Maddon: A lot of respect for Red Sox players

Speaking before his team's game against the Red Sox Saturday night, Rays manager Joe Maddon emphasized that he has admiration for the Red Sox players, but would not mention the Sox' coaching staff or respond to Bobby Valentine's comments regarding the aggressiveness of Tampa Bay's coaches during the teams' bench-clearing altercation Friday night.

"I covered everything about that I wanted to last night," Maddon said. "The thing I would like to cover today if I may is how much respect I have for the Red Sox players. I've been doing this now for seven or eight years in the American League East and I've had a strong feeling for the professionalism of the Red Sox players that entire time. Guys like [David] Ortiz, [Dustin] Pedroia, [Kevin] Youkilis, [Josh] Beckett's pitching tonight. My respect goes out to them. As we move this thing forward I think we have the same kind of thing here. With the Rays players we come here to play baseball. We like to play it hard every night. We kind of like to think of it as the Rays way of doing thing. My whole focus right now is on this game tonight and I definitely want to put out there how much respect I do have for the Boston Red Sox players."

An hour before Maddon's remarks Saturday, Valentine had met with the media, offering his analysis of the bench-clearing situation Friday night.

"I thought their coaches were really aggressive," the Red Sox manager said. "Matter of fact, I took offense to the aggressiveness of their coaches. I thought it was very unprofessional and I really was proud of the way my coaches were trying to do what they were supposed to do in those situations. They seemed very very immature and out of control."

Valentine later continued, "Coaches are supposed to try to stop things from happening. Their coaches were actually aggravating and agitating and instigating."

When informed of Valentine's comments, Maddon would only say, "I guess I did the same thing yesterday. I’m sure that what I said yesterday specifically may have motivated the turnstile a little."

Maddon said he wouldn't be surprised if the teams were given warnings prior to Saturday night's game, and also mentioned he hadn't addressed his club in regards to Friday night's events.

"I'm not big on meetings and trying to make something bigger than it actually is. I'm not big on that," Maddon said. "I think our guys understand it. I'm sure a lot of players from both sides have already spoken to one another and know exactly what went on last night. Again, we have a lot of respect … I know the Red Sox players have a lot of respect for our guys, and visa versa."

Maddon also talked about the response he received after taking to Twitter early Saturday morning to emphasize many of the points he made after the Rays' 7-4 win Friday night.

"I didn't look at the exact number, but I did see some really interesting vitriolic Twits, Tweets, excuse me … Maybe Twits," Maddon said when asked how many Twitter followers he picked up Saturday. "It's pretty funny how people react in a very, like I said, it's a vitriolic kind of situation. Express your opinion but you don't have to get dirty about it.

"All that stuff, freedom of speech, man. If you’re going to get involved, be involved. It always surprises me while people would actually utilize those kind of terms or get that upset or angry to express themselves in a really non-civil manner. That’s the part about it that gets a little bit annoying. It can be used in so many positive ways, and I think we try to do that with our Twitter accounts, utilize the tweets in a very positive manner. To utilize it for a negative form, you’re missing the point."

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