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For Josh Beckett and the Boston Red Sox, getting jeered at Fenway Park has become par for the course.

The embattled starter did nothing to help restore his reputation Thursday night, getting booed off the field in the third inning of Boston's 8-3 loss to the Cleveland Indians .

It was Boston's 11th loss in its last 12 home games and it happened to come a day after word surfaced that Beckett was playing golf last week a day after he was scratched from his scheduled start with a sore lat muscle in his back.

That angered Red Sox fans, who got in plenty of taunts before Beckett was pulled after 2 1-3 innings with Cleveland leading 7-1.

"I think it was directed at me," Beckett said. "Smart fans."

Beckett was unrepentant about his golf outing, saying what he does on his day off is his business. But what he failed to understand, it seemed, was that fans were upset about him golfing when he was supposedly too sore to pitch rather than about him simply hitting the links on a normal off day.

Brantley was up next and one fan yelled "FORE!" when he lined a foul ball down the right-field line, but all the chuckles quickly subsided when Brantley doubled to left-center. It was the second straight double for the Indians, ending Beckett's night.

"I think we've hit bottom," Valentine said. "I told [the team] after the game, 'You have to sometimes hit bottom.' If this isn't bottom, we'll find some new ends to the earth, I guess."

They were also something less than stand-up in their response to the debacle, abdicating their leadership roles in favor of making a quick exit.

"I've got nothing for you guys," Dustin Pedroia said as he dressed and hurried out of the clubhouse.

David Ortiz was just as anxious to leave, followed in short order by Adrian Gonzalez. "Not talking today," Ortiz said as he put his hat on and walked away.

But Ortiz did offer one telling critique. "It's [expletive] embarrassing. Put it down like that."

And they are on sale for $35. Really.

According to the outfielder, he has been re-introduced to the kind of preseason that he was used to while with Tampa Bay. And that's a good thing.

"I was just used to that up-tempo style of play, that up-tempo spring training," he said. "That was just what I was used to. You come in, take 1,000 swings. You're going to be running the bases. You're going to be bunting. You're going to be hitting the cut-off man all the time. You're going to be working on outfield work all the time. You're going to be tired, the way we are now."

He was then asked if he felt the same way after workouts in last year's spring training.

"We didn't do anything," Crawford said. "How could I get tired?"

Your douchebag training is now complete.

Don't grow a beer gut and chin pubes.

Farewell, Captain Intangibles:

After weeks of weighing his options, Jason Varitek has decided to retire, multiple sources confirmed last night.

The longtime catcher is expected make it official Thursday at JetBlue Park, and although the team has discussed a role for him in the organization, a source said nothing will be agreed upon until after his retirement is finalized.

The Red Sox offered Varitek a minor league contract and invited him to spring training, but his odds of winning a job were slim, especially after the team signed veteran backup catcher Kelly Shoppach.

The likely scene for Jason Varitek's retirement presser

One day, we'll be able to tell our grandchildren.

Boston Herald:

Bobby Valentine yesterday expanded on his recent phone conversation with Josh Beckett, who was not happy that the manager had complained about all the time the starter was taking in between pitches in a game against the New York Yankees.

“He felt, and probably correctly so, at the time he was dominating the Yankees and one of the things mentioned across the field was from (Yankees hitting coach) Kevin Long,” Valentine said during the “Christmas at Fenway” ticket-selling event at Fenway Park. “I didn’t remember this as an ESPN announcer, but Kevin Long started complaining about him taking too long and (Beckett) felt, ‘Why don’t I take long, if they don’t like it, that’s exactly what I want to do — do what they don’t like, do what makes them uncomfortable, what makes them not successful.’ So he said that what I, and we at ESPN, we fell into his trap, or we bought into Kevin Long’s strategy to reverse his success.

“I get it. I said, ‘Maybe I did,’ and that there was a frenzy about what Kevin said and I was reiterating it.”

Valentine said that he mostly listened to Beckett during a 20-minute phone call that began with, “ ‘Oh by the way, I was really (upset) at what you said.’ And I said, ‘OK let’s get that out of the way.’ So that was out of the way and then we talked about everything else, so that was kind of the extent of his dislike for what I said.”