John Lackey cries, whines, gripes and cries some more about Boston's ALDS victory

For almost 100 years, Fenway Park has giveth, and Fenway Park has taketh away. Apparently, John Lackey thinks that Boston's venerable home giveth the Red Sox hits and taketh wins away from him and the Los Angeles Angels.

Lackey, who allowed two runs and five hits over seven innings last night in a 3-2 Boston victory that sent the Red Sox to the ALCS and the Angels back to Anaheim for the winter, has long felt a strong disgust for Fenway Park. His post-game comments included attacks on Dustin Pedroia's RBI double off the Green Monster in the fifth and the Red Sox as a whole after Boston defeated the Angels in the ALDS for a second consecutive year.

"It's way different than last year," Lackey told ESPN.com. "We are way better than they are. We lost to a team not as good as us.

"[On Sunday] they scored on a pop fly they called a hit, which is a joke," said Lackey, referring to a popup that was misplayed into three runs. "[On Monday], they score on a broken-bat ground ball and a fly ball anywhere else in America [except in Fenway Park]. And [Pedroia's] fist-pumping on second like he did something great."

Lackey is right about one thing. On paper, the Angels have a more formidable roster than the Red Sox. However, as the Yankees have learned for several seasons now, post-season series are not won on paper.

I have always found it amusing when a player uses the quirks of Fenway Park as an excuse. It is usually a pitcher who is griping about the park. If that big green wall wasn't there, pitchers say, the ball would have been a routine fly out and not a single or a double. In some cases, those pitchers are accurate. If a ball is hit on a lazily lofting trajectory, chances are it will be a double off the Green  Monster instead of a fly out. However, because the wall is 37 feet high, there are many times when line drives that are gaining altitude slam off the Green Monster instead of drifting into the seats for a home run, as they would have in any other ballpark.

For a tutorial on Fenway Park's dimensions, I pulled this from the RedSox.com web site:

Fenway Park measures 310 feet (94.5 meters) down the left field line: 379 feet (115.5 meters) in left center field; 390 feet (118.9 meters) in center field; 420 feet (128 meters) in deep center field; 380 feet (115.8 meters) in deep right field; and 302 feet (92 meters) down the right field line.

The left field wall - also known as the Green Monster - measures 37 feet (11.3 meters) high. The center field wall is 17 feet (5.2 meters) high, the bullpen fences measure five feet (1.5 meters) and the right field fence is 3 to 5 feet (0.9 to 1.5 meters) high.

As Ron Darling mentioned in last night's broadcast on TBS, though the Green Monster seems close to a pitcher, the mound at Fenway Park seems higher and closer than at any other park. Darling said that a pitcher feels like he is 45 feet from home plate instead of 60 feet, 6 inches. And you don't hear pitchers complain when 415 foot drives to center field and 370 foot blasts to right field are tracked down for fly outs when they would have been home runs at most stadiums.

That the Green Monster, and Fenway Park in general, gives hitters an advantage is a myth. It's an excuse used by whiners like Lackey, who throws more tantrums on the mound than even Derek Lowe. If Lackey didn't want to give up a double to Pedroia off the Green Monster, he should have pitched him away. As for Jacoby Ellsbury's bloop that dropped into shallow center field for a three-run single, that is baseball. This is a game of inches, and the slightest indecision can cost a pitcher, fielder and batter. If Erick Aybar had dropped down a successful suicide squeeze, I am certain that Lackey would not have shrugged it off as a cheap way to score the go-ahead and possible game-winning run.

Lackey is an exceptional pitcher, one of the best in Major League Baseball. Yet his post-game comments, and his expressions on the mound when his defense does not make a play, indicate that he lacks professionalism. I wouldn't be surprised if some of his teammates have confronted him behind closed doors about his demonstrative actions after a fielder either makes an error or does not get to a ball that Lackey thinks should have been grabbed. Of course, Lackey has no room to judge since he is subpar at fielding his position.

The better post-season team won last night at Fenway Park and advanced to the ALDS. The better regular season team could not get it done when it mattered. The Angels have joined the Yankees and Cubs as teams in recent years that fizzle in October. That is the bottom line.