Today is an interesting day for Larry Lucchino. He gets to watch his personal, Theo-less work live, as Anibal Sanchez pitches against the Nationals, Hanley Ramirez looks to continue his hot start and Josh Beckett looks to down the suddenly-mighty KC Royals. Larry Lucchino has been bugging me ever since the Theo contract debacle in the '06 offseason, when Lucchino seemed absolutely determined to show that the Red Sox organization did not need Theo Epstein, that Theo was overrated, that the Sox were better off without him. Lets back up a bit...
When the Red Sox were in the A-Rod lottery, trying to send an incredibly discontented Manny Ramirez down to Texas and bring the highest payed player to Boston. Lucchino was strongly opposed to bringing Rodriguez to Boston, and while the whole Manny thing has worked out, the fans and ownership have had to deal with the prima donna's act ever since. There has never been reports of A-Rod deciding he wanted out of the limelight, not running out a ground ball, or deciding he just didn't want to play that day. A-Rod has lived up to his contract not only in numbers, but in character, the ultimate competitor. Manny has often showed his neutrality to winning and losing on the field, only caring about his own privacy. Though I love Manny, I would have truly loved to have seen A-Rod playing his natural position at SS at Fenway. Lucchino cares not about the character of a player apparently.
Then Lucchino was strongly against the Nomar trade. Sure, you have to have some kind of sentimentality toward arguably the best Boston player since Yaz and Freddy Lynn, but numbers and health do not lie. Had the Sox been swept by the Yankees in '04, Lucchino would have gone for Theo's head. Trading Nomar has turned out to be the most heads up move in Sox history. He was on a downslide, and in '05 when he stepped out of the batters box and collapsed like man shot between the eyes, Theo had to smirk. Nomar was much more fragile than any diehard Boston fan was willing to believe. If the Sox had traded Manny, and he had been punished for "being Manny" in Texas, Boston fans would have seen the light with him as well. Lucchino is simply not the visionary that Theo is and does not look at things in the long run. He is the classic Boston front office CEO who looks for the "quick fix", rather than going in for the long haul.
When Theo left, largely I believe because of Lucchino's actions and media-whoring, Lucchino tried to erase Theo and move on as quickly as possible. While the rest of the front office was figuring out ways to bring Theo back into the organization, Lucchino was setting up interviews with new potential GMs Jeremy Kapstein, Jim Bowden and Jim Beattie. Henry and Werner pretty much seemed to act as if they were not going to take any of these guys seriously, as Theo was the only man on their radar. When Lucchino realized this, he took a step further and promoted Jed Hoyer and Ben Cherington to "co-general managers". This was yet another childish ploy by Lucchino against Theo, as Theo had grown up in the organization with these two individuals and if he were to return, it would seem like he was kicking his closest friends out of their jobs. Lucchino seemed determined to do anything and everything to ruin Theo and keep him out of the Sox office, the same office that Theo had used to put together the first Boston World Championship team in 86 years.
Though Theo has returned of course, and Lucchino has taken more of a backseat when it comes to speaking to the media, I will not forget the way that Larry has treated the golden boy, Mr. Epstein. And I know, in the near future when Theo starts making waves by attempting to move a big name in Boston, or deciding not to resign a big name ::cough:: Schilling ::cough::, Lucchino will be waiting to pounce...
No comments:
Post a Comment