12eight

So I can be wrong, or I can be WRONG.  I was the latter today, but more importantly...

He's gone.  Theo Epstein, the man that did what no Red Sox GM in history had done, the Brookline kid that became baseball's youngest GM - and of his own hometown team, no less - the man that signed David Ortiz, the man that celebrated like a player after the championship because goddammit he'd waited his whole life for it, the man that, for the last three years, was this team... is gone.  Driven from town by one arrogant man and one despicable ownership mouthpiece that has driven more people out of town than the commuter rail.

I feel like hurling this laptop through a window.  I honestly do.  If you've read this, I managed to restrain myself, but know that it was not by much.  This stunning turn of events requires so much space to explore, I don't know if I could adequately cover it all in a year's worth of posts.  In the end, though, one question keeps coming back at me: how can I be a fan of a team that would do that?  That would play infantile back-alley politics with the man that literally saved this franchise?  Theo Epstein deserved a statue.  What he leaves behind instead is an empty office, full of bitter memories and a World Series trophy that has now forever been tainted by untameable ego.  I can't blame him, and I think you can guess who I do blame.  But I'll tell you this right now; wherever Theo goes, if he becomes the GM of another ballclub, I honestly hope that that team beats the crap out of the Red Sox for years to come.  We deserve this coming back in our faces every inning of every game for the foreseeable future.

Is there any fan that feels that differently than I do today?  Anyone that wouldn't curse out Lucchino to his face if they saw him on the street tomorrow morning?  Anyone that doesn't want to give Shaughnessy the beat-down Carl Everett almost gave him 4 years ago?  Anyone that won't feel the urge to boo next year's starting lineup, knowing it was put together by... whoever?  This was, after all, not just Larry's little fuck you to Theo.  This was a fuck you to every single fan of the team he runs.  Plain and simple.  Lucchino has tried to mold the Red Sox in his image, but what he apparently never realized was that the man he hired already embodied the team more fully than Lucchino could if he lived here for 50 years.  Now that man has resigned the job he always wanted, at age 31. 

This is a black mark that will hang over this team for a long time to come.  You wanted to compete next year without giving up prospects?  Forget it.  By the time the GM situation is sorted out, they will have either rushed the search and found a willing yes man, or they will have taken their time but lost out on opportunity after opportunity.  This is a situation that screams bad contract; as of this evening, I now expect to see Johnny Damon in a Red Sox uniform again next year, with the kind of contract we laugh at Steinbrenner for.  This is a situation that makes me dread a year of Jim Thome back problems as we watch Anibal Sanchez and Hanley Ramirez own the Phillies farm system.  Those things were unthinkable yesterday.  Today they are the kind of fear that will keep you up at night because you know it's that possible.

Dan Shaughnessy wanted a curse on this team?  Well, he's got one now.  He helped make it.  Larry Lucchino wanted a godhead, and he was willing to make a martyr to get one.  So be it.  Theo Epstein?  A man that shunned the spotlight, who refused to cash in on his fame, his celebrity, his awesome popularity, had an opportunity worth taking to finally get recognition for what he's accomplished.  Instead, he was treated like a spoiled child.

I don't know how this will end, but it can't end well.  I do know this: ownership has lost me forever.  Lucchino had to have his throne, and Henry - unless he does something drastic (and welcome) - will put financial stability ahead of baseball.  And if that doesn't sound like John Harrington, I don't know what does.

Theo... thank you isn't enough.  Nothing is enough.  You did what no one thought they'd ever see, and you did it with honesty, integrity, and intelligence.  What you gave this team, this fanbase, and this city will be remembered forever.  There is certainly no consolation in this, but walking away here and now is the strongest thing you'll ever do, for so many reasons.  Still, not even the bitter taste in my mouth can overshadow the elation I felt last October, the faith I put in you, and the unerring ability to fulfill that faith.  No GM for any team has ever done that for fans before, inspired that kind of love and adoration without ever seeming to want or notice it.  We knew what we had, and we know more acutely now that it's gone.  Wherever you go, remember all of that.  And if you spend the next ten years building teams that kick us to the cellar, know that this team deserves every second of it, and you deserve every bit of reciprocal success.

And to fans reading this, don't let it go.  Not this.  Kick and scream.  We're the lifeblood of this team, and they just treated our guy like a two bit whore.  Never let them forget that.  I'm disgusted, and it's not going to go away anytime soon.