Oedipus Sox

Yes, the Yankees management is often dysfunctional and counter-productive, but nothing matches the Red Sox when it comes to psychological drama.

Theo Epstein, the wunderkind architect of the Boston Red Sox' first World Series-winning team in 86 years, resigned yesterday in a stunning conclusion to what apparently was a power struggle that undermined his three-year tenure as general manager.

Epstein, whose contract expired at midnight yesterday, declined the team's offer for an extension and left a position he had desired since his childhood, when he grew up a few blocks from Fenway Park.

[...]

The Boston Herald, which first reported the news on its Web site, said that the prevailing factor in Epstein's decision was neither money nor the length of the extension. Epstein and Red Sox executives had spent several weeks haggling over both, but had negotiated a three-year extension that would have paid him about $1.5 million a year, making him one of the highest-paid general managers in baseball.

But Epstein became irritated, The Herald said, with a report in Sunday's Boston Globe that he believed supplied excessive information about his relationship with Larry Lucchino, the Red Sox' president and chief executive.

The Herald said that Epstein felt the Globe's report gave Lucchino too much credit for the Red Sox' recent success and that Lucchino was the main source for the report. Epstein started to reconsider his decision to re-sign because he felt there was too much of a chasm between them.

Epstein met Lucchino during a summer internship with the Baltimore Orioles in 1992. After Oakland Athletics General Manager Billy Beane accepted the Red Sox job and then resigned shortly afterward, it was Lucchino who campaigned to hire his protégé, Epstein, who was Boston's assistant general manager. When he was hired on Nov. 25, 2002, Epstein, then 28, was the youngest general manager in major league history, and his appointment heralded a new generation of baseball executives.

Boston just wasn't big enough for Lucchino's and Epstein's egos.

It will be interesting to see whether it will be Epstein or Brian Cashman who will regret their respective -- and very different -- decision this fall.

UPDATE/PS: I did mean to mention that both Lucchino and Epstein are ignoring a little reality here. It took the active participation of both gentlemen to bring a World Serious trophy home to Boston in 2004. Lucky Lucchino was instrumental in convincing the drama queen to come to Boston (we call it "Black Thanksgiving" here in New York). And Epstein made one of the gutsiest moves I've seen a GM make: trading the popular, but sullen Nomah in a four-team deal that brought Cabrera and Mientkiewicz to greatly improve the infield defense, and the speedy Dave Roberts, a name forever cursed in the Bronx. The Sox were sputtering before that trade was made. They turned it on afterwards and never looked back last year.

PSS: Here's the column that seems to have set young Theo off. Lucchino seems to have grown weary of Boston fans thinking Epstein walks on water...and probably didn't appreciate his protege trying to move him aside.

Epstein's going to find it's not so easy being a GM for teams not nicknamed the Red Sox and the Yankees. If he doesn't believe that, he should ask Paul DePodesta. As a Yankee fan it gives me a bad taste to type this, but Epstein just made Larry Lucchino look good.

PSSS: The Soxaholix in mourning. I can't get enough of this. Torment in the fens.