Listened to Theo Epstein and Larry Lucchino talking together on WEEI this morning. They pretty much reiterated everything from the press release issued yesterday. But there were also a couple of interesting side notes.
First, both Lucchino and Epstein acknowledge that there was "friction" in their relationship stemming from the contract negotiations. But Epstein went further and indicated, more than once, that the key issue for him had been philosophical differences about the direction of the ball club. Specifically, while admitting that there would always be debate and discussion about moves the team might make, he said there had never been an overriding philosophy for the club over its core values -- essentially, the Red Sox mission statement. He discussed key components of this -- disagreements over whether the club should make moves specifically with the short term or long term in mind; what type of players were they going to focus on; and and ongoing issues relating to baseball decision making process. And second, Theo also specifically mentioned how the Red Sox were going to approach issues relating to the club, essentially indicating that they should keep matters in-house unless they had something official to announce. Lucchino later echoed this point. And finally, they both agreed that Theo's authority and decision making power was pretty much unchanged -- he still reports to Lucchino and the rest of the ownership/management group.
So in the end, it seems to me that there were two key components to this. Theo felt like there was no overriding philosophy over making baseball decisions. Reading between the lines, it would appear that there were in fact things that Theo wanted to do that didn't get done (perhaps like the Rockies deal?), and he believed a key component of this was because there was no overall plan to fall back on when there were disagreements between key players. In fact, this very point was hinted at by Lucchino in part of the interview where he described Epstein as "bold, very bold" as a general manager, essentially indicating that Epstein was more of a risk taker than some of the people around him. Thus, even if Theo doesn't have more power, he's ensured that there's some sort of framework that allows him to control the decision making process over at Yawkey Way a little better.
And second, it's clear to me that Epstein was pissed about the way the contract negotiations and Lucchino/Steinberg's snarky stuff made it into the press. (Thank you, Dan Shaughnessy.) As Michael Silverman pointed out yesterday, tick tick tick tick....
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I have been thinking lately that one of the striking features of the first few years of the Henry/Werner era of the Sox was how much the owners and managers of the team had been immune from the 'Red Sox as soap opera' storyline, which is clearly how the Boston sports media wants to cover the team.
Baseball? What happens on the field? Prospects for improving our middle relief? What could be more boring!
Local Red Sox coverage for years has obsessed on interpersonal dramas; real, exagerated or fabricated. Much of the last few years the focus of this has been on Manny, Pedro, Grady Little and other members of the team.
Now, with all the events of the past 3 months, the deference toward ownership and management that the local media seemed to have felt is gone. It's open season to make all of them look as ridiculous as possible. I put the over/under at 1.5 for gorilla suit references per writer per week for the next year.
Disclosure: two situations not unlike Theo and the Sox have played out at my employer in the last year. I can't tell you how little a deal they have been.
In (a narrow) defense of the Boston media, this business of Theo leaving and then coming back a few months later to exactly the same job is a little soap opera in miniature. I, too, have had friends and colleagues leave their job and then come back. But they all left because they thought they wanted to do something else more, and then found out the grass wasn't greener. Theo obviously wasn't leaving because he found something else -- obviously, he was getting out. Kinda makes you wonder why.
And the gorilla suit thing is just too rich. Fortunately, this story wasn't Trading Places -- everyone ended up back where they belonged (at least for now).
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