From the Hartford Courant’s David Heuschkel.
Red Sox manager Terry Francona denied the reason closer Keith Foulke did not travel to Cooperstown for the Hall of Fame game Monday was because he was in Alabama having his arm examined.
“That’s inaccurate. It’s wrong,” Francona said. “The rest of it, I’ll let him deal with it how he wants.”
Foulke, who concurred with Francona, didn’t want to deal with it at all. He reluctantly answered questions and acknowledged he was in Alabama, but contradicted the rest of the story from an autograph show promoter.
“I did not see a doctor,” Foulke said. “I went down to get some barbecue and that’s it.”
Told it was a long way to go for barbecue, Foulke – who lives in the Phoenix area -responded, “Have you ever had Alabama barbecue?”
Sources said Foulke paid a visit to the American Sports Medicine Institute in Birmingham, a facility founded by orthopedic surgeon James Andrews, to improve his mechanics.
Foulke, who canceled an autograph appearance Monday in Cooperstown, was upset the man who set up the session said Foulke couldn’t make it because he went to see a doctor in Birmingham.
Foulke accused Jack Berke of “making stuff up” and said he “worked with him one time, and it will pretty much stay that way.”
“I don’t know why he even opened his mouth to tell anybody,” Foulke said. “Besides me having to cancel an appearance, it doesn’t concern that [expletive] guy one bit. He doesn’t need to be going out telling everybody what my business is. If he has all the answers, call him back up. I just don’t like having my [business] put out there by someone that I’ve met one time.”