Theo Epstein is the latest to dispute some of the more salacious details. The CHB is attempting to prime the "John Henry ownership is bad" pump, a motif he's been pitching since before the ink was dry on their acquisition of the team and has carried through the years:
- "In my mind there's no question that the O'Donnell group was the way to go." (USA Today, Jan. 22, 2002)
- "[T]he bag job of a major league franchise sale..." (Boston Globe, March 27, 2005)
Now, in response to the much-discussed section on how the owners wanted to market the team -- isn't that their job, by the way? -- Epstein says there was "no direct link" between marketing meetings and the Red Sox's acquisitions of Carl Crawford and John Lackey. "I take full responsibility for those moves. It was my job to handle the pressure of a big market and make good decisions."
Theo's a standup guy. One the other hand, one wonders how The CHB walks with no spine.
I have to side with Shank here, because Theo's tenure as Red Sox GM was far more a failure than a success - that Dan Duquette players constituted a huge (as Jim Caple and Steve Buckley have pointed out, a majority) percentage of the 2004 champions can't be denied and Theo was off on his gorilla suit exile when players like Josh Beckett were signed. The thoroughness of the Sox collapse at the end of Theo's tenure and the openness of defiance by players there were indicative of a very poorly assembled club.
ReplyDeleteIt is also laughable for people to basically deny that ownership didn't meddle badly into baseball decisions - it became too obvious to deny and John Henry has inadvertently proven it with his periodic outbursts such as the snap interview HE called with Felger & Massarotti.
For all his manifest faults as a writer, Shaughnessy does get it right from time to time and the incompetence and arrogance of the Henry-Werner-Lucchino group (especially in comparison to the Grousbeck-Pagliuca group and Robert Kraft) warrants censure.
I can't agree. The Red Sox won two WS under Theo and came a game away from two more WS appearances. Theo was responsible for David Ortiz, Bill Mueller, Kevin Millar, JD Drew, Curt Schilling, etc. I don't see how a streak of winning that lasted nearly a decade can be considered
ReplyDelete"far more a failure than a success."