Boston Red Sox rookie pitcher Hunter Dobbins gave the team’s longstanding rivalry with the New York Yankees a much-needed spark ahead of his first career game in the Bronx this past Sunday night with a bit of pregame trash talk. But after his comments were disproven by the New York Post, Dobbins was forced to clear up the truth behind his hatred of the Yankees while speaking with reporters on Wednesday.
Ahead of the series finale between the Red Sox and the Yankees, Dobbins spoke about how he always grew up a fan of the Red Sox. And this, according to him, was in part because of how the Yankees organization once treated his father, who himself was a professional baseball pitcher.
“My dad was a diehard Red Sox fan,” Dobbins told Gabrielle Star of the Boston Herald. “And I’ve said it before, that if the Yankees were the last team to give me a contract, I’d retire. He was actually drafted twice by the Yankees. Signed with them his last year and then he got traded over to the Diamondbacks. I think whoever I was playing with or whoever I would have been drafted by, I’d still hate the Yankees, so Sunday should be a fun one. I’m hoping I hit a career-high in velo or something. I’m ready for it. Sunday can’t come fast enough.”
Dobbins did add one caveat about the Yankees organization, claiming that his dad was “really good friends” with former Yankees pitcher Andy Pettitte, who is the only player that he doesn’t dislike to come from the organization.
“Can I say all of them but Andy Pettitte?” said Dobbins when asked by Starr who his least favorite Yankees player was. “Andy Pettitte and my dad were really good friends.”
Most largely assumed that the story would be put to rest when the Red Sox prevailed over the Yankees in Sunday’s game. However, that couldn’t have been further from the case.
On Tuesday, Joel Sherman of the New York Post detailed a number of inaccuracies in Dobbins’ story about his father in a report, explaining how Lance Dobbins was not listed as a draft pick of the Yankees in any year on Baseball Reference’s database of past MLB Drafts.
Additionally, Yankees GM Brian Cashman, who has been with the Yankees organization since 1986, had “no recollection” of drafting a Lance Dobbins, which he backed up by checking with the Yankees amateur department.
Not only was Lance Dobbins never drafted by the Yankees. But there is also no record of him ever playing at any level for any of the 30 MLB teams from the league’s official database. And as far as his father’s relationship with Andy Pettitte, the five-time World Series champion did not recall knowing a Lance Dobbins.
This begs the obvious question. Did Hunter Dobbins completely make up this story? Or was he fed this fake story by his father?
Well, Hunter Dobbins’ comments on the matter on Wednesday appear to indicate the truth may be somewhere in the middle. While speaking with reporters, Dobbins did joke that he was having fun with the rivalry, but said that his view of the Yankees stems from what he heard and saw in pictures from his dad.
“My feelings in all of that, they are based on personal experiences,” said Dobbins. “Nothing to do with growing up or family. And also, it’s a rivalry, so we are just having some fun. Jazz (Chisholm) got into it, too, so we had a good time about it. The whole backstory, stuff that I heard growing up and seeing pictures of from my dad. It’s just from my dad and growing my love for the game. At the end of the day, I don’t go and fact-check my dad, or anything like that.”
When asked whether the truth had been cleared by his dad after Sherman’s report, Dobbins claimed that he isn’t particularly concerned with whether what his dad told him about his life was true or not.
“A little bit, not really,” said Dobbins. “My whole focus is on Saturday, getting ready to face the Yankees. This is my first time in the big leagues getting ready to face a team a second time, let alone back-t0-back. So that’s where my focus is 100 percent. I imagine we’ll talk in the future or something like that. But it’s been a bigger deal than it really needed to be. I just need to be ready to go for Saturday.”
It’s an incredibly bizarre story all in all. But clearly, regardless of the circumstances, Dobbins will again be fired up to face the Yankees again this coming Saturday, which this time will come in the friendly confines of Fenway Park.