Who cares whether he was or whether he wasn’t? Shoppach isn’t that important.

If he was the guy, what numbskulls would have followed his lead? One Sox official called Shoppach “a negative force in the clubhouse.”

The day Shoppach was traded to the Mets, no one in the Red Sox clubhouse said a word about him. But according to reports, Shoppach met with Mets manager Terry Collins Sunday to make sure Collins knew he wasn’t the guy, because he wanted to get off on the right foot with his new team.

Shoppach did not attend the July 26 meeting between Red Sox owners and players in New York, and thus could say, “See, it wasn’t me.”

Shoppach is probably a little worried because, after all, what team would want a guy who led a crusade to fire the manager?

The fact the Sox kept him for so long was strange, anyway. Ryan Lavarnway should have been up a long time ago so he could begin to get his feet wet as a major league catcher since he is the future and Shoppach was barely the present. Although, as we pointed out in the Sunday baseball notes, the Sox were 26-16 when Shoppach started, though much of that had to do with Boston’s success against lefthanded starters.

“I can’t add any more to that whole story,” said Sox general manager Ben Cherington. “The meeting happened over three weeks ago now. Time has passed. We’re trying to move on and trying to focus on what’s going on now. There’s nothing more I can add to it.”

Because of a guy like Shoppach, Dustin Pedroia has to take criticism because a Yahoo! Sports story named him as one of the “most vocal” at the meeting, which Pedroia has denied.

Pedroia is coming under criticism in some circles because some believe he was one of the ringleaders. But if you know anything about Pedroia and his relationship with Bobby Valentine, you know that since May the two have become very close, and that it is unfathomable to think Pedroia was part of a texting campaign started by Shoppach, Adrian Gonzalez, or anyone else.

Pedroia remains angry and disappointed about the story, and his name being dragged through the mud for no apparent reason. The New York Daily News reported on Sunday that Shoppach started the texting to owners. Shoppach denied he had anything to do with it, but it’s suspicious because Valentine and Shoppach never saw eye to eye.

And so, the stupidity of the whole story remains. The chaos never goes away.

“Normally when you’re being scrutinized, there’s a reason for it,” Cherington said. “Things aren’t going the way you want them to, that’s normal. We’ve made that bed ourselves, so it’s up to us to make it better. When we make it better, there will be less scrutiny. I’m focusing on trying to make our current situation better. That’s what the players, coaches, and certainly Bobby is doing. We have to deal with the questions because we’re not performing up to the standards we expect, so the scrutiny is going to be there.”

These have been trying times for Cherington. He’s a rookie GM who has had to officiate between Valentine and some of Terry Francona’s holdover coaches, and between the players and Valentine. He did not make any significant moves at the trading deadline and has taken a cautious approach to the waiver period.

It’s no coincidence that the two players he did move were Kevin Youkilis and Shoppach. They were two of the biggest Valentine detractors.

There isn’t anyone who doesn’t acknowledge a bumpy ride at the beginning with Valentine. But that’s not what caused the poor start. There were peripheral issues, things that weren’t anywhere near the seriousness of the injury situation they faced and the poor play that ensued and two starting pitchers who couldn’t get out of their own way.

Have things improved?

“I see really good effort,” Cherington said. “I see positives even after a tough loss, or any time I come to the clubhouse guys are ready to go and ready to play. That’s all I can ask for from this group, to keep getting after it every day. I don’t think that meeting was necessarily a marker because we’ve had good effort all year, but we haven’t gotten it done on the field enough.”

Cherington was asked if winning would make the issues go away. It’s almost like last September. If they had won one or two more games, would the stories about chicken and beer, and the collapse of the clubhouse ever come to light?