It's official. Theo Epstien, the former General Manager for the Boston Red Sox has decided that he will not be returning to his post. This is the GM who made the now infamous Nomar trade so that the Red Sox could have a shot at the big prize for the first time in years! This is the young mind who has fostered a fantastic farm system, and then protected them from trades so that they would be available for the Red Sox in future seasons! Meaning he is smart enough not to sacrifice the future of the team for the fleeting present.
This is the man that Larry Lucchino let walk.
Was it the money? Was it the length of the contract? Nope, not according to Theo. It was a lack of trust.
Theo didn't have an agent and had agreed to confidentiality. Yet the Boston Globe (who owns 17% of the Boston Red Sox and many at the Globe proudly wear their World Series rings) was somehow printing "nondisclosed" information! And information that made Theo look like an idiot at that!
I completely understand that Theo could not work in an atmosphere where he is not trusted, where all of his deals must go through the president and CEO (AKA Non-baseball guy) Larry Lucchino, where he agrees to certain things that are not held to by the other party in the agreement.
Is it the Globe's fault for printing these articles of inside information in an effort to be the #1 paper in Boston (oh, wait, they already are!) Is it Larry's fault for leaking information to a paper in an effort to make the Red Sox look ok if Theo should walk? I'm inclined to blame the latter.
Here's the real kicker: Monday, Oct 31st, The Globe prints that Theo has agreed to a deal. Tuesday, Nov 1st, Theo walks.
But the leaking of information didn't have anything to do with it. Yeah, right! It was the last straw! When the Globe has information regarding Theo's agreement even before Theo does, there are some problems.
Oh, well. Theo you will be missed, as will all of the players who will not resign because you weren't here to woo them. And we will miss the prospects who will be traded because you weren't here to protect them. And we will be sorry to see the poor free agent signings that the Red Sox will over pay for because you weren't here to decide them.
Have fun with the Dodgers, or where ever you end up. The Red Sox will be feeling the loss of Theo for several years to come!
I'm beginning a "Let's Lose Lucchino" campaign. If you'd like to join, please add your name to this post. Or call the Red Sox and ask for Tom or John.
Thanks for the championship, Theo!
3 comments:
Wanna send a message to Theo? Head to www.thankyoutheo.com. Supposedly he knows about it.
Oh, yeah, and I tried to link the article saying that Theo had agreed to the contract on Boston.com, but they'd pulled it. All I could find was ESPN reporting off of the Boston Globe.
Indeed, thanks to Theo for the championship!
One of the best things to happen to the Red Sox since 1967 and they just let him walk out the door. What gets me is that you don't negotiate until the last hour unless you WANTED TO STAY!
I don't usually like to equate "real life" with sports, because sports are really the "entertainment" section of life, etc., but here is a clear analogy I can see--
in the end, this comes down to an arrogant man (Larry Lucchino) who needed to exercise his will to power over someone else (Theo) by doublechecking everything he did and making sure Theo didn't screw up anything. There was NO NEED for this at all! Theo is one of the most brilliant young minds in baseball today and I need not list his ample qualifications here.
Think about it--in your workplace--would you tolerate someone taking credit for your work, someone leaking private conversations publically, someone who said they had to pick up your slack--when you weren't doing anything wrong? It doesn't matter if it's $15 an hour or $1.5 million a year, no one would tolerate that impossible situation.
Best wishes to Theo! I am confident he will be successful in whatever he does. I only hope the Red Sox learn from this preventable course of events.
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