Turns out one of everyone's favorite Sox stories of the last decade may not have been necessary. Theo spoke at an event yesterday at Sacred Heart and talked about his infamous three-month leave from the Sox top baseball gig.
"That was a time conflict of what organization stood for. I didn’t agree with the values the ownership had of running Red Sox. You have to be all in when you’re a general manager. You use up a lot of energy and sacrifice your personal life. If you’re not all in you can’t do it," Epstein said. "Due to an internal conflict, I didn’t like what the organization came to stand for. There were a lot of internal politics. I didn’t want to sign a long-term contract with an organization that I didn’t stand for their values. I said no thanks and took some time away. The owner got more involved and we discussed what we wanted the organization to stand for. We talked through the process, the values and we got on same page and it was great. In hindsight I could have accomplished same thing without leaving, but at the same time I am glad I did what I did."
So Theo's as irresponsible with his own wallet as he was with the Red Sox' budget. Gorilla suits aren't cheap. That beautiful hairy beast above? One hundred and twenty five smackaroos.
Regardless, this is political nonsense anyway. Does he seriously expect us to believe that leaving his dream job for three months during the most important part of having that job, and then coming back with different responsibility, didn't actually change anything? He could have just called a meeting with Larry Lucchino and John Henry, and said, "Hey, Larry sometimes asks me to get him coffee and shine his shoes, can we, like, not do that anymore?"
We all know that's insane. It was a power play, and it was necessary. And it's a good thing he left, cause he never would have traded Hanley Ramirez and Anibal Sanchez for Josh Beckett and Mike Lowell, and we all know how 2007 would have turned out without those guys.
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