Welcome to DC Theo

[SkinInsite]

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2209574

Epstein leaves Red Sox without a GM

BOSTON -- Boston Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein resigned Monday, surprising Boston and the baseball world just one year after he helped build the franchise's first World Series championship team since 1918.

The team said in a statement that Epstein will continue working for several days to assist in the transition and prepare for the offseason.

The Boston Herald, which first reported the news on its web site, said the Yale graduate has told associates that he may leave baseball, or at least take a year off.

The Dodgers, Phillies and Devil Rays have GM openings, but none has a $120 million payroll to match the one Epstein was given in Boston.

The 31-year-old Epstein was reportedly offered about $4.5 million for a three-year extension -- quadruple his previous salary. But it was still short of the $2.5 million a year the Red Sox offered Oakland's Billy Beane in 2002 before making Epstein the youngest GM in baseball history.

Although Epstein and team president Larry Lucchino haggled over the usual issues of salary and authority, the Herald said Epstein went through "agonizing soul-searching" about his relationship with his mentor. The Herald said a Sunday newspaper column contained inside information about their relationship, "slanted too much in Lucchino's favor," and convinced Epstein there had been a breach of trust.

Epstein grew up blocks away from Fenway Park and worked for Lucchino with the Baltimore Orioles and San Diego Padres. A lifelong Red Sox fan, Epstein was brought to Boston to be the assistant GM and promoted to his dream job in 2002, about five weeks before his 29th birthday.

A devotee of statistical analysis who values his scouts as well, Epstein's tenure has been marked by bold adventures that often conflicted with baseball orthodoxy.

He signed first baseman Kevin Millar, despite an unspoken agreement not to poach from Japanese clubs.

He went without a traditional closer in his first year, with disastrous results.

He tried to trade for reigning MVP Alex Rodriguez -- a deal that would have meant shipping out Manny Ramirez and Nomar Garciaparra -- and then, without remorse, pulled the plug when the deal became too expensive.

He ate Thanksgiving dinner with Curt Schilling in a college football-style recruiting trip that lured the right-handed ace to Boston.

He traded Garciaparra, the face of the franchise, for the parts he needed to complete the World Series puzzle.

But the efforts have paid off.

The Red Sox reached the AL Championship Series in 2003 before the lack of a closer doomed Grady Little in Game 7 at Yankee Stadium. The next year, with a new manager and the closer it had lacked, the ballclub won its first World Series in 86 years.

Boston reached the postseason for a third consecutive year this season before getting swept by the Chicago White Sox in the first round.

[TODD]

OMG... If he game to DC I would be going NUTS. But that's hard to speculate considering we don't have an owner...

[Kevin West]

The new owner would have to eat the contract extension Bowden got last week.

[spjunkies]

The new owner would have to eat the contract extension Bowden got last week.

They only extended him for 6 months.

[jbooma]

I can't believe Larry F***ed up this bed, Theo is a Red Sox, but would love to see him here in DC.

[RonJeremy]

DC will be out of the running for his services until they finally get an owner. Unless he truely stays out a year, I don't see him in DC.

I think he will land somewhere else and not stay out a year... :2cents:

[chomerics]

The story here in Boston is that Larry leaked a story about the deal to the Globe, and Theo told him to F' off. You always want to surround yourself with people like Theo Epstein, not get rid of them. If I was John Henry, I make a trip to Newton Mass and offer up Theo a nice $2million/year contract and push Luchinochio out.

[Spaceman Spiff]

Welcome to DC? Please. Theo is a good GM, no doubt but he also had a $120 million budget to work with.

[jbooma]

Welcome to DC? Please. Theo is a good GM, no doubt but he also had a $120 million budget to work with.

how did the other gms in boston do the last 86 years

[Spaceman Spiff]

how did the other gms in boston do the last 86 years

How many of them had a payroll that big?

[chomerics]

Welcome to DC? Please. Theo is a good GM, no doubt but he also had a $120 million budget to work with.

Name another GM that would have had the BRASS BALLS to trade Nomah for two .250 hitters??? Seriously, he was destroyed by that move, and I was one of the few that agreed with it. He traded an overpaid star for pitching and defense, the things that win championships.

Hi is the best GM in the game, and it is a HUGE HUGE loss for the Sox. He inhereted many of the bad contracts, so I don't think the total payroll has any implication on his ability, but the championship was a direct result of his correct analysis of his team. Honesty is something you rarely find in sports, especially in evaluating yourself, but he has it.

My money is that he's going to the LA Dodgers. He'll join up with Frank McCourt, a Boston Real Estate developer.

Just to show you what I think of Theo, these were posts I made on KFFL the day the Nomar trade was completed.

As hard as it for me to say this, Nomah is gone. . . He was a HELL of a player and it sucks, but we DID get something for him.

I have to say this, Theo did a HELL of a job getting this trade done. He picked up two guys having sub par years for Nomah. Nomar is hurting and we probably won't get much out of him for the rest of the year, yet he still got us depth. Theo played his chips magnificantly, just to get anything for him right now.

Think of this, Nomah will leave at the end of the year and we will get nothing for him, except for a couple of draft picks. If you think the draft picks can pan out BETTER than Meintkewicz and Cabrera, then I'll be with you any day of the week. Both Meintkewicz and Cabrera are bought on a low point basis, just like a stock in the market. What's the over riding principle? Buy low and sell high, well in Theo's position, he did just that, he bought low.

Great Deal.

He left the door open for offseason negotiations and increased the defense IMMENSELY, do I need to remind you what wins championships? Pitching and defense!!! Well, now we've got both, a gold glove infield, and a hell of a staff. Espically with how this is going to help Lowe, it's a GREAT move. This took balls of steel to do. He's running the team the way a championship team is run. If not this year, in the near future, he's the man!!! Can you immaging Duquette making this move? HA, how about Gorman, no frigning way, they were to emotionaly tied to the club. This is a GREAT business decision and the way you run a club, just like the Pats, kudos to the managment of both teams.

http://www.kffl.com/forums/showthread.php?t=79295&page=3&pp=15&highlight=Nomar

[Spaceman Spiff]

Chom, I don't doubt that Theo is a great GM. I wouldn't mind him coming to Baltimore if it were possible. I don't think there's a team out there that would turn him down.

But let's be honest about Nomaaaaaaah here for a second. Remember that game in Yankee stadium where Jeter went headfirst into the crowd and busted up his face? Total bull**** by the way, he could have pulled up, but I digress. Remember how all the Red Sox were standing up and leaning against the dugout fence but Nomar was sulking? His career in Boston was done that night, and I don't care WHO the GM was, they would have found a way to have gotten rid of him sooner or later.

Of course the trade was good, Theo added the dimension to the Sox that they were sorely lacking, which is defense. You and I both know that pitching is only good as the defense behind it. I thought the trade was pretty good at the time. People were just pissed that they weren't getting a big name in return for Nomah.

Like I said, I don't doubt that Theo isn't a good GM. All I'm saying is that it helps when you have the second highest payroll in the game. One could argue that Beane is the best GM in the game because his payroll is really low, yet he finds a way to win every year.

I dunno, this will really be interesting to see how this all pans out. I hate to say it, but this could be the beginning of the downfall of the Sox. Shaky pitching, Man-Ram looking to leave town...

I hope I'm wrong though. I've really liked seeing the great Sox/Yanks matchups over the past few years.

[chomerics]

Chom, I don't doubt that Theo is a great GM. I wouldn't mind him coming to Baltimore if it were possible. I don't think there's a team out there that would turn him down.

But let's be honest about Nomaaaaaaah here for a second. Remember that game in Yankee stadium where Jeter went headfirst into the crowd and busted up his face? Total bull**** by the way, he could have pulled up, but I digress. Remember how all the Red Sox were standing up and leaning against the dugout fence but Nomar was sulking? His career in Boston was done that night, and I don't care WHO the GM was, they would have found a way to have gotten rid of him sooner or later.

Of course the trade was good, Theo added the dimension to the Sox that they were sorely lacking, which is defense. You and I both know that pitching is only good as the defense behind it. I thought the trade was pretty good at the time. People were just pissed that they weren't getting a big name in return for Nomah.

Like I said, I don't doubt that Theo isn't a good GM. All I'm saying is that it helps when you have the second highest payroll in the game. One could argue that Beane is the best GM in the game because his payroll is really low, yet he finds a way to win every year.

I dunno, this will really be interesting to see how this all pans out. I hate to say it, but this could be the beginning of the downfall of the Sox. Shaky pitching, Man-Ram looking to leave town...

I hope I'm wrong though. I've really liked seeing the great Sox/Yanks matchups over the past few years.

It is a very depressing day for me as a Sox fan, as I thought he was the best GM in the game. The others I liked were Beane and Richardi, maybe they can lure Beane out of the contract, but I doubt it.

As for Nomar, there wasn't a single GM in Boston that would have done that move. Remember Ducette let BOTH Clemens and Vaughn go without anything because of the local press. Theo always ignored what the press had to say, and made decisions devoid of emotion. This is EXACTLY what I want in a GM, somebody who can separate the fandom part of the team and make decisions based strictly on what is best. There are few people that would have done it.

You also have to remember that trading Nomar in Boston was akin to the O's trading Ripken in 89. He WAS the franchise, brought up in the system, and he was loved and adored by the entire town. He got a free ride in the media and he was always looked at in the golden light. The move by Theo was TRASHED in Boston, just go back and read some of the responses on KFFL for a bit of a glimpse into the psyche of the fans.

In hindsight, it was awsome, but everyone forgets that he was torched for doing it, yet he saw the weakness in the team and made the correct decision to fix it by trading Nomar. Great move, took a lot of balls and placed him in the pantheon of Boston lore for ever.

As for the downfall of the Sox? No way. THey have way way to much talent in the minors right now. Papelbon looked great down the stretch run, plus they have another 2 pitchers ready next year. They have Shopach, Rameriz (Hanley) and 2 other prospects ready for the bigs as well. Each player is ready to come up, so they will not dwindle down and start to fall.

Maybe next year, with the loss of Daimon and Manny, but in two years they will be a lot better.

[Posse81]

It would be huge if the Nats could land Theo, but I doubt they will be able to. Bowden's extension doesn't really look like it'll stand in the way, because it was only for six months. I think though, that Theo will be off the market by the time MLB picks the ownership group and they are officially sold the team. I think we're looking at Bowden for at least another year at this point which may or may not be a bad thing (the jury is still out on him in my opinion).

That being said, if they somehow were in a position to land Theo, I think you do whatever it takes to bring him in. Hopefully he will agree with me that Frank Robinson needs to go.

[Spaceman Spiff]

It is a very depressing day for me as a Sox fan, as I thought he was the best GM in the game. The others I liked were Beane and Richardi, maybe they can lure Beane out of the contract, but I doubt it.

As for Nomar, there wasn't a single GM in Boston that would have done that move. Remember Ducette let BOTH Clemens and Vaughn go without anything because of the local press. Theo always ignored what the press had to say, and made decisions devoid of emotion. This is EXACTLY what I want in a GM, somebody who can separate the fandom part of the team and make decisions based strictly on what is best. There are few people that would have done it.

You also have to remember that trading Nomar in Boston was akin to the O's trading Ripken in 89. He WAS the franchise, brought up in the system, and he was loved and adored by the entire town. He got a free ride in the media and he was always looked at in the golden light. The move by Theo was TRASHED in Boston, just go back and read some of the responses on KFFL for a bit of a glimpse into the psyche of the fans.

In hindsight, it was awsome, but everyone forgets that he was torched for doing it, yet he saw the weakness in the team and made the correct decision to fix it by trading Nomar. Great move, took a lot of balls and placed him in the pantheon of Boston lore for ever.

As for the downfall of the Sox? No way. THey have way way to much talent in the minors right now. Papelbon looked great down the stretch run, plus they have another 2 pitchers ready next year. They have Shopach, Rameriz (Hanley) and 2 other prospects ready for the bigs as well. Each player is ready to come up, so they will not dwindle down and start to fall.

Maybe next year, with the loss of Daimon and Manny, but in two years they will be a lot better.

Chom, I'm not saying that its the downfall for sure, I certainly hope it isn't. You and I both know that there's no such thing as a surefire prospect (see Brien Taylor, Van Poppel, Corey Patterson, etc). Hopefully the prospects pan out and keep the Sox on/near the top.

I can see where you would relate trading Nomar to trading Cal in 1989. But at their times in their career, Nomar was an injury riddled mess, while Ripken hadn't missed a game. Cal's offense had fallen off, but he was still sure handed defensively while everyone knows that Nomar's defensive range had fallen as well. Despite Cal's lack of performance at the plate, he was still a leader and his attitude hadn't soured. But I agree on the point of both being the face of their respective franchises. I see where you're coming from. But 1989 Ripken trumps 2004 Nomar.

[Spaceman Spiff]

Chom,

from espn.com's sportsguy. good read.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/051101

By Bill Simmons

Page 2

Let's get this out of the way first …

From a pure baseball standpoint, I thought Theo Epstein was a little overrated. Just a little.

So I'm not in full-fledged, "Oh my God, we lost Theo!" panic mode like some other Boston fans. I liked everything I ever read about Theo, thought he did a decent job, loved having a local guy running the team, even appreciated how he avoided the spotlight and seemed devoted to his job -- eschewing ego-related perks like frequent TV appearances, radio shows, cheapie books, etc. Considering he was hired as Boston's general manager position at age 28, before he was experienced enough to run a team, looking back, there's no question he acquitted himself well.

With that said, you can't ignore the fact that Theo was staggeringly fortunate over the past three seasons. Consider …

• Many of the blockbuster moves he wanted to make over that time (Jose Contreras before 2003, Javy Vazquez and the Manny/A-Rod and Nomar/Magglio Ordonez trades before 2004, Carl Pavano and Adrian Beltre before 2005) would have worked out poorly in the end. In each case, his Plan B or C (keeping Manny, getting Curt Schilling and Orlando Cabrera) ended up being a better move than his original intention. Is that skill, is that luck, or is it a little of both? You tell me.

• Last winter, when the franchise had a free pass with fans to either A) bring back most of the championship team, or remake the franchise for the next 10 years, the Red Sox chose the curious direction of dumping certain key guys (Lowe, Pedro, Cabrera, Roberts) and spending too much money on iffy free agents (Edgar Renteria and Matt Clement), handicapping the team's payroll for the immediate future and leaving the team in the curious position of losing more World Series heroes this offseason (definitely Johnny Damon, possibly Manny) to keep guys who hadn't won anything with the team.

• He did a subpar job with the 2005 roster, remaining loyal with some guys too long during the season (Foulke, Bellhorn, Embree, Millar) and not making any of those Shawn Chacon/Aaron Small-type moves to keep the team rolling (with the exception of the Tony Graffanino trade). And that misguided loyalty raised the question, "Why weren't they as loyal to guys like Cabrera and Roberts?"

• If Posada's throw to second base is 1/10th of a second quicker, Roberts doesn't steal second and young Theo suddenly isn't getting a free ride for the A-Rod saga, the Nomar trade, the Renteria signing and everything else.

Did I like him? Absolutely.

Do I believe that he would have grown into this job and been an absolute asset down the line? No question.

Are we losing a young Red Auerbach here? Umm … it's a little early to say that, don't you think?

Let's face it, it's much easier to run a baseball team when you have $110-120 million to spend every season -- for instance, on a mid-market team like the A's, Renteria's $40 million contract would have been a crippling mistake. In Boston, you can live with those screwups, just like you can take expensive flyers on injury guys (Wade Miller, Matt Mantei, Scott Williamson) and hope one of them works out. Sure, the Sox ended up getting Schilling, but they were also one of the only teams who could afford him. Same with Damon, Foulke, Renteria, Clement and A-Rod (had the deal happened). So did Theo really perform that much better than anyone else who had such a huge payroll to work with? I don't know. Heading into 2006, the team is in worse shape (both financially and from a talent standpoint) than it was heading into 2005. Doesn't he deserve some semblance of blame for that?

On the flip side, Theo deserves major props for five things:

1. The Nomar-Cabrera trade on July 31, 2004. Few people would have had the testicular fortitude to trade a local icon to save a season; even fewer would have handled it as smoothly when it happened. No matter what happens for the next 40 years, that will always go down as his greatest moment. The Red Sox won the World Series that day.

2. The Big Papi signing before the 2003 season. Like Dan Duquette before him, Theo smartly took flyers on bargain guys who had shown signs of life on other teams -- Ortiz, Williamson, Bellhorn, Mueller, Jeremy Giambi, Jay Payton -- and hoped that some of them would work out. Well, with the exception of Bob Cousy, no "flyer" worked out better for a Boston sports team than Big Papi. Theo found him, Big Papi became a cross between Hendu, Ghandi and Paul Revere, and that was that.

3. The Schilling trade and contract extension -- just the sheer perserverence he showed that week. Theo read Schilling perfectly and did everything right.

4. His refusal to deplete Boston's well of prospects during the 2005 season with multiple panic trades -- out of anything, I'm most grateful for this. Not everyone would have been secure enough to avoid cowtowing to the "We got to do something! The sky is falling!" syndrome that starts with the radio shows and newspapers, spreads to the message boards, spills into the ballpark and affects every Red Sox season. The bottom line was that the Red Sox probably weren't repeating as champs with their three most valuable pitchers from 2004 missing (Schilling, Pedro and Foulke). So why mortgage the farm?

5. I have never read one thing about him -- not from a player, a fellow front-office employee or any other baseball executive -- that made me think Theo Epstein was anything but a good guy who honestly just cared about making the Red Sox better.

Of course, it's difficult to separate that last point from an honest evaluation of the guy's performance in Boston. The thing is, he was a good guy -- handsome, local kid, grew up dreaming of running the Sox, said and did all the right things -- and it's easy to overlook some of his mistakes because of the romantic view of the Theo Era. For better or worse, whether he liked it or not, Theo evolved into Boston's version of JFK Junior. When things went wrong, everyone blamed the owners and not him. When things went right, he received most of the credit. You couldn't ask for a cushier situation.

Which raises the lingering question …

Why the hell would Theo leave?

I had a feeling this could happen right after the White Sox series, as soon as I started hearing whispers from semi-connected people back home that the relationship between Theo and minority owner Larry Lucchino was much more complicated than anyone imagined. There were rumors about a squashed Manny trade, as well as some second-guessing from the higher-ups, with the biggest problem being that Lucchino (an infamous attention hog) seemed to be bristling from the attention that Theo was receiving. Don't forget, when this current ownership group bought the team, John Henry and Tom Werner were the money guys, and Lucchino was given a minority stake in return for three things: (1) He would run the day-to-day operations of the franchise; (2) he would handle revamping Fenway Park and derive as much income as possible from the team's revenue sources (the surrounding streets around the park, the team's cable station, advertising inside the park and so on); and (3) he would have a certain amount of control over the team's baseball decisions. In retrospect, Lucchino was a genius -- because Henry was a private man, and Tom Werner had been burned by his experience in San Diego, Lucchino convinced them to make him a de facto co-owner (as well as the visible one) without assuming nearly the same financial burden.

So when he watched Theo's stock continue to rise (Lucchino's protege, by the way), you could see this collision coming a mile away. Put yourself in Theo's shoes -- he wins the World Series and achieves his lifelong dream, he's a demigod in Boston, he's a hot commodity in baseball … and not only is he wildly underpaid, he's still answering to someone who considers himself Theo's mentor, as well as someone who routinely second-guessed and even squashed some of his moves. How was that a good situation? At some point, if you were Theo Epstein, wouldn't you want the car keys? And if you were the Red Sox owners and you had the car keys, as well as a World Series trophy, would you really be that willing to give up final say on every move?

Three weeks ago, I went on Mike Felger's ESPN Radio show in Boston and predicted that Theo would leave. They thought I was crazy. I gave them my whole Car Keys theory as an explanation. They still thought I was crazy. In last week's football picks column, I finally had a chance to write something about it, so I stuck a non-NFL pick in there that looked like this:

Theo Epstein (+11) LARRY LUCCHINO

In the following paragraph, I explained the same Car Keys theory from Felger's show. And as late as Thursday night, it was still in the column. But before I sent it in to my editors, I checked Friday's Boston Globe (which comes online around midnight) to make sure there was nothing about Theo's situation in there. Just my luck, there was a story about how Theo's contract was in the process of getting done. Oh, well. I yanked the section. And there's a reason I'm telling you this -- Theo's "surprise" departure didn't come out of left field (as so many people seem to think), and it certainly wasn't difficult to anticipate or predict. Just eight years ago, a similar power struggle unfolded between Patriots owner Robert Kraft and Bill Parcells, and that ended infinitely worse than this one. In the case of Theo-Lucchino, the writing was on the wall. One guy loves going on radio and TV shows, the other guy hated it. One guy loves the power rush of running a team, the other guy just liked making baseball moves. One guy loved getting credit, the other guy didn't care. But both guys wanted the car keys. And there was no way this could ever be truly resolved without one of them leaving.

Here's what I love about Theo (and why his stock rose with me for life): Not everyone would have the stones to walk away from their dream job. Putting myself in his shoes, my dream job would be running the Boston Celtics … and I'm pretty sure I could have done better than some of the bozos of the last 15 years. If I spent my entire life working towards that chance, and then I got it, only one scenario would make me give that up -- if I couldn't stand working for my owners and felt like they were constantly second-guessing and undermining me, and the situation deteriorated to the point that my quality of life was being compromised. Even then, I'm not sure I would walk away.

Well, Theo walked away.

When Dan Shaughnessy published his hideous mentor-protege column in Sunday's Boston Globe -- a column covered in Lucchino's fingerprints that made Theo come off like an ungrateful, disloyal, incompetent jerk -- Theo singlehandedly changed his mind about staying with the team. How could he work for people that he didn't trust, people who would wait until both sides had agreed to terms before leaking a "Now take this!" column that was clearly meant to put him in his place. Imagine being Theo, waking up on a Sunday morning and seeing that slanted crap in your local paper -- a house organ with ownership ties to the Red Sox, no less? How could you come back to the team and live with yourself? They underestimated his character, his resolve and his willingness to walk away from the only job he ever wanted. At least he left with his dignity.

(And just for the record, I don't believe any of this "Boston was too crazy, he wanted a normal life again" stuff that some people are theorizing, including our own Peter Gammons. That seems like one of those "It's not you, it's me" rationalizions that you would make up when you dump your overbearing girlfriend. What was Theo supposed to do, burn his bridges on the way out and say what obviously happened -- that his former mentor, as well as the two other owners who gave him a chance, basically drove him crazy enough to walk away from his dream job? The truth will come out. That's all I'm saying. There have been whispers about major problems with the Lucchino-Epstein relationship for far too long. Just wait.)

As for the Red Sox, they have shamed themselves beyond belief, with the Shaughnessy column being the final straw. The same guys who brought Boston a World Series also formed an Orwellian media conglomerate in which they control all the information in the city's most important newspaper, as well as the TV and radio stations that carry the games. Just about every Red Sox-related scoop is directed to one of those three outlets, with Boston Herald writers repeatedly complaining about the unfairness of it all. In particular, the Epstein coverage was appallingly one-sided from the Globe's side -- culminating in Shaughnessy's incredible column, to the point that Red Sox fans have to question the credibility of anything they read in what used to be a sports section that meant something. It was telling that, on the same day that Theo announced his resignation, Monday's Globe contained a story reporting that he had signed for three years.

Call me crazy, but I believe this is a bigger story than Theo Epstein leaving the Red Sox -- an unprecedented situation where a sports franchise controls the local coverage of itself, to some degree, in every possible medium. During the A-Rod debacle in the winter of 2003 -- when Lucchino clashed with Texas Rangers owner Tom Hicks to the point that John Henry had to remove Lucchino from the trade talks and the Red Sox took a "Screw Hicks, we'll wait until the pricetag drops in spring training" position, never imagining that the Yankees could get involved -- Lucchino received a curious amount of leeway from a local media that normally jumps on that stuff (including from the routinely vicious "Dennis and Callahan" show, where Lucchino has a weekly segment). Over these past few weeks, when the team was clearly lowballing Theo financially and acting like he was expendable to a degree, only the Boston Herald and Providence Journal were critical. More than anything else, I think that skewed situation led to young Theo fleeing the coup.

There's one other factor here, and I guarantee it's playing a bigger role than just about anyone can understand …

When you dream about doing something for a long time, and then it happens, it's never actually as good as you think it would be. There's almost a surreal letdown of sorts after the fact. And it's impossible to explain unless it's happened to you. For instance, ever since I was in college, I dreamed of having my own sports column and covering a Boston team when they won a championship. That's all I wanted. In the spring of 2001, ESPN found me. Nine months later, my beloved Patriots went to the Super Bowl and shocked the Rams in New Orleans. I wrote about it every day, and on the morning after they won, my column ran on the front page of this Web site. Greatest professional moment of my life, right?

Well, something weird happened. After that game, I couldn't stop thinking, "All right, what happens now? What do I do? How can I top my dream moment?"

And the thing is, you can't. The moment happens, it ends, you celebrate and feel good about yourself … and then it's on to the next day, and you have to figure out what the next challenge is, and deep down, you're wondering why you didn't enjoy that watershed moment more than you thought you would. I don't know Theo, I have never met him, and the experience of being the general manager of the first Red Sox championship in 86 years was roughly 100,000,000 times more profound and important than my experience in New Orleans. But the fact remains, after that Super Bowl column, I struggled writing this column for the next seven-to-eight months; eventually, I ended up moving to California to write for a fledgling late-night television show. That Super Bowl trip changed everything for me.

Did something similar happen to Theo after winning the World Series? Is this what happened to David Caruso when he said, "Screw it, I don't need NYPD Blue anymore?" On a much, much larger scale, is this what happened to talents like Dave Chappelle, Eddie Murphy, Kurt Cobain, Michael Jordan and everyone else who either walked away from their alleged dream job or sabotaged it in their prime? Is that why the Peggy Lee song "Is that all there is?" rings especially true in moments like these?

Right now, I don't have an answer for you. But since I failed to get my previous "car keys" prediction down on paper, allow me to make another one for you: I see Theo taking the year off. I see him going into relative hiding, growing some sort of goofy facial hair like a fu manchu, maybe even growing his flattop out. I see him refusing just about every interview, laying low, maybe doing some consultant work for Josh Byrnes in Arizona. I see him moving out of the city to salvage what's left of his privacy. Hell, he may even have a crappy music album in him.

And a year from now, maybe two, he'll come back to baseball refreshed and recharged, armed with enough savvy to avoid another front-office quagmire like the one in Boston. Maybe it won't be his dream job, but that's the thing about dreams -- sometimes they come true, and sometimes you have to deal with the consequences and figure out what's really important to you.

Something tells me that Theo hasn't figured this out yet. I hope he does. Overrated or not, he still goes down as the guy who brought the Red Sox their first World Series title in 86 years. And after something that monumental, maybe you need a couple of years to come up with the right encore. To be continued.

[chomerics]

Great article Spiff and by my man the Sports Guy

He's spot on, and it is why I am so upset over the entire matter. Consider the Sox and the Globe akin to Bush and Fox News. Both go hand in hand, and the Sox control the media, this just proves it. Write a bad piece in the Sox, you don't get the scoop. Write what they want you to, and you get the Rock Star treatment. It is a microcosim of society today, and it was played on a local scale up here for all to see.

I pretty much agree with everything Bill Simmons says, and I've listened to him on 1510 a few times. He adds some great insight, but the mere fact that he is my age, and he grew up with the exact same feelings I have about the Sox, the Pats and the rest of the Boston sports scene adds more creedence. He hit everything with this article, and I would definataely put it up with one of his top five articles he's ever written.

The only "good" thing that will come out of this is that Dan "Shank" Shaughnessy will forever go down as the man who made Theo leave. He always thought HE was the story, as well as other Boston sports writers, but now atleast he has the entire Red Sox Nation hating him. . . He was also the one that coined the phrase "curse of the Bambino" and wrote a book about it. . . freakin curly haired looser (a quip from when Carl Everett was playing for the Sox)

One last thought, the 5 things Simmons brings up are the exact reasons I loved Theo so much. He had not only the balls to do what he thought needed to be done, he also took the heat when he needed to. He is a person I would follow off the face of this earth, as he definately gets "it".

1. The Nomar-Cabrera trade on July 31, 2004. Few people would have had the testicular fortitude to trade a local icon to save a season; even fewer would have handled it as smoothly when it happened. No matter what happens for the next 40 years, that will always go down as his greatest moment. The Red Sox won the World Series that day.

2. The Big Papi signing before the 2003 season. Like Dan Duquette before him, Theo smartly took flyers on bargain guys who had shown signs of life on other teams -- Ortiz, Williamson, Bellhorn, Mueller, Jeremy Giambi, Jay Payton -- and hoped that some of them would work out. Well, with the exception of Bob Cousy, no "flyer" worked out better for a Boston sports team than Big Papi. Theo found him, Big Papi became a cross between Hendu, Ghandi and Paul Revere, and that was that.

3. The Schilling trade and contract extension -- just the sheer perserverence he showed that week. Theo read Schilling perfectly and did everything right.

4. His refusal to deplete Boston's well of prospects during the 2005 season with multiple panic trades -- out of anything, I'm most grateful for this. Not everyone would have been secure enough to avoid cowtowing to the "We got to do something! The sky is falling!" syndrome that starts with the radio shows and newspapers, spreads to the message boards, spills into the ballpark and affects every Red Sox season. The bottom line was that the Red Sox probably weren't repeating as champs with their three most valuable pitchers from 2004 missing (Schilling, Pedro and Foulke). So why mortgage the farm?

5. I have never read one thing about him -- not from a player, a fellow front-office employee or any other baseball executive -- that made me think Theo Epstein was anything but a good guy who honestly just cared about making the Red Sox better.

BTW, here is the POS globe article shank wrote. . .

Let's iron out some of this dirty laundry

By Dan Shaughnessy, Globe Columnist | October 30, 2005

The news conference should be at Fenway tomorrow afternoon. Halloween. No tricks. No boos. Look for the traditional handshake and jack-o-lantern smiles from Theo Epstein and Larry Lucchino. They'll say they look forward to many more years working together to bring championship baseball to Boston.

It's too bad it went this far. Too bad it took this long. Theo's old contract expires at midnight tomorrow, and there were a few hours last week when it felt like he might actually leave the Sox.

Now it looks as though Theo's new deal will be announced tomorrow and life will return to normal on Yawkey Way. Theo can get back to business, trying to trade Manny Ramirez and figuring out what to do about center field, first base, third base, and the pitching staff for 2006.

The unfortunate part of the entire episode is that a lot of inside stuff went public. The father-son dynamic of Lucchino and Epstein has been unveiled before all of Red Sox Nation. The family linen was aired publicly and now every move will be examined for fingerprints: Theo or Larry? Did they agree? Did Theo have to talk Larry into it? Or was this some bigfoot move by Lucchino?

Theo Epstein is a truly remarkable young man from a truly remarkable family. He would be a success in any field of his choice and Boston is fortunate that he set out to have a career in baseball. He got to the mountaintop faster than anyone in the history of the game and deserves to be paid accordingly. But he did not get there alone. And that's why he's not signed yet. That's why this has taken so long.

The Theo-Larry story is as old as the Bible. Mentor meets protege. Mentor teaches young person all he knows. Eventually, the prodigy is ready to make it on his own and no longer feels he needs the old man. That's what we've seen unfold on Yawkey Way, and that's why the Theo deal is not done yet.

Larry taught Theo too well and now he is looking in the mirror as he tries to hammer out a deal with the GM he made in his own image. Both are merely doing what they are trained to do. In Theo's case, he's doing what Larry trained him to do.

What is alarming -- for the future of the Sox franchise -- is Theo's sudden need to distance himself from those who helped him rise to his position of power. Lucchino and Dr. Charles Steinberg are a pair of Red Sox executives who ''discovered" Theo when he was a student at Yale. They picked him out of thousands of wannabe interns. They hired him in Baltimore and then took him to San Diego with them. They held his hand and drove him places during his Wonder Years. They urged him to get his law degree. And when they set up stakes at Fenway Park, they fought vigorously to bring him home. A year later, when Billy Beane got cold feet, Lucchino turned to 28-year-old Theo and made him the (then) youngest GM in the history of baseball.

And now Theo ''bristles at the notion of Steinberg and Lucchino taking credit for his success."

The above sentence appeared in a book I wrote on the 2004 Red Sox championship season and it was the only line Theo objected to. He thought it would get him in trouble with Lucchino. But it didn't. Lucchino laughed when he read it, and seemed genuinely amused that Theo would worry about any publicity regarding their relationship.

That was in March. And now we are in October. And a considerable amount of misinformation has been spilled.

Let's start with Theo being a ''baseball guy" while Larry is a lawyer with a lofty title (CEO). Granted, Epstein is a student of the game, but it's a mistake to say he knows more about baseball than Lucchino or anyone else in the Red Sox baseball operation. Theo is 31 years old and did not play baseball past high school. He spent four years at Yale and three years at law school. That hardly leaves time for much more than rotisserie league scouting. 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. Lucchino was a good high school baseball player and made it to the NCAA Final Four with Princeton's basketball team. He came to baseball as an executive in 1979, when Theo was 5 years old. That doesn't make him George Digby or Ray Boone, but he's not Les Otten, either.

Lucchino-bashers, and they are legion, maintain that he repeatedly has undermined Theo and on occasion killed deals made by Epstein and the minions. There was one, for sure. When Theo's assistant Josh Byrnes (hired by Arizona as GM Friday) made a deal with Colorado, Epstein thought he had a better deal with another club and requested that Lucchino fall on the sword and invoke the ownership approval clause to kill the Rockies deal. Accustomed to people hating him, Lucchino took the fall, killing the deal and saving Epstein.

It was charged last week that Sox management conducted a ''smear campaign" against Epstein. How? Where's the campaign? It was correctly reported that Theo turned down a three-year deal at $1.2 million per year. That's a smear campaign? There have been no quotes from Sox management on the negotiations. Lucchino and Epstein called me together at home Friday night but said they could say nothing about Theo's contract talks because they had not spoken with other outlets. So much for the Globe's ''home-court advantage" (the Globe's parent company, The New York Times Company, owns 17 percent of the Red Sox). So much for the cartel. In fact, Epstein's minions probably have done more talking about Theo's situation than anyone in Sox management. When postseason baseball visited Chicago, at least one nationally known Lucchino-hating Epstein source was trashing the Sox CEO to anyone who'd listen.

It was downright hilarious to read agent Scott Boras and Johnny Damon claiming the Sox weren't communicating with them because of Theo's own contract status. This from an agent who likes to make his deals on the eve of spring training. If there's silence from the Sox regarding Damon, maybe it's because the Sox are waiting for Johnny and Scott to get off their ridiculous five-year contract demand.

It would be a mistake for Epstein to think he can separate Lucchino from John Henry. Henry is a quiet man, but he is not a dolt. He believes in and trusts Lucchino. He admires his young GM, but it would be a mistake for Epstein to force Henry to choose.

This is how life works. People disagree. It doesn't mean they hate one another or can't work together. Lucchino and Epstein are mature enough to move forward from this regrettable past week.

Publicly, Theo always has talked about ''mutual respect" regarding his relationship with dad Larry. They know that their silence produced considerable speculation and acrimony. Fans and media members have taken shots and taken sides. The Sox tomorrow will present a united front. It still can work. The only unfortunate aspect is that the embers will smolder for years to come. We know too much now.

[Spaceman Spiff]

Chom,

Sportsguy is the man. I read his new book and went to a book signing and got it signed. Good guy, down to earth and personable. If you haven't read the book, you should. He's my favorite sportswriter, hands down.

WTF is up with Shaughnessy? I've never read his stuff, but it seems like no one likes him.

Edit: I mean thats the only article I've read. And I know he's responsible for coming up with the "Curse" gimmick.

[chomerics]

Chom,

Sportsguy is the man. I read his new book and went to a book signing and got it signed. Good guy, down to earth and personable. If you haven't read the book, you should. He's my favorite sportswriter, hands down.

WTF is up with Shaughnessy? I've never read his stuff, but it seems like no one likes him.

Edit: I mean thats the only article I've read. And I know he's responsible for coming up with the "Curse" gimmick.

I haven't been reading Simmons too much lately, but he is my avorite sports writer by far. He has his pulse on the 30 year old male like nobody else. His pop-culture references, the fantasy football stuff, his buddies getting on each other, all good stuff.

As for Shaugnssey, he's a freakin dolt. He along with Borges another Boston writer, constantly think THEY are the story. Shank is a good writer, but he is an evil SOB, and he has done things like this before. He has often made personal vendettas against certain atheletes in this town in order to promote his own superiority.

One of the knocks on Boston was always the media, and the sportswriters. They are very good writers, but they are also ****y SOBs that need to stop this crap. This will make shank run with his tail between his legs, a good thing. He's taking a beating on sports talk and he will be blaimed for the loss of Theo.

As for Theo, he was a demi-god for Boston. . . young local boy five years out of college and he's running the Red Sox. . . Then he brings a WS championship in his second year, man there will be a statue of Theo in Boston, you can mark my words on it. He is the envy of every single guy in Boston from 18-45 and he was the man up here. People will enact their revenge on Shank, and I can not immagine his e-mail today. He must have received 10,000 e-mails all hatin on him. As a Sox fan, I am depressed, but I admire Theo that much more.

Here is a 31 year old man who left his dream job because of principal. Man, I respect him MORE for resigning after that BS article. He has actually moved up a notch in my book, he just passed Jesus and only Tom Brady is above him

I can honestly see Theo running for president one day, along with Tom Brady. Both guys definately know what it takes, and do everything in thier power to win. They get "it" and they will be successful no matter what they do in life. People with that combination of knowledge, talent, drive and balls have the entire world as their oyester, and they deserve every bit of it.

[China]

Reports: Epstein ducked reporters by dressing as gorilla

BOSTON (AP) -- Did outgoing Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein pull a Halloween stunt to avoid the news media camped outside Fenway Park?

According to several reports, Epstein donned a gorilla costume before leaving the ballpark Monday night. Since Monday was Halloween, no one found the sight of a gorilla to be terribly unusual.

Epstein had issued a statement earlier in the day announcing his resignation as general manager. But reporters were eager to ask him questions.

That will finally happen today when Epstein holds a news conference at Fenway.