Beckett: Sox 'exact opposite' of dysfunctional

A cheerful Josh Beckett joined WAAF's Hill Man Morning Show Tuesday to discuss his situation with the Red Sox and the upcoming sixth annual Beckett Bowl. 

Following are highlights of the interview. For the complete transcript of baseball and Red-Sox related questions, click here. To hear the complete interview, click here. 

On whether he feels he's misunderstood by fans and media: 

"I think for me, I'm just me. I don't pay too much mind to when people have their opinions about it. I'm not going to change and I think sometimes that's kind of what the media outlets want you to do here. They want you to be who they want you to be instead of just who you are. I'm just me, and I have a really good support group around me. As long as I don't do anything to piss my wife off, I'll be OK."

On players potentially ratting Bobby Valentine out to upper management:

"I don't even know. I heard something about the Will Middlebrooks thing, but I'm almost positive that Bobby was the one that brought that up to the media. I don't know. Like I said, you can't pay attention to it. I've got too many other things to do, basically. I don't have time to pay attention to what Joe [expletive] is writing."

On Curt Schilling saying he would take a swing at a manager for what Valentine said to Middlebrooks and whether he'd do the same: 

"No, not if he's my manager I wouldn't. I think that's easy for Schill to say now that he's not on the team." 

On whether he's happy in Boston: 

"Yeah." 

On if the Red Sox have a dysfunctional clubhouse: 

"No, it's the exact opposite. There's people who want it to be that way, and it's not so it makes them mad when they come in there and we're laughing and joking and having a good time. They want the perception to be something, and that's what they're going to write. There's some very, very good media outlets here and there's some very, very not good ones. The ones that are not good are the ones that want to perception to be what they want it to be no matter what, and that's what they're going to write. 

"There's nothing you can do about it, and that's the way it's been here for a long time. I talked to Jim Rice about it a few days ago. Jimmy was obviously not a fan of the media at all when he was here and had a lot of trouble with that and ended up to where he thinks it actually cost him a couple years on the ballot for the Hall of Fame. That's just the way it is, that's the way it's always been here apparently. They talk about Ted Williams had problems with it when he was here." 

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