an outsider's view on theo-gate (ep)

while i don't agree with this guy's attitude or his choice of words, his thoughts ring true to me in many respects.

Resignation shows Epstein's immaturity

By IAN O'CONNOR
THE JOURNAL NEWS
(Original Publication: November 3, 2005)

BOSTON — Theo Epstein, 31-year-old executive, is acting half his age. He is walking away from his dream job and dream salary and dream season because his mentor stopped kissing his ring for five minutes, leaving poor Theo to pick up his ball and storm all the way home.

Boy wonder, big blunder. After Brian Cashman zigged and zagged his way through the Yankee power structure and wisely kept a gig he knows will be the best he'll ever have, Epstein reached for a pacifier and wailed his way out the Fenway Park door.

Good riddance, Red Sox fans should shout. Thanks for the historic parade. Don't let the trophy hit you on the way out.

At his bizarre and dishonest news conference yesterday, Epstein revealed himself for what he is: a baby. A kid who needs to grow up. Cashman can weather year after year of George Steinbrenner's storms, fight off all the owner's back-room operatives, and end up with a lavish contract extension and home-field advantage for business once conducted in a hostile Tampa environment.

Epstein? Larry Lucchino, his baseball elder, suddenly decides to bounce a ball off Theo's forehead, Great Santini style, and the kid goes down faster than the Red Sox did in the first round.

If this is how Epstein was planning to respond when times got tough, really tough, Boston fans should realize they'll be better off without him.

Epstein wore a gorilla suit the other day to put the slip on reporters, but he ended up making a monkey out of himself. He said his rejection of a three-year, $4.5 million extension offer had nothing to do with a suspected Lucchino role in a Boston Globe column that painted Epstein in unflattering shades.

He said there was no power struggle. No chain-of-command issues. No feelings of burnout. Epstein, the local boy made great, the one who shaped a team that ended an 86-year drought, simply said he could no longer "put my whole heart and soul into it."

Epstein refused to identify why, refused to get specific, and this was an immature and irresponsible way to leave his hometown. Boston adored him. Made him the prince of the city. Offered him a free pass from here to eternity for slaying an October legion of demons and doubts.

The city deserved better. Boston deserved plenty more than Epstein showing up yesterday against a backdrop littered with Red Sox and Dunkin' Donuts logos, showing up in an open-collared, powder-blue shirt that wouldn't have made David Stern's grade, and telling a depressed village of broken-hearted admirers that he was bailing for, well, no good reason.

Epstein allowed that there were "complexities" and "ups and downs" in his relationship with Lucchino, the executive who discovered him and made him an intern. But Epstein maintained, "Larry and I like each other."

Lucchino likes Epstein so much he forgot to attend his news conference, an announcement attended by John Henry, the principal owner, and an overflow chorus of computer geeks who served as blind apostles of Epstein's faith.

"You have to believe in the people you work with," the departing GM would say. "You have to believe in the whole organization."

It was his way of saying he didn't believe in Lucchino. It was Epstein's one candid-camera moment of the day.

"Theo is a remarkable young man," Henry said.

He's a quitter, too.

Speaking in whispers and shedding a few tears over what he called "a great, great loss," Henry came across as a hopelessly detached, charisma-free leader, an owner incapable of stopping Epstein from making an obvious career mistake. Henry's body language suggested weakness and indecision, everything Steinbrenner doesn't stand for.

"I hold myself wholly responsible," Henry said. "Maybe I'm not fit to be the principal owner of the Boston Red Sox. ... Never in my wildest dreams did I think this would ever happen. ... Did I blow it? Yeah, I feel that way."

Epstein didn't just leave Henry; he left Henry after his chief aide, Josh Byrnes, took the GM job in Arizona. Maybe the Diamondbacks will get suckered as well. The scorecard on these ridiculously young preppies who are taking over baseball, one baby step at a time, is starting to look spotty: Paul DePodesta couldn't hack it in L.A., and his buddy couldn't hack it in Boston.

"It's the right decision to leave the organization," Epstein said.

Not if that decision was based on Lucchino's ego. Every franchise has a Lucchino, a boardroom player, a suit who knows how to work the field. And proteges worldwide end up getting squeezed by insecure mentors who ultimately decide they've taught their students too well.

Human nature is what it is.

Epstein said last year's World Series title freed him to make this decision, which makes no sense. That championship gave him a free pass to rule in Boston forever.

Yesterday, the kid threw that ticket in the trash. When Epstein grows up, he'll regret the day he acted half his age.