New Red Sox owners oust Duquette

ESPN ^ | Feb 28 2002 | AP

[2Trievers]

FORT MYERS, Fla. -- A Boston Red Sox fan all his life, Dan Duquette knows what it's like to have his heart broken by the team.

Choking back tears as he said goodbye to his dream job, the former Red Sox general manager said he would be back at Fenway Park cheering on the team he ran for eight years before being fired Thursday.

	Dan Duquette was all smiles a year ago, but is out of a job with new management.

"I'm most disappointed that I will not have the opportunity to realize the goal Red Sox fans and I have shared for too long: a World Series championship," he said."No one loves the Red Sox more than I do. No one is more dedicated to the success of this organization."

Showing an emotional side absent from his tenure as GM, Duquette took a long pause to calm a quivering lip before thanking those in the organization who supported him.

But those supporters did not include the team's new owners, who fired him less than 24 hours after closing their $660 million deal to buy the team, its stadium and its television network. Former California Angels GM and Duquette assistant Mike Port will be the interim general manager.

"This decision was not an easy one to make, and we have nothing but good personal feelings for Dan," said team president Larry Lucchino, who met with Duquette at his hotel on Thursday morning along with new owners John Henry and Tom Werner.

"We are also unanimous in our feeling of gratitude for the many contributions that Dan Duquette has made to the Boston Red Sox," Lucchino said."We wish him well in what we're sure will be a long and successful baseball career."

Duquette will continue to be paid until Jan. 26, 2004, as part of the $4.5 million, three-year contract extension given to him by the old owners.

Port, 56, was general manager of the Angels from 1984-91 and assistant GM in Boston from 1993 until he was appointed vice president of baseball operations in 1996. He said he wasn't sure if he would be part of a house-cleaning or the beneficiary of it.

"It comes very much as a surprise," he said."It's an awesome responsibility."

Lucchino declined to comment on manager Joe Kerrigan's future, saying only that he would be discussing it with the owners Friday.

The Red Sox went 17-26 under Kerrigan after Jimy Williams was fired in August. Asked if he felt secure in his job, Kerrigan said: "I'm the manager of the Boston Red Sox, and until somebody tells me further, that's what my focus is on."

The Red Sox went 656-574 under Duquette, setting attendance records but winning the AL East just once. They also earned wild-card berths in 1998 and 1999, advancing to the second round only once in three playoff appearances.

But Duquette will be remembered less for building an on-field failure -- after all, which Red Sox GM of the last 83 years hasn't? -- than for the team's contentious relationship with the fans, media and, most importantly, the players.

Duquette miscalculated Roger Clemens' market value, saying in 1996 that the future Hall of Famer was"in the twilight of his career." Clemens left, winning three more Cy Young Awards and a World Series ring that Red Sox greats like Ted Williams and Carl Yastrzemski never got.

Duquette's emphasis on statistics over character left the clubhouse in constant turmoil and tormented fans who didn't share his actuarial approach. It may be true, as Duquette said more than once, that the Red Sox spent more days in first place than the Yankees last season, but that meant little for fans who have been starving for a championship since their grandfathers were born.

Duquette grew up in Dalton, Mass., went to college at Amherst and left the small-market Montreal Expos in 1994 to run his favorite team. He brought along a reputation as a shrewd evaluator of talent, and with his first draft pick he chose shortstop Nomar Garciaparra, who went on to win two AL batting titles.

The Red Sox won the AL East in 1995, but the '96 season collapsed amid daily complaints about Duquette from players. Manager Kevin Kennedy took the fall, and Clemens -- the most accomplished pitcher in Red Sox history -- signed with the Toronto Blue Jays soon after.

Duquette's greatest coup was acquiring Pedro Martinez from the salary-dumping Expos and signing him to a longterm deal. But still, the Yankees increased their World Series titles to 26 since Boston's last one in 1918, and New York beat Boston 4-1 in the 1999 AL championship series.

"I wish we beat the Yankees in '99," Duquette said when asked about his regrets."That was a series I always dreamed about, growing up."

In the 2000 season, a rift developed when temperamental outfielder Carl Everett quarreled with Williams and Duquette failed to back his manager."It's more important how he produces on the field," he said of Everett.

Other players took that as a green light to gripe.

Last year, in an effort to end baseball's third-longest championship drought in the last season of Yawkey ownership, Duquette spent $110 million on player salaries. But the season again disintegrated in injury and turmoil. The Red Sox went 12-26 under Kerrigan before winning their last five.

[2Trievers]

Who's the next GM going to be?

[2Trievers]

Your evening entertainment Mr. Baseball ...

[BluesDuke]

Entertainment? That seems such an inadequate word...

Can you say DELIRIOUS! BOUT FREAKING TIME SOMEONE IN THE RED SOX BARAONAGE WOKE UP AND SMELT THE HAZELNUT! BREAK UP THE RED SOX - THE BRAINS ARE BACK!!

Sorry...something just, uh, came over me, like...*grin*

[okie01]

Who's your choice for the GM job in Bawston?

[2Trievers]

Tell us how you really feel Knave! *wink*

[2Trievers]

Lone ... is there hope? Riding the Pats wave ... do we dare to dream?

[BluesDuke]

In the 2000 season, a rift developed when temperamental outfielder Carl Everett quarreled with Williams and Duquette failed to back his manager."It's more important how he produces on the field," he said of Everett.

Right then and there Duquette should have been canned.

From your ancient history, ladies and gentlemen: 1975. New York Mets outfield star Cleon Jones in a tug-of-war with manager Yogi Berra, until finally Jones provokes Berra to fine and suspend him. The Mets' mismanagement (alas, Joan Payson had died and Donald Grant was now running the club like his personal feudal fifedom) refused to sanction the fine and suspension (its more important how he produces on the field - never mind that Jones was loafing almost chronically at this point), and Berra gets canned after the Mets drop a doubleheader to the Expos. Thus begins the process whereby the Mets fall from pennant contenders with one thrilling World Championship and an upset pennant which damn near turned into a World Series upset (they took the mighty Oakland Athletics to a seventh game in the 1973 Series) to basement bums who more pathetic than loveable, abetted by such additional blunders as Grant's smearing and trading of Tom Seaver, who wasn't called The Franchise just because he was a nice guy.

From your even more ancient history. Dick Wagner, Cincinnati Reds general manager, decides his club is better served by a pitcher of questionable attitude on the mound (a pitcher who all but invented what we now call the pitch count, refusing to throw more than eighty pitches again, yet one who would grow up in due course to wonder why he keeps getting snubbed for the Hall of Fame even though the only division or pennant winner he'd play for dumped him at the first available opportunity after that division title) than an outfielder whose outspokenness hasn't slowed his bat or his glove. "He's an old thirty," Wagner said of Frank Robinson before trading him for Milt Pappas, who spent more time clubhouse lawyering than he did pitching and who was never sincerely regarded as the guy you'd want on the staff if your club was going for the pennant (even with the 1970-72 Chicago Cubs, he was never considered the man and, indeed, alienated himself from his Cub teammates and the team brass only too quickly...)

You'd think Dan Duquette would have learned from those kind of blunders.

[BluesDuke]

If he hadn't already been tapped for the Montreal gig, I would have suggested Frank Robinson. Or, if they can induce him from retirement and give him the proper autonomy, this time they should think about doing it right by Whitey Herzog, who knows a little something about building winning teams...

[TheErnFormerlyKnownAsBig]

I bet some cherry picking will be going on in regards to the former employees of the Marlins that are crowding around the fax machine with their resumes.

How stupid is that, take all the bad front office people from your now former team and replace the front office people of your new team who just happen to be doing a better job then the guys you just paid moving expenses to.

[TheErnFormerlyKnownAsBig]

"It's OPS boys, everything OPS nowadays."

[BluesDuke]

How stupid is that, take all the bad front office people from your now former team and replace the front office people of your new team who just happen to be doing a better job then the guys you just paid moving expenses to.

Except that the Red Sox's incumbent front office hasn't exactly been doing a bang-up job of things. Getting rid of Duquette is one thing, but let's see if John Henry's hammer swings over the right heads (and that's a pretty damn big if...)

On the other hand, if you think there's a little figurative incestuousness at play here, you sure don't know much about how Arnold Johnson got to buy the Philadelphia Athletics, move them to Kansas City, and turn them into all but a super-high minor league finishing school for the New York Yankees...

[AStack75]

.

[TheErnFormerlyKnownAsBig]

I was referring to the new owners of the Marlins whacking the front office staff of the Marlins and transferring the lousy front office people of the Expos to South Florida.

As far as John Henry making the right moves I wouldn't bet on it if that Tom Werner guy gets to involved. He didn't do a very good job with the Padres.

Had some good players, but also traded away about a half a dozen All star middle infielders in his tenure. Templeton for Ozzie Smith, gives of Joe Carter and Robby Alomar for McGriff (good deal but then they move him for squat) and Tony Fernandez (a total bust in S.D. which included changing the infield dirt to a "better color" so he can play better defense), and a second baseman who's name escapes me (Allstar at least twice before he got fat/known for being a real good bad ball hitter and I think he was a Venezuelan) that they traded to the Indians for extra big helping of nothing.

I'm sure I'm forgetting some of them but that should give you the flavor.

[Grut]

Carl Yastrzemski. He mightn't be any more successful than a guy picked at random (heck, it's the Red Sox we're talking about!) but he'd sure be popular!

[2Trievers]

Pudge Fisk would be my vote ... he'd alienate everyone inside of 60 seconds!

BTW, has anyone heard how Ted Williams is doing lately?

[freebilly]

Can you say DELIRIOUS! BOUT FREAKING TIME SOMEONE IN THE RED SOX BARAONAGE WOKE UP AND SMELT THE HAZELNUT! BREAK UP THE RED SOX - THE BRAINS ARE BACK!!

Smelt the hazelnut???!!!

[BluesDuke]

I was referring to the new owners of the Marlins whacking the front office staff of the Marlins and transferring the lousy front office people of the Expos to South Florida.

From what I can tell of Loria, he doesn't necessarily play the game that way. The real problem with the Expos wasn't their front office so much as it was their abominable ballpark. The Expos usually seem to be able to put decent teams on the field with little resources, but a) Olympic Stadium was killing them revenue wise even before the current contraction question, and b) the inability of the prior Expos regimes to promote the team reasonably has all but ensured that baseball will not have half a chance of surviving in Montreal. Consider: Toronto was also a hockey-mostly town but the Blue Jays thrive there, comparatively speaking. It could have been done reasonably. It wasn't. And Loria isn't entirely at fault for that. The real core of the Expos' problems began long before Loria bought the team.

[freebilly]

Bottom line is can the Sox get it done on the field? They've got the horses, and now it's time to put up or shut up (once again!).

[BluesDuke]

Smelt the hazelnut???!!!

I use hazelnut cream in my coffee. Next question.

[BluesDuke]

Carl Yastrzemski. He mightn't be any more successful than a guy picked at random (heck, it's the Red Sox we're talking about!) but he'd sure be popular!

Yastrzemski would be a popular choice but that would not make him the right choice. Brilliant as he was as a player, he never necessarily impressed anyone as front office material. (If anything, Yastrzemski's real value might better be if he were to be named the team's batting instructor.) And history does tell us that whenever the Red Sox have brought in the popular, it usually led to the disastrous. Remember, this is the Red Sox we're talking about!