The Boston Red Sox now possess the highest payroll of any World Series winner in the history of the game.
What is the architectural framework in which this collection of mercenary ballplayers came to wear the Boston uniform?
Will there be an end to John Henry’s reckless spending and uncontrolled free agent acquisitions this winter?
Will the unbridled greed of the unholy trinity—Henry, Lucchino and Epstein—once again prove fatal to small markets teams who are just trying to compete?
The answers to these questions are both simple and complex.
But once the baseball world wakes up from its misguided hangover and realizes what just happened, there will be more and more pundits chiming in on an indisputable fact:
The Red Sox are no Cinderella story: they simply out Yankee-d the Yankees. They are Evil Empire II. They have become what they despise. They are the irony of ironies. The Sox are just another high payroll team with no home grown talent.
Unlike the Yankees, who still sport homegrown starters like Posada, Jeter, Williams and relief ace Rivera, the Red Sox had only one homegrown starter on its entire roster—Trot Nixon.
Just one!
Don’t get me wrong, the Red Sox deserved to win. And why shouldn’t they?
They were built better for the post-season and—due in part to Theo's saber-driven expertise in selecting players and in part because of Henry's checkbook—were able to construct a bench in which each player had a specific role. Pokey Reese and Doug (Don’t make me spell his last name) M. in for defense—Dave Roberts in to steal a base—Doug Mirabelli to catch Wakefield. (When he didn’t catch Wake, it almost lost them the ALCS.)
The fact remains that Theo Epstein made all the right moves this off-season, and those moves are well-chronicled. The Red Sox are a brilliantly constructed team put together by a brilliant young architect.
But just to prove a point, I’d like to suggest that it was largely plain old good luck (something that has eluded the Red Sox for 86 years) that propelled the Red Sox to the World Series Championship.
Don’t believe me? Just revisit these few facts:
The Sox secured Curt Schilling last winter from Jerry Colangelo for two cans of baked beans and a crate of lobsters. After demanding Nick Johnson and Alfonso Soriano from the Yankees, Colangelo sent Schilling to the Red Sox in one of the most lopsided trades in baseball history. (Did Theo have a gun or was Colangelo trying to stick it to George? Either way, where was Selig and the "best interest of baseball" clause?)
Right after the 2003 post-season ended, Theo put Manny Ramirez, the 2004 World Series MVP, on irrevocable waivers. Anyone could have snatched him (if they wanted to pay his salary). No one took him, and Manny remained a Red Sox.
Plan B was, of course, prying A-Rod away from the Rangers. Theo spent two back-and-forth months in negotiations.
If the deal goes through, the Sox would have had A-Rod at short and Magglio Ordonez in left. Nomar would have gone to the White Sox, Manny to Texas. Result: No World Series title.
Despite trying his hardest, Theo could not pull the deal off. Luck, or the Gods, intervened and sent A-Rod to the Yanks.
Fast forward to the July 31 trade deadline. Theo is working feverishly to trade Derek Lowe, who was in the midst of a baffling 10 game pitching slump, to the White Sox for Esteban Loaiza.
Esteban Loaiza!
This would have happened if Cashman didn’t swoop in 15 minutes before the trading deadline and offer Jose Contreras to the White Sox.
And now Derek Lowe, he of post-season brilliance, marches off as a post-season hero for the Red Sox. If Theo had his way, he would have toiled for the last two months of the season in Chicago’s South Side.
Of course, The Red Sox wanted Contreras in the first place. And when they lost a bidding war with the Yankess, it prompted Theo to destroy furniture in a Central American hotel and Lucchino to utter the now famous moniker: The Evil Empire.
So the moves that fell through despite Theo’s best efforts were as important as the moves that he made. Theo was resourceful, intelligent and bold, as evidenced by his courage in finally trading away Nomar, but there is no doubt that he was also lucky.
When you succeed because so many of your plans failed, you have to feel fortunate.
There is nothing wrong with luck. Sometimes you need it to win.
And what will be left for the Red Sox and their fans after the parade, drunken escapades, and car burnings are over?
No longer will the Red Sox be that tortured, cursed franchise.
No longer will they have the identity of the underdog.
No longer can they sing Tessie and really mean it.
They will spend more money this winter to beat the Yankees again.
They will spend more money this winter to outdo themselves.
They will no longer do the chasing.
They will be the chased.
Theo, if you need any pointers, give Brian a call.
He’s been there.
Phil is a staff writer for NYYFans.com, and he writes a weekly column for the website of WCBS News Radio 88, the home of the Yankees. You can reach him at PhilAllard27(at)hotmail.com.
