Larry Lucchino's Leaving

And I, for one, am sad to see him go.

I’ve been surprised the last couple days at the reaction. I know that twitter gives a voice to every idiom with a keypad. But, even so, I was taken aback by the number of people who seemed pleased to have him out of town.

Made me wonder if we were talking about the same guy.

I’m talking about the Larry Lucchino with as many rings as Tom Brady. The one who was the president and CEO for the last three champions here in Boston, with two different general managers. The one with a .529 winning percentage as President/CEO entering this season.

Why would you be excited to see that go?

I’ve already wondered why people were sad to see Theo go. After all, Larry has won (before, and since) without Theo. Theo’s never won without Larry. Now, people aren’t sad to see Larry go. Am I missing something?

People are throwing out some so-called faults. He was hard to deal with. Yup. Most successful people are. He botched the Lester negotiations. I’ve already covered how that’s not the case. He offered Lester a very fair deal last Spring Training. Lester bet on himself, and won. If Lucchino had gone higher back in the Spring, and Lester declined…we’d be looking at Porcello-type reactions around here. Sometimes things don’t go your way.

They also really point to the Bobby Valentine “fiasco.” I’ve also mentioned several times how that season was completely overblown. Bobby V had the team in contention until Papi went down with an injury. Then Pedroia went down too, the team traded away their best players for a do-over, and the team’s record suffered for it. Hiring Bobby Valentine wasn’t the problem. Taking away all his players was.

So, while I’m sure that Sam Kennedy can do a fine job as president, there’s reason for some concern. For the last ten years, the Sox under Larry Lucchino have brought around an expectation of winning. Fans certainly expect that to continue.

Sam Kennedy has some mighty big shoes to fill.