Red Sox Owner John Henry Hilariously Denies Being Viciously Booed At The Winter Classic Last Month And Instead Believes He Received a Standing Ovation

Billie Weiss/Boston Red Sox. Getty Images.

As a diehard Yankee fan I have mixed emotions when it comes to John Henry. Obviously he's the owner behind four World Series titles over the last two decades, which includes a year that single handedly shattered my soul. For that I despise him even if it was all Theo realistically. He's also the owner behind this recent nose dive that has driven any caring Red Sox fan into murderous rage. For that I welcome him. 

Henry recently gave an interview with The Athletic in hopes to sway the fanbase's opinion of him despite the current bleak outlook of the franchise. At least I think that's what his goal was here? Either that or to show the world he actually has dementia. 

The part that's being ripped apart is his response to the question "the booing at Winter Weekend was hard to ignore. Did you recognize that that level of frustration existed from some in the fanbase and does it motivate you to do anything differently?"

There is a false narrative surrounding the club. It really took hold in 2022. There were even false reports of booing at Fenway Park during the Winter Classic. I think those factors and losing Xander to San Diego were the biggest factors. Those are the fans you would believe are the least likely to try to shout us down, but it happened. Did anyone report the standing ovation at the end?

These fans support the club with so much passion we are able to afford $200 million-plus payrolls. They bring the magic to Fenway Park. Before coming to Boston I used to think the park was the magic or that it resided in the history of Fenway Park. But after just a few nights in 2002 it was obvious to me that it was the fans who made Fenway evenings magical. They filled up the park with an unmatched passion. Someone early on asked me why I came to Boston to own the Sox. I replied that I wanted to work and live somewhere that every morning I rose what I did would matter. We have had a great experience and fans have been great. That’s who we work for.

Feel like with how the last few seasons have gone and with all the winning players that have filtered out of the organization, the last thing you should is turn the blinders on and deny the boos that very much took place.

Henry went a step further and said there was a standing ovation for him! A few weeks later he heard the same boos at the team's Winter Weekend fan-fest. 

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I'm trying not to laugh and write this blog in an unbiased fashion, but to follow up and ask "did anyone report the standing ovation at the end?" is incredible. What planet is this dude living on? You really gotta be a special kind of asshole to be that tone deaf and oblivious. Is this just what being a rich old guy is like? You can just ignore reality and imagine things for your own benefit. Must be nice. 

Just to recap, the Sox missed the playoffs in 2019, a year after winning it all, and responded by trading away one of the best players in the league, Mookie Betts. They did that because Henry wanted no business with playing his homegrown, fan-favorite superstar what he deserved. Instead Chaim Bloom was forced to seek out a trade and got back pennies on the dollar. I know leverage wasn't necessarily on his side, but you gotta do better than Verdugo, Jeter Downs, and Connor Wong. That's the whole haul. All-time bad trade after an all-time bad decision to let Mookie go in the first place. 

The Sox retooled and got back in the playoffs in 2021. You kinda got the feeling there was an offensive core there that at the very least could compete year in and year out. It worried me as a Yankee fan. Pitching was another story, but with Devers, Bogaerts, JD Martinez, Kyle Schwarber, Hunter Renfroe, and Verdugo you're not gonna have to worry about run support. Two years later and only two of those guys remain, Devers and Verdugo. Bloom gets a lot of the blame, but Henry had no interest in pushing forward as a competitor when he very much had the chance. They had a whole lot of money to spend this offseason and instead got out-bid on every single player they had interest in. Yes they extended Devers for life, but I think if they failed to do that zero people would show up on Opening Day. Similar to Hal Steinbrenner, Henry doesn't get a gold star for paying his best player when there really was no other choice. That move doesn't excuse you for how badly you handled the Xander and Mookie situations. 

I'm not here to tell you Hal and Cashman have been running circles around Henry and Bloom. They're idiots themselves who make me wanna die at times, but when the Red Sox owner says shit like this it deserves to be shit on. Boston is projected to finish last in the AL East and John Henry honestly believes he got a standing ovation during the Winter Classic for hosting the event, not the Bruins for winning a crazy finish. God bless, please never sell.