"Upon receiving a phone call this week from new Red Sox [team stats] manager Bobby Valentine, Josh Beckett [stats] aired out a 4-month-old grudge.

As an ESPN analyst, Valentine criticized Beckett for working at a slow pace during an August start against the New York Yankees at Fenway Park [map]. The comment irritated Beckett, who now must pitch for Valentine.

"After he got through telling me how pissed off he was, we had a really good conversation," Valentine said with a smile yesterday."