Monday, October 31, 2005

Theo Epstein quits

The Godfather predicted this. I thought he was wrong because the Sox would be too P.R. conscious to let him go, and Theo's professional pride would make him stay to watch his farm system develop. I was wrong, the Godfather was right, pigs fly.

Ironically, it was the Red Sox obsession with public relations that made Theo leave. Team president Larry Lucchino had been taking heat for Theo not being signed and for his reputation as being the bad boss. So yesterday, Dan Shaughnessy who is known to be close to upper management, wrote an article that didn't seem so bad, but it did defend Lucchino and it revealed some insider information.

Supposedly this article convinced Theo he didn't want to stay. He had already seen his bosses leak stories about Manny, Pedro, and Nomar, and he didn't want to be a part of this nonsense anymore.

It's a shame it didn't work out, but Theo's a smart guy so he'll be fine, Lucchino's smart so he'll be fine, and the Red Sox are rich so they'll be fine.

1 comment:

Alan said...

I think Shaughnessey is getting too much grief. There was more to Theo leaving than what some columnist wrote. The Herald and WEEI are jumping over the fact that the Globe owns the Sox, but Shaughnessey had incredible sources before the Globe owned the Sox. The Globe has had better sources than the Herald forever, and the Herald is now jumping on this angle, but the fact is the Globe has had a history of better writers with better sources.

As for Shaughnessy being used, all writers are used by sources. Why else would a source leak a story? Shaughnessy did his job. His columns often piss me off because he's similar to how Bryan described Moriati and in my preamble to my Moriati post I was thinking of Shaughnessy. However, despite what all his enemies say, Shaughnessy is an excellent writer (although sometimes lazy) with excellent sources.