Tuesday, November 01, 2005

The mourning after

"Not a good day. Not a good day at all."

Well, at least Shaughnessy and I agree on something.

So writes the curly-haired boyfriend this morning, in a column proclaiming that Theo Epstein and Larry Lucchino's 13-year mentor/protege relationship has "reached its breaking point."

Shaughnessy was all too happy to be the straw that broke it.

By most accounts, Theo was ready to come back for three more years. Everything everyone had been speculating about -- the money, the power dynamic -- had been resolved. What no one realized was that there was another issue involved: trust.

If you believe what you hear, when Theo read this column the Globe on Sunday, that trust had been broken.

Shaughnessy questioned "Theo's sudden need to distance himself from those who helped him rise to his position of power," the people who "held his hand and drove him places during his Wonder Years."

He charged that it's "a mistake to say [Theo] knows more about baseball than Lucchino or anyone else in the Red Sox baseball operation.... He can read the data and has a horde of trusty, like-minded minions, but we're not talking about a lifetime of beating the bushes and scouting prospects."

And he maintained the botched Colorado trade this summer was thanks to one of said minions, not Lucchino, and that Saint Larry was asked to "fall on the sword and invoke the ownership approval clause" to kill it, "saving Epstein."

Where do you suppose that info might have come from?

Whatever you think of potential conflicts of interest in the Globe/Sox marriage, it's immaterial.

What matters is this: Theo finally decided he was better off working with his brother Paul, or just taking a break to recover from three years of 80-hour weeks, than he was putting up with the intrigue and innuendo and all-around BS that comes with this job. He decided that even $4.5 million isn't enough to compensate for the headaches.

It isn't too hard to imagine that that article was all it took to make Theo realize once and for all that this noxious environment was not a place he could work in for the next three years.

Shaughnessy's column today is meant to be exculpatory, but it rings hollow.

"It's certainly possible that Theo saw that version in the Sunday Globe and had second thoughts about a future of working with Lucchino. This was the popular version put forth last night on WEEI and in a Herald blog. Again, I choose to believe that Epstein is smarter and more mature than that. Much smarter. And much more mature."

What does that have to do with anything?

Theo is mature. Probably more mature than Lucchino. It wasn't Theo Epstein who was leaking to the press during the A-Rod negotiations; it was Lucchino's rash pronouncements that pissed off Texas ownership and helped quash the deal. It's not Epstein who's reportedly "despised by Red Sox players," it's his boss.

At any rate, Shaughnessy, that magnanimous knight of the keyboard, is ready to fall on his sword. "Blame me if it makes you feel any better."

To judge from the visceral reaction on Sons of Sam Horn last night, that's exactly what people are doing.

"Fuck the Globe"
"CHB = Bob Novak"
"When CHB writes, do Lucky's fingers move?"
"I can't wait until we read the CHB stories revealing how Theo was more concerned with the future of "Trauser" then the Boston Red Sox."

But no, it doesn't make me, or anyone, feel any better.

As another man once said, "all this negativity that's in this town sucks."

As any Boston sports fan knows, Shaughnessy's column was just the latest in an interminable string of ad hominem attacks, veiled and unveiled. He did it to Pedro, he did it to Nomar, he's done it to Manny. Now it's Theo's turn.

Why?

He's got to know damn well that he's the most hated sportswriter in this city. But he doesn't seem to care. Simply put, it's all too apparent that Dan Shaughnessy doesn't really like the Red Sox. He prefers gossip, innuendo, and axe-grinding. Maybe he should get a new job.

The really sad part is that things were supposed to be different with this ownership. They had a new organizational philosophy, they cared about the team, the park, the fans. They were going to win at any cost. And Theo Epstein, Brookline's boy wonder, was going to be one of the keys to doing so.

And, amazingly, he delivered. Three seasons of 95 wins or more. Three trips to the post season. One World Series championship. All in just three years on the job.

But now, he's leaving, and everything looks different.

As a SoSHer puts it: "This whole process has just validated that the Lucchino and the Sox front office are no better than 99% of the other baseball owners out there: slimy, shameless, and exploitative."

It was an enormous miscalculation. A huge clusterfuck from the beginning. And now we've got to live with the fallout.

That's the most sickening thing about this. The GM meetings begin in barely a week. We have desperate needs, and we've got no GM to fill them. Who gets the job? And how long will it take to find someone?

Gordon Edes thinks Kevin Towers is a good bet. But who knows? Why on earth would he want to walk into a situation this poisonous?

As Bob Ryan rightly wonders, "What person of quality, watching how this all came down, will want the job? Larry Lucchino isn't going anywhere. He is in a stronger position than ever."

Says one source to Michael Silverman, "Gerry Hunsicker or Pat Gillick? None of those guys would put up with Larry."

That's to say nothing of players. Think Paul Konerko or B.J. Ryan want to come work for us after reading about all this crap?

(And, for those of you who harbored any hope whatsoever that Manny Ramirez would be in a Red Sox uniform this spring, rest assured that he is gone for sure now that Larry Lucchino has asserted his primacy.)

This is a dark day.

It's hard to shake the feeling that the giddy elation we were all still feeling a year ago today has now been quashed irrevocably. An overreaction? Maybe. But you've got to wonder if Brian McGrory is right when he laments that "the Red Sox ... are undergoing the nearly wholesale dismantling of their magical, championship club."

Theo Epstein is not walking through that door. Pedro Martinez is not walking through that door. Manny is as good as gone. Johnny probably too. Schilling is pissed off. Ortiz is dumbfounded. ("Crazy. It's crazy.") Wakefield is upset. Tito too.

Damn it all.

But at least we still have Larry Lucchino. And a brand new EMC club where we can drink our $7 beers in our $275 seats as we watch our hastily cobbled-together Boston Red Sox this spring.

And, whatever happens in the coming days, weeks, and months, it should comfort you that Dan Shaughnessy is "still hoping that it can be fixed."

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