Theo-gate gets real ugly... I don't know why people are surprised. Am I the only person who remembers the Nomah character assisination of 2004? Granted Nomah contributed, but... How about ball-gate with Doug Mientkiewicz? Nice respect for Pedro on his way out of town. How about another story about Manny Being Manny? The Red Sox management has shown it's willingness to back stab before, and now people are upset because it's Theo. Well, they should be upset, but they should have been upset all along. Still, this is nasty..
Eric Wilbur:
"As a free agent, this is a red flag," Curt Schilling said this morning on Boston sports radio station WEEI. "The last thing I want to do is move into an organization where there's instability in the front office, where you don't know who's going to be where when."...
Laugh all you want about Scott Boras' claim that the Red Sox would perhaps be further along with the Johnny Damon negotiations if Theo Epstein were signed, but there is a shred of truth to that, unfortunately. What's the sales pitch now? Come to Boston, where instability is rampant? The players on the current roster are already peeved and frustrated over this latest turn of events (see David Ortiz, Curt Schilling, and Jason Varitek). What makes you think prospective ones are going to be intrigued to buy in based on the way things are run over on Yawkey Way?
Talking behind each other's back. Back-stabbing galore. Secret sources. When the Red Sox release their latest DVD, they can make it part of the, "Sweet Valley High" series, thanks to the insanely immature high school nature of it all.
These are people running a multi-million dollar business who can't leave petty differences alone. Ultimately, Lucchino looks like the bad guy in all this. But to steal his own Star Wars analogy if we might, even Darth Vader had the Emperor, even he had Moff Tarkin. There's always someone else behind the curtain, and another angle to the story.
...
If there was a circle of trust among these owners and the fans, it has been unceremoniously broken. And the Red Sox brass is about to find out extremely abruptly, that while you can to some degree get away with this in the likes of Baltimore and San Diego, it's simply not going to happen here, where public opinion and provinciality define every native New Englander.
And Dirt Dogs quoting WEEI this morning:
Gerry Callahan: You said to me the other night that everything you read in the Sunday Globe was wrong. We just talked to Shaughnessy, he defended most of it. (CS: Of course he did). What specifically was wrong and what do you think set Theo off?Schilling: You know what I can’t… I’m not going to go into detail on what I know to be not truthful. I don’t think it was any one thing. I think there’s a lot of things. If it was me, and I’m Theo, I would have been incredibly offended at somebody that I obviously trust because it’s obviously somebody above Theo leaking stuff to Dan Shaughnessy to make a point. I was pissed for Theo. You know what, that happens. It’s big business and I guess you deal with it on a case-by-case basis. Obviously Theo felt that moving forward there were going to be tremendous issues. If that stuff could come out at that time, given the situation and the circumstances and how, I think he had gone out of his way to stay away from the media, and stay out of the media, and the Red Sox were going to do the same, I think he felt that moving forward, there were going to be a lot of issues.
Callahan: Colorado (Bigbie trade) being one of them, you mentioned that earlier, do you think that the version that Dan Shaughnessy wrote…
Schilling: No, I know that’s not how it happened (GC: That’s wrong?). Yeah.
Callahan: In other words, it’s wrong and someone… (JD: Fed it to him).
Schilling: Yeah. Yeah. Again, that happens all the time.
Callahan: Someone gave him the wrong version to make Theo look bad?
Schilling: Yeah.
Dennis: Not I’m not sure that it makes any difference, but Dan said not once but twice in that last half hour together that Larry was not the source of that Sunday column and, and I find this even more important if it’s true, Larry neither approved, nor knew of, the sources action in talking to Shaughnessy.
Schilling: That’s what Dan Shaughnessy says. Take that for what it’s worth. I don’t know.
(Replay tape of Shaughnessy from earlier)
Shaughnessy: You got Curt Schilling’s take on this thing the day after it comes down. Why is that? Is that because you guys have a relationship because of the show? And I got to read Curt say that he picked up the Sunday paper and knew that was a lie. Tell Curt to go ask the people who paid him $13 million to win eight games last year about that situation. Maybe they can explain it to him.
Schilling: Wow… that’s awesome. (Shaughnessy tape: Tell Schill I love him). That’s good stuff. You know what… I mean Dan knows that I think he’s a tired act and I don’t like him and he doesn’t like me, so take that for what it’s worth unfortunately or fortunately I’m not in the minority in that situation. Dan is Dan.
Damn... better than Melrose Place!-----
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