"In the wake of Carl Crawford's underwhelming first season with the Red Sox [team stats], principal owner John Henry revealed in a radio interview yesterday that he wasn't in favor of signing the high-priced left fielder.

Speaking to 98.5 The Sports Hub, Henry said the decision to sign Crawford to a seven-year, $142 million contract last offseason was made by general manager Theo Epstein and wasn't driven by concern for declining television ratings.

"Definitely a baseball signing," Henry said. "In fact, anybody involved in upper management with the Red Sox will tell you that I personally opposed that. They all knew that. Why? Because we had plenty of left-handed hitting. I don't have to go into why. I'll just tell you at the time that I opposed the deal.""