Especial: Lazyio Style!

Jon Lester and Hanley Ramirez were once teammates in the Red Sox minor league system but were on opposite sides of the All-Star Game on Tuesday night. Lester retired Ramirez on a bouncer back to the mound and after the game he was asked if he and Ramirez had ever gone out for pizza and fantasized about being in the Midsummer Classic while they were on their way up the baseball ladder.

It’s a silly question, but Lester didn’t have a particularly jokey response.

“I’d have a better chance of being struck by lightning than me and him getting a pizza together,” Lester said. “You can take that for what it’s worth. But there was no chance on God’s green earth that I was getting a pizza with him.”

...Steve Buckley of the Boston Herald points out that the Red Sox felt Ramirez had maturity problems when he was in their system, a point of view that would seem to be backed up by some of the run-ins he’s had with managers and teammates with the Marlins. That’s certainly one possible explanation for the reason why the two men never broke bread, but it isn’t the only one.

It could have been because Lester isn’t a particularly friendly guy. Buckley draws a comparison between Lester and Bob Gibson, a pitcher notorious for being prickly toward just about anyone he ever met, and wonders if part of the reason Lester is such a good pitcher is because he doesn’t hold warm feelings for anyone he might ever face during a game. Perhaps, but being a generally friendly sort doesn’t seem to stand in the way of any number of other big league pitchers.