Today, the sale of the Boston Red Sox, one of the premier franchises in all of professional sports, will finally go through. After a winter wasted away with questionable bidding procedures and bickering billionaires, the group of John Henry, Tom Werner and friends will call the Red Sox their own.
By the time you read this, it is very possible there will have been a major shake-up in the Red Sox’s front office. Barring any monumental lapses in the judgment of the new ownership, Dan Duquette will no longer be calling the shots for the Red Sox; the reins will be out of his hands.
It’s been a long and tumultuous run for the Duke, and most people admit it’s time for someone else to have the unenviable duty of appeasing long-suffering Sox fans and bringing a championship to Beantown.
In 1995, the Red Sox surprised everyone by winning the American League Eastern Division. Everything Duquette touched turned to gold. Dwayne Hosey was snagging fly balls like a golden glover, Tim Wakefield’s knuckleball danced him right into a 20-win season, Troy O’Leary was belting home runs out of Fenway left and right and Rick Aguilera shut down everyone in the ninth.
Since the magical season, in which the Sox were unfortunately swept out of the playoffs in the first round, there had been some success, but Duquette seems to have lost his Midas touch.
Take for instance the long-term, big-money contract that Duquette offered to Jose Offerman in 1998. Little Leaguers are more adept at turning a double play than Offerman. He left his speed behind somewhere in the Midwest and never reacquired it. Because of his poor play, Offerman was forced to battle with Jeff Frye, a puny utility man, for his job on more than one occasion. This is fine for a minor league kid trying to make the bigs, but not fine for a man pulling in $26 million. Of course, Jose is at least always willing to put the team first — wait nevermind, the Sox don’t pay him enough for that.
Then there is the case of the aforementioned Jeff Frye. Frye had the audacity to criticize management after the Sox cut his good friend and consummate professional Mike Stanley by calling him and telling him not to bother coming to work anymore. Frye shouldn’t have criticized management in the media, and he admitted as much. However, Duquette was not going to be shown up. He rushed into a trade to unload Frye. The Sox traded second basemen with the Colorado Rockies and ended up with Mike Lansing.
Lansing, like Offerman, was a ridiculously overpaid, average second baseman. The Sox shelled out big money for a platoon player who wasn’t willing to perform in the utility role. Again, the Sox weren’t paying him enough to be a positive force in the clubhouse. At least the Duke got rid of a team player like Frye, who was willing and able to play every position at a sixth of Lansing’s salary.
In my opinion, however, Duquette’s biggest blunder as general manager was his failure to support Jimy Williams in his battles with Carl Everett. Williams was justified when he punished Everett, but he lost all credibility when the general manager chose to support a player over the manager. Duquette let Jimy know where he stood. He left a good manager hanging out to dry, and he lost a lot of respect among Boston fans.
Duquette put his hypocrisy on display last season when he backed new manager Joe Kerrigan and came out against Everett. When it was convenient for the Duke to turn Everett into a scapegoat, he jumped at the chance to back his manager. With Williams as a manager, Everett was a choirboy; with Kerrigan he was a convict.
Duquette is a local guy, and he genuinely wants to see a championship in Boston, but he has failed even in his attempts to connect with the fans on the most basic level. Referring to passionate diehard baseball fans as “the market” undermined his attempts to relate to Boston as a fan and instead reminded everyone that he is a corporate suit running a business.
Duquette isn’t solely responsible for the Red Sox debacle last season, but his time is up and he needs to go. If he hasn’t already been released of his duties by the time you read this, hopefully he will be soon, because it’s time for someone new to start calling the shots and breathing some new life into a franchise that is becoming stagnant and unlikable. The 2002 Sox want to leave last season behind, and they can’t move on with the Duke at the helm.
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