From the Boston Herald’s Michael Silverman :
Theo Epstein stunned the Red Sox and the baseball world this afternoon by walking away from his job as general manager.
Just hours before his deal was set to expire at midnight, Epstein told his bosses and associates at the Red Sox™ Yawkey Way offices that he had decided not to accept a three-year deal worth $1.5 million a year, an extension for the contract he signed on Nov. 25, 2002.
Epstein had done some agonizing soul-searching the past few days, torn between staying at the job he had always coveted since his childhood days in Brookline and leaving because of intra-organizational politics and power struggles that he ultimately decided he could not live with any longer.
Epstein had come close to agreeing to a deal Saturday evening but had not officially conveyed acceptance of it. On Sunday, he began having serious misgivings about staying on. A leading contributing factor, according to sources close to the situation, was a column in Sunday™s Boston Globe in which too much inside information about the relationship between Epstein and his mentor, team president and CEO Larry Lucchino, was revealed — in a manner slanted too much in Lucchino™s favor. Epstein, according to these sources, had several reasons to believe Lucchino was a primary source behind the column and came to the realization that if this information were leaked hours before Epstein was going to agree to a new long-term deal, it signaled excessive bad faith between him and Lucchino.
Interestingly, Toronto’s J.P. Riccardi is not included on Silverman’s short list of candidates for Boston’s new opening.
Even if Lucchino was worse than Lizzie Grubman, I would still take the 4.5 million. That’s just me though.
One. This is bad news.
Two. Bring on DePo???
I’m confused.
Greg,
it seems kind of amazing that Cashman has decided he can put up with Steinbrenner for another year, while Theo says 3 years under Lucchino is enough.
Gooblar,
given DePodesta’s alleged aloofness, Boston sounds like a death sentence for him. But who knows? Stereotypes are perpetuated up the kazoo. I have no idea what these guys are really like. But it is fascinating to see the amount of effort the likes of Plaschke and Shaughnessey put forth in these one-dimensional portrayals…
i’m going outside to scream obscenities at nobody in particular. i’ll be back in 40 minutes.
same old fucking red sox.
David Ortiz, as quoted in Tuesday’s Boston Globe by Chris Snow :
“He (Epstein) leaves a team in transition, a team that must decide whether to accommodate Manny Ramirez’s trade request, how to improve its pitching staff, and whether to re-sign center fielder Johnny Damon and other free agents. But first the team must hire a general manager, and David Ortiz, speaking by phone last night, wondered who will want to work under Lucchino’s heavy hand.
”Who is the GM going to be?” Ortiz asked. ”And who is going to want to become GM of our team to work for somebody else? A GM wants to be somebody in a position [of power]. If you’re going to be the GM, just to get orders from someone else, it’s something they aren’t really comfortable with.
”We need Theo. Hopefully, they put it together to keep Theo.
”I think the problem is Theo is not getting enough of a position to say, ‘I’m going to do this, if I [mess] up, I [mess] up.’
”They’ve got to give it to him,” Ortiz said, meaning that the club should fight to retain Epstein and give him greater authority in making baseball decisions. ”He came up with some good ideas that did nothing but help this ball club, this team.
”Before, from what I hear, they had good players, but they never had that chemistry. That’s what the team is based on. Who brings the mentality to play the game every day? He understands that.”
Does anyone have a link to that Sunday Boston Globe article?? I can’t seem to find it online.
w.i.g., the article is linked within shaughnessy’s ass-covering column on boston.com today.
sour old man.
Thanks, KT!
the original sunday piece by Shaughnessey
http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/redsox/articles/2005/10/30/lets_iron_out_some_of_this_dirty_laundry/
This is a Bastrop county challenge from all 6ft and 11inches of ole
Marvin Kanada and Jimmy Kanada. Who has the audacity to
challenge 11 of our meanest neutered blood hounds with rabies,
syphilis, and razor sharp teeth in the middle of 3 feet of Bastrop
county johnson grass, whip more leprechauns with a goat horn in
order to make them lick ole Jimmy Kanada’s toilet clean, Piss for the
longest time in a bucket to wet the suit of a prick headed to the white
house, Vex more old 67 year old weman by pooping on a news
paper and throwing it at the door, fry more fish in dog piss and pig
snot to feed a 3 leg having goat, stink up more fish by stuffing them
with frog and mule dookey while they are still alive,train more wild
Hyenas to attack zoo keepers, flip over more cow pattys for
mushrooms that are placed on a pizza for serving stuck up weman,
hunt more wild zebra with a bunch of smoke bombs, stuff more
bottles with alligator piss and poodle poop for busting open store
windows, ride a moose 55 miles across wet swamp mud in order to
hunt mud fish, who could place more poop in the beak of a pelican,
drop more baby hogs in a bucket full of glow worms, beetles, and
scorpions, slop more stubborn house wives with doberman poop
and goat milk to make them mop the parking lot for not sucking ole
6ft and 11inch Marvin Kanada’s toes, whip the snot out of more pizza
delivery boys with a red hot branding iron for asking the wrong
questions, use more wild giraffe snot and guerrila piss for killing
polmetto cave roaches, sip more wine, yak, and red label liquir
before pissing off of a building with 55,000 people standing below
celebrating labor day, curse out more right wingers to warn them of
ole 6ft and 11inch Marvin Kanada’s mangy blood hounds with
rabies, hunt more geese with poison darts dipped in battery acid
and ape piss, take the longest crap on the store room floor of
Walgreens, dump more monkey poop in the bathroom sink of the
golf course restroom, climb up taller trees for a surprise attack on
camper, stab more deer with a rotten toe nail, neuter more jackals
and hyenas in the wild with sharp glass, hunt more duck with a
screw driver dipped in camel dookey, dry more pissy rags in order
to piss on them twice for gagging a figure ice skater, cut down more
weeds with your aunts toe nails tied to the end of a fishing pole,
laugh in the face of more conservatives before whipping one of
them with a broken toilet seat, throw more dog and duck poop at a
jogger during hunting season, soak more rope in P.M.S juice and
rat blood to slap the waiter in a family restaurant, stomp more water
bugs and grass snakes with no shoes or sock on, feed more blood
hounds with duck meat fried in cow sperm, use more bear piss and
frog sperm for force feeding a blind hillbilly cowboy with only 8 toes
due to the blood hound attack on Jimmy Kanada’s green trimmed
grass, and fill more water jugs up full of cigar tobacco and mountain
goat sperm for decorating your mother in laws house, We now that
yall caint jack with us Bastrop County bad boys and you pricks
would get the piss knocked out of you by Marvin Kanada’s rusty fist
on my grass. He stand 5ft 11inches tall. He would catch you before
you could run more than 20 feet on my grass and make you dance
to the shot gun rounds busted at your feet, We dont always get so
violent but this is what happens when you jack around with offensive
jokes and sarcastic remarks during wine sipping night on Bastrop
County grass, Im ole Jimmy Kanada and take heed. We some
county men and would love it with intense passion if you pricks
would take this challenge, if not you are a bunch of sissys and
yellow belly city slickers with no guts, Marvin Kanada has whipped
plenty of geeks with just one deer antler for kicks during grape wine
night, He is easily offended, So if you ever find yourself on Bastrop
County grass, Watch yo wize yapping mouth DAMMIT!