The Red Sox won the World Series in 2004 and there was no hotter executive in all of sports than Theo Epstein. He was the boy wonder of Boston, the baseball prodigy who got most of the credit for the Red Sox winning it all for the first time since 1918. At the time Epstein seemed to be the Yankees' worst nightmare, even if Larry Lucchino was the one who really set the tone in Boston once he and John Henry and Tom Werner got the team.
Lucchino is the one who wanted to get in the face of the Yankees and never get out. But Epstein was his protégée. They were going to take the fight to the Yankees for a long time, and do it together.
At least until Epstein decided he didn't need Lucchino quite as much as he did when he was starting out.
Now Epstein is no longer the boy wonder of baseball or the boy prince of Fenway. He wanted the kind of power that Brian Cashman now has with the Yankees and couldn't get it and even left the Red Sox for a while, giving the impression that he was off to save the whales. He is back now, but whatever the organizational chart says on Yawkey Way, Epstein is back working for Lucchino.
John Henry is still the principal owner and they all report to him. But Lucchino is back at quarterback, after a couple of years when the Red Sox acted as if they could move the guy to offensive guard. The operation on Yawkey Way is back to being collaborative, instead of Theo's Boys Club.
Why does this matter here? Because it is the Red Sox and even after a season when the Yankees knocked them out of the ring, Yankees vs. Red Sox matters here as much as Yankees vs. Mets. A lot has changed since the Red Sox came back from 0-3 down on the Yankees two years ago. Most of the change has occurred in Boston, where they have spent a lot of time trying to ruin a good thing.
These are all smart people in Boston and bring a lot to the party. But more than two years after the Red Sox got the last out against the Cardinals in the '04 Series, Epstein only wishes he had the power in Boston that Cashman, who seemed to be in some trouble of his own back in '04, now has with the Yankees.
Epstein didn't make all of the bad moves that finally knocked the Red Sox all the way back to third place. He wasn't responsible for the injuries that helped sink the Red Sox after the trade deadline last year. But he is on the books for a lot of stinkers, from Matt Clement to Edgar Renteria to Coco Crisp. There was almost another one this past week before Lucchino did the most to get a deal out of Scott Boras on Daisuke Matsuzaka.
Epstein said this the other day:
"We been watching (Matsuzaka) for 10 years."
What, since Epstein was majoring in baseball sabermetrics at Yale?
We had heard for weeks about how well Epstein and Boras worked together. Well, Boras sure thought that way after the Red Sox paid $70 million to Theo fave J.D. Drew even though the Sox were bidding against themselves. Then Boras was allowed to go weeks before even making a counter-offer on the Japanese star.
Finally Lucchino - who had recently made a trip to Japan with his marketing people - took this fight to Boras and the negotiation right to the pitcher and got a deal done.
Epstein preached patience last season as things fell apart. Lucchino burned. Epstein said the Red Sox couldn't spend with the Yankees. Now the Red Sox pay more than $100 million, in posting fees and contract, for Matsuzaka.
Game back on between the Yankees and Red Sox. The name of the game is Moneyball. Just not the kind that Theo learned from Billy Beane.
