes we gotta say what we gotta say -- but at the end of the day, is it worth it to bash your own team or say something? I'm not saying [Eckersley] bashed anybody. I'm just saying in general. Players watch, players know, players read, so when you say something or write something like Dan Shaughnessy wrote the article that called us a pack of frauds, did he not think I was going to say something to him the next morning? Did he just think 100,000 people saw it but the Red Sox [didn't]? We see and read everything, and don't let players tell you different."
Millar also talked about the MLB postseason, how much postseason experience matters in October, and more. Listen above!