Faulty towers
Odd. The coffee stains still adorn the top of my desk. My socks still have that wet dog smell to them. And for the fifth straight day, there is a complete lack of French toast casserole waiting for me in the morning.
After watching what the Red Sox have accomplished since general manager Theo Epstein went off on his troops, winning nine of their last 10 games, I decided it was high time a few things changed in this workplace, laying into my co-workers for their failure to accomplish everything from weeding my lawn to figuring out where exactly those little hairs I keep finding in the shower are coming from. And still, nothing.
Perhaps the blank faces that greeted my demands should have told me something. I think one of the interns might have flipped me off, but I shook it off as youth bravado. Come to think of it, when I asked yesterday if anyone had an extra notebook, it was if John McClane stepped into the office (and how “Yippee-ki-ay, *&^%$#$-@#$%^&” isn’t on the AFI top movie lines list is another atrocity for another time).
“The guys have to play better or we’ve got to make some changes,” Epstein said back on June 11. “We’re out of games. It’s time for changes. Soon.”
That’s right, Theo, let ’em have it, boy.
“This is my fault.”
Yea-…Oh. Missed that portion of the equation.
The one game the Sox have lost since Epstein put the blame on himself was a 2-0 affair at Fenway last weekend against the Pirates. They’re 13-7 in June, 9-1 since the Sunday night game in Chicago that got this recent hot streak started. And yet probably the only time we’ve heard from the Red Sox GM since then was to announce he’s going to rock out with Kay Hanley and Buffalo Tom for charity again this summer.
He stays in the background, while everyone else on Yawkey Way starts applying makeup when a camera is within 200 feet. And yet, it is his fingerprints that are all over this team, whether or not there is someone else doing the crime.
Terry Francona pinch-hits Ramon Vazquez for Jason Varitek, Epstein will take the blame.
Curt Schilling’s ankle? Epstein should have seen it coming.
Alan Embree’s stratospheric ERA? The GM should have inserted a little extra giddy-up in Embree’s left arm.
Picking the likes of David Ortiz off the scrap pile? Epstein credits the fabulous work by the Red Sox scouting staff.
The Boston GM is always willing to take the blame, dishing the credit elsewhere, while everyone else in the organization is looking for the accolades. Dan Duquette would have demanded a Government Center statue by now if it had been he who built a World Series-winning team. Epstein instead toasts the series win to the ghosts of Red Sox yesteryear. Then again, Epstein didn’t build a team out of Dante Bichette, Mike Lansing, and Jose Offerman either.
So let us please not take it as any semblance of coincidence that the team is playing its best baseball since Epstein said changes would be made. At the time of the mini-outburst, the Sox were a mere three games over .500. Going into this weekend at Philadelphia, they are 41-30, and just a half-game behind the Baltimore Orioles for first place in the AL East.
Perhaps in many ways, Epstein’s words speak volumes in the Red Sox clubhouse because he is their contemporary in age, if not in career path. At the age of 30, he had already built what no one else in Boston could claim in 86 years. If that doesn’t buy you a grand amount of respect in Boston, then I don’t know what will. Except, of course, being a crooked politician.
And as much respect as certain members of the Red Sox brass command from the on-field personnel, in one form or another, it is hard to imagine anyone else in the franchise saying the same words Epstein did and having them carry such cache with the players, coaches, and fans alike. That’s respect that he has, quite simply, earned through his devotion and dedication to the team, ideals so obvious that others have no choice but to let them trickle down to them as well. (Jay Payton not included.)
He’s no longer “31-year-old GM Theo Epstein,” for he has long since earned the dignity of not being a sideshow act. Not that he ever was, even if the stuck-in-the-mud, crusty franchises that permeate the game rolled their eyes at the very mention of a kid born after “The Godfather” was released making multi-million dollar decisions. Now they just roll their eyes because that’s all they can manage to do. Epstein is better than all of them.
Money plays a role in that, of course. It’s easy playing Billy Beane when you have $125 million to work with. But perhaps Epstein’s greatest moments as a GM are yet to arrive. When the farm system begins to reap rewards, and builds its own stars, limiting the need to dip into free agency and creating economic sensibility, he will have the best of both worlds, money and a solid core of young, homegrown athletes to build around.
Of course, in Epstein’s view that will be the work of the assistant GMs who really drove the drafting process. Or the kids they drafted. Or the schools who taught the skills. Or the Little League coaches …
