An Open Letter to Shane Victorino
Ryan MacLeod
Contributing Writer
Dear Shane,
I get it, I really do. You play the game of baseball hard, balls to the wall kind of hard. But also when you play this hard you get hurt. You have already been hurt once before this year and you going down after running into the Right Field wall at full speed today worried me. Im going to go out on a limb here and say that you are the best defensive right fielder in the American League, and when the Red Sox lose you do to injury for 15 days, or possibly even more we lose a gold glove caliber right fielder. I understand that you are new to Fenway Park and its a difficult field to get used to playing due to the weird angles and all the other little quirks that make Fenway such an amazing ballpark, but take your time learning the field. You dont have to catch every ball, to make every little play. Sometimes I would rather see you take your time when down in the corner by Peskys Pole and make sure a double doesnt turn into a double with a 1 base error because you take a bad angle at the ball.
You are a fighter and im sure you will never read this letter to you but its what I wanted to say. You're an amazing ball player when youre on the field but you cant help when youre on the bench injured. so please play safe out there, and if your hurt leave the game instead of trying to play through the pain.
Sincerely,
@Ryanthahawaiian