BMTG Home

October 27, 2003: Grady Little FIRED

Little era ends with Red Sox
By Ian Browne / MLB.com

BOSTON -- After two seasons which produced 188 victories and one trip to the American League Championship Series, Grady Little's term as Red Sox manager came to an end on Monday.

The club declined to pick up Little's contract options for 2004 and 2005.

It was, without question, a tough decision for the Red Sox to make after falling just one victory shy of the franchise's first World Series appearance in 17 years.

But in the end, general manager Theo Epstein, principal owner John W. Henry, president/CEO Larry Lucchino and chairman Tom Werner came to the joint decision that Little wasn't the right long-term solution to manage the Red Sox.

Little had let it be known that he didn't want to manage under the same circumstances in 2004 that he did this season. If he was to come back, he wanted security. And more than that, he wanted to know in no uncertain terms that he had the complete backing of his superiors.

Epstein talked with Little the day after the heartbreaking loss in Game 7 of the American League Championship Series.

"He told me he wanted to come back, but only if he had 100 percent support and a contract that demonstrated that support, more than one year," said Epstein.

"Grady went home and I met with Larry and John Henry and Tom Werner and we had a discussion about the ballclub and the manager. It became clear after a lengthy discussion that Grady was not going to have 100 percent support, as he requested. At that point, the decision became clear. Grady wanted 100 percent support. We wanted the right manager for the long haul. Someone we could give 100 percent support to, so the decision was made."

The Red Sox will go on an expansive search for a replacement, but they aren't setting a timetable.

"It may take some time," Lucchino said. "Obviously it's a major decision for the franchise moving forward. Don't expect a decision in the next few days, or only the obvious candidates to be examined."

It came as no surprise that Little took the news with class.

"Boston is a great place," Little said. "The Red Sox fans are the most passionate in all of sports. I appreciate all of the support they gave me."

In the wake of the ALCS loss, the fans haven't been quite so supportive of Little.

But contrary to some knee-jerk reactions, this decision was not made because of Little's decision to leave a faltering Pedro Martinez on the mound in the eighth inning of Game 7 as a three-run lead slipped away. Sure that move backfired on Little and the Red Sox.

But the Red Sox took the time to make sure they made a rational decision on what to do about Little's status, and not one based on emotion.

"This decision was made on a body of work and careful contemplation of the big picture and did not depend on any one decision from any one postseason game," said Epstein. "Anyone who thinks we made this decision because of Game 7 or even gave it a significant amount of weight in this decision doesn't know this organization very well We would be irresponsible businessmen if we were to make a decision based on one play in one inning ... it didn't happen. "

So what did happen? Why did the Sox decide that Little was not the man to lead them in to the future?

The Sox didn't want to get specific on Monday. Out of respect for Little, they didn't wish to reveal any of his shortcomings to the media. But it seemed to be based on managerial philosophy more than anything else.

"I think it's fair to say, there were some misgivings expressed in the last month of the regular season as we began to examine the prospect of a longer term extension for Grady," said Lucchino.

The Red Sox, as an organization, have been evolving since the Henry-Werner-Lucchino group took over on Feb. 27, 2002. They were only in command for a couple of weeks when Little was hired, largely on the recommendation of Lucchino.

A year ago, Epstein was hired as general manager and Bill James was named senior advisor of baseball operations, at which point the Red Sox became more statistically-oriented. Little managed more with his eyes and his instincts than statistics.

"We made the decision thinking that we needed to think long term, not short term," Lucchino said. "In a way, this is the end of the beginning. We've had two years to evolve here as an organization. We're now at a different stage. The idea of a one-year deal was certainly unattractive to Grady and probably not what we were looking for in terms of long-term security."

But Lucchino made it clear that the Red Sox won't go overboard looking for a stats nut in the search for their next manager.

"This is not going to be a stat-geeks organization, nor is it going to be an organization run by old, salty dog baseball traditionalists," Lucchino said. "It's going to be an organization that mixes and matches and adds balance and strives for that kind of collaboration and employs all the tools that might be available."

Epstein didn't join the organization until two weeks after Little was hired. They enjoyed a good working relationship this past season.

As for Lucchino, he didn't regret the decision to hire Little for even one instant.

"Grady Little was just what the doctor ordered when he came here," said Lucchino. "He took over a clubhouse not known for its harmony and brought unity and an atmosphere of winning. We will now seek a new manager for the long term to take us in a new direction, and, we hope, to the next level."

The likelihood is that the next manager of the Red Sox will come from outside the organization.

Jim Fregosi, Mike Hargrove and Charlie Manuel are three veteran names that have already been bandied about by various media outlets.

Early darkhorses are Glenn Hoffman, the former Red Sox shortstop, and Angels pitching coach Bud Black.

But the Red Sox will be deliberate as they seek the right man to become the 44th manager in club history.

Following 16 seasons as a minor league manager and six years as a Major League coach, Little was hired to manage the Red Sox on March 11, 2002, replacing Joe Kerrigan.

The day Little was unveiled at the team's Spring Training clubhouse in Fort Myers, Fla., the players erupted with joy. Many of them were familiar with Little from his three years (1997-99) as Boston's bench coach under Jimy Williams.

And through his two years managing the Sox, Little remained immensely popular and widely respected in the clubhouse.

Little's ability to deal with people and serve as a calming influence is a trait the Red Sox will seek in their next manager.

"If we were to sit down and make a wish list of attributes for the next manager of the Boston Red Sox, Grady Little would embody most of them," Epstein said. "There are a few of them that he might not embody. All of us have strengths and weaknesses and place different emphasis on different aspects of our job."

Sizing up the next Red Sox manager, Epstein said that person will "be very, very prepared for games and will know his opponents inside and out and will put in the pre-game preparation that is necessary to make in-game decisions run really smoothly."

Little's Sox finished 93-69 in 2002, but didn't qualify for the postseason.

This season, the Sox went 95-67 to capture the American League Wild Card berth.

The postseason was nearly a short-lived experience. But after losing the first two games of a best-of-five series with Oakland, the Sox rallied back to win the next three and advance to a dream ALCS matchup with the Yankees.

Again, the Sox showed their resiliency. Trailing 3-2, they rallied back to win Game 6 at Yankee Stadium and force a Martinez-Roger Clemens duel in Game 7.

Little and the Sox were agonizingly close to downing the Yankees. They were three runs ahead and five outs away from a trip to the World Series.

After Derek Jeter smoked a one-out double and Bernie Williams singled him home, Little went out to have a chat with Martinez. He opted to stick with the ace, and Hideki Matsui promptly followed with a double to right and Jorge Posada blooped in a two-run double to tie up the game.

The loss was one of the heartbreakers in Red Sox history, immediately joining Game 7 of the 1946 World Series, the one-game playoff against the Yankees in '78 and Game 6 of the '86 World Series against the Mets.

"We were all fans, all of us who were involved in this decision were disappointed if not heartbroken at what happened in Game 7," Lucchino said. "But once we got a little perspective on it ... and I think the week to 10 days time that's passed was a good thing, it let us not react to the emotion of Game 7. As John Henry said not very long ago, this is not an organization that makes decisions of this importance based on one event or one misjudgment or intense fan reaction. It was not a major factor in this deliberation."

And now the Sox will go about the deliberation of finding the right manager to lead them into the future.

REACTION FROM BMTG MANAGEMENT:

DIESEL:
Thank God Little is gone, but unfortunately he left his permanent stain behind. I would rather have Zimmer in '78 managing the team with Buckner playing short.

return to top | return to news

Bill Simmons

Paradise lost, again
By Bill Simmons, ESPN Page 2

Twenty minutes after the Yankees eliminated the Sox, I called my father to make sure he was still alive.

And that's not even a joke. I wanted to make sure Dad wasn't dead. That's what it feels like to be a Red Sox fan. You make phone calls thinking to yourself, "Hopefully, my Dad picks up, because there's at least a 5-percent chance that the Red Sox just killed him."

Well, he picked up. And we talked it through. We always do. Dad's voice was barely audible. He sounded like he just got out of surgery. Like every other Sox fan on the planet, he couldn't understand one simple question: Why didn't Grady take out Pedro? In the eighth inning, Pedro was running on fumes. Everyone knew it. Everyone but Grady Little.

Little did we know, our overmatched manager was saving his worst for last.

"He screwed up the season," Dad grumbled. "He screwed up the whole season."

So it happened again. Nothing was worse than Game Six against the Mets, but this was damned close. I don't need to tell you why. If the Red Sox were a girl, you would probably just break up with them. You would call them on the phone, explain to them calmly that you can't take it anymore, let them down as gently as possible, then move on with your life. But sports aren't like that. You're stuck with your teams from childhood. It's like being trapped in a bad marriage. You can't get out.

Hey, this is my team. I came to grips with that a long time ago. They're part of my life. Sometimes they lift me to a higher place. Sometimes they punch me in the stomach and leave me for dead. There's no rhyme or reason. And there are thousands and thousands of diehards just like me, all trapped in that same bad marriage, united by our experiences and memories. We wear Sox caps, we pack Fenway Park, we travel insane distances to support our team on the road. We always have each other. And some days are better than others.

This was one of the bad days. Given that the f**king Yankees were involved, and the way things unfolded, it may have tied for the worst.

I can't say this strongly enough: I will spend the rest of my life wondering why Grady let Pedro wilt to death in the eighth inning. This isn't Pantheon Pedro anymore; honestly, it's been over two years since he was doing his Mozart routine on the mound. Even if his best start is still better than just about anyone else's best start, asking him to throw 125-plus pitches over three-plus hours in Yankee Stadium -- in the most improbable, nerve-wracking setting imaginable -- was indefensible at best and catastrophically moronic at worst.

Unlike the other devastating losses over the years, you couldn't blame any of the Sox players for losing the series this time around (no, not even Nomar). This was a great group of guys -- a resilient, likable team that almost always came through, just like they proved in Game Six. Every time you counted them out, they came roaring back. I loved that about them. Unfortunately, they couldn't manage themselves. Switch Grady Little and Joe Torre and the Red Sox win the series. The two teams were that close.

I would rehash the eighth for you, but frankly, I'm not in the mood. Nobody in his right mind would have allowed Pedro -- 115 pitches on the odometer, struggling heroically with a three-run lead, running on the fumes of his fumes -- to pitch to Hideki Matsui. Not with flame-throwing Alan Embree waiting in the bullpen. This isn't even a debate. And the ensuing disaster -- Matsui's ground-rule double, followed by Posada's bloop single to tie the game -- wasn't just predictable, it was downright sickening. It was '86 all over again. Aaron Boone's homer in the 11th wasn't just inevitable, it was practically preordained.

Of course, the TV networks and newspapers got what they wanted: They spent the entire month gleefully rehashing those same "Curse" stories for both the Cubs and Sox, flashing graphics like "RED SOX WORLD SERIES WINS AFTER 1918: 0" and showing so many Babe Ruth pictures, you would have thought John Henry Williams had brought the Babe back to life. It was borderline pathological. Fox even made Boone's brother a guest announcer for the Sox-Yanks series -- apparently, Plan B was one of George Steinbrenner's kids. Well, here's your reward, guys: A Yankees-Marlins series that absolutely nobody will watch. Well done.

That two star-crossed franchises both blew three-run leads with five outs to go . . . sure, that's a little kooky. But the 2003 Cubs didn't lose because of a goat, and they didn't lose because of poor Steve Bartman. They lost because Dusty stupidly left Mark Prior in the game too long. They lost because their bullpen, shaky all season, imploded at the worst possible time. They lost because Gonzalez botched an easy ground ball, and because Kerry Wood didn't rise to the occasion in Game 7. That's why they lost.

It was a little more simple for the 2003 Red Sox. They fell short because of their crappy manager, to the surprise of absolutely no one who followed the team on a regular basis. I'm sure he's a nice man, and I'm sure everyone likes him . . . but when it comes right down to it, you don't want Grady Little managing your team in the "Biggest Non-World Series Game Of All-Time." I could give you about 150 Grady examples from the last two weeks -- including him breaking the major-league record for "Consecutive games with a failed hit-and-run that resulted in a double play" -- but that would be a waste of everyone's time. This man would hit on 19 at a blackjack table because "he had a feeling." That's all you need to know.

As for me, I feel like Andrew Golota just spent the last two weeks punching me in the gonads. The A's series sucked up 90 percent of the residual emotion in my body -- it was like enduring a four-hour breakup with somebody, then deciding to get back together in the end. The Debacle That Was Game Three -- Pedro acting like a baby and throwing at Garcia, Manny overreacting because Clemens threw a fastball within four feet of his head, Zimmer and Pedro re-enacting the Clubber-Mickey fight in "Rocky 3" -- took care of the rest of my emotions. For the past few days, I was walking around with one of those weird, Daryl Hannah-like half-smiles on my face, like the lights were on and nobody was home. I was tapped.

Like I wrote last week, the baseball playoffs can do that to you. My friend JackO (a Yankee fan) called me on Thursday to say, "No matter what happens, I'm a carcass right now." That's the perfect word. Carcass. Of course, he doesn't feel that way anymore, the bastard. His team came through. Mine failed. Again. You know it's a bad loss when one of your friends is saying, "I just spent the last 15 minutes reflecting on everything that's good about my life, and I guess I just have to keep doing that for the next couple of days to get through this" (actual quote from my buddy Hench).

And I'm sure this game will be a staple on ESPN Classic, and that it will definitely cost Grady Little his job -- thank God -- but honestly, the last two weeks took something out of me. You spend six months following a team, you devote something like 1,000 hours of your year to watching-reading-discussing them, and then everything vanishes in thin air. And you feel like a moron for devoting so much of your time to something so, so, so . . . (I can't even think of the right word).

Only one thing still bothers me. As a Sox fan, I take great pride in ignoring the past, thinking positively and blindly believing that "This is the year" under any and all circumstances. I don't believe in the Curse. At least, I think I don't. With that said, I watched the first 10 innings at my office last night, surrounded by a support system of friends from work. When the clock turned midnight on the East Coast, I noticed the "NY 5, Boston 5" score . . .

And I started thinking about it . . .

(Haven't I been down this road before?) . . .

And I finally made the connection.

(Oh God!)

And it weakened my knees like Kerry Wood's curveball.

It was like seeing the Ghost of Eighty-Six. Suddenly, I knew they were going to lose. I grabbed my stuff and quickly bolted out of there, looking like a guy grabbing his clothes after a bad one-night stand. My friends were in disbelief -- it was like Montecore the Tiger was dragging me off the stage. I couldn't possibly explain it to them. Ten minutes later, I walked through my front door, sat down next to the Sports Gal -- who was dutifully watching the entire game on the sofa -- then watched Aaron Boone crush that Wakefield knuckler into the stands.

I had been home for about 45 seconds. No lie.

Looking back, I can't say I was surprised . . . just like Cubs fans can't say they were surprised when the wheels came off after Gonzalez's error. As a sports fan, sometimes you know when bad things are about to happen. You recognize the depressing signs because you've been there before. So maybe that's the real "curse," those moments when you turn into Haley Joel Osment in the Sixth Sense . . . only you aren't seeing dead people, you're seeing a dead ballgame. And when it's happening to thousands of fans all at once, the resulting collective karma kills your team.

(Does any of this make sense? Of course not. I'm completely insane. The Red Sox have driven me insane. It's official.)

Anyway, my wife understands now. She only jumped on the bandwagon a few years ago, thanks to me. Now her Sox virginity has been taken; she was near tears last night. "I finally understand why you're so crazy about this team," she kept saying. "I can't imagine going through this for my entire life. This is horrible." Add another one to the list.

As for my Dad, he's still alive. When we were hanging up last night -- right after we finished rehashing Grady Little's mistakes -- I mentioned how I had to stay up late to write a column.

"You have to write something tonight?" my father said, incredulous. "Damn. I'm going to bed."

"You can go to sleep right now?" I asked.

"Of course not. I'm just too depressed to do anything else."

That's my Dad. He's 55 years old. I hope he gets to see the Red Sox win a World Series some day.

I hope.

return to top | return to news

Dan Shaughnessy

Heartbreak again
Yankees beat Red Sox, 6-5, on 11th-inning homer to capture AL pennant
By Dan Shaughnessy, Globe Columnist, 10/17/2003

NEW YORK -- And so a new generation of New Englanders has learned the risk of rooting for the Red Sox.

They will tease you for months. They will tell you they are different from their forebears. They will claim that what happened before has nothing to do with them. They will make you believe this really is the year.

But in the end, they will fall and sometimes they will do it in excruciating fashion. The weight of the Boston uniform is always too heavy.

Meet the new Red Sox. Same as the old Red Sox. In perhaps the most painful game in franchise history -- no small statement given the Sox' penchant for macabre moments -- the Sox last night lost the American League pennant to their century-old nemesis, the New York Yankees.

Aaron Boone's 11th-inning, first-pitch, walkoff homer off Tim Wakefield at 12:16 this morning gave the Yankees a 6-5, Game 7 victory over the Sox, putting New York in the World Series against Florida, beginning tomorrow night. Naturally, Boone is the grandson of Ray Boone, a (retired) longtime scout with the Red Sox.

Cover your eyes, Sox fans -- it gets worse. Boston led, 4-0 in the fifth and 5-2 in the eighth. Like their Cub cousins earlier this week, the Sox were five outs away with a three-run lead. Champagne was chilling.

But before you could say Calvin Schiraldi, Pedro Martinez coughed up four straight hits, three runs, and the American League pennant. Maybe this was revenge for the night Pedro said, "Wake up the Bambino. Bring him back and I'll drill him."

Fittingly, Martinez was KO'd by a bloop two-run double to center by Jorge Posada. That's the same Posada who engaged in an angry exchange with Martinez during Game 3 after Pedro hit Karim Garcia. Pedro claimed he was telling Posada that he would remember everything that was said. Now Posada has given the Boston ace a new memory. A recurring nightmare.

It won't take days, weeks, or months to find the Game 7 goat. Say hello to Sox manager Grady Little, who joins Denny Galehouse, Johnny Pesky, Bill Buckner, Mike Torrez, John McNamara, the aforementioned Schiraldi, and Bob Stanley in the Sox collection of dartboard ornaments.

Little left Martinez in the game long after it was clear the fragile ace was done.

It was surprising to see Pedro start the eighth. With one out, he surrendered a long double to Derek Jeter, then a hard single by Bernie Williams.

Grady went to the mound. Relievers were ready. Nothing.

Hideki Matsui cracked a hard double to right. Still no hook from the manager. Martinez was left to face Posada, who more than evened the score in their personal war with the bloop double to center. That tied the game and finally Little came out to get Martinez.

"Pedro Martinez has been our man all year long and in situations like that, he's the one we want on the mound over anybody we can bring out of that bullpen," said Little. "He had enough left in his tank to finish off Posada."

The manager said Martinez told him he wanted to stay in the game when he went out for the first visit.

Yankee manager, Joe Torre said, "Obviously, he wanted to stay in. It would be tough for any manager to say no . . . hen it's Pedro Martinez."

There was an air of inevitablilty after the fateful Yankee eighth. The Sox weren't able to do anything with Yankee closer Mariano Rivera (three innings, 48 pitches) and it was just a matter of time before someone hit a walkoff homer off the weary Wakefield.

"For three innings I was waiting to see Manny [Ramirez] turn his back and watch a ball go into the stands," said Torre. "It finally happened."

This was easily Boston's most crushing loss since the sixth game of the 1986 World Series, when the Red Sox held a two-run lead with two outs and nobody aboard in the bottom of the 10th at Shea Stadium. In Sox-Yankee lore, it certainly belongs with the 1978 playoff game in which Bucky Dent hit the three-run homer and acquired a new middle name.

The Sox had a golden chance to make it to the World Series for the first time since 1986. They had a chance to become the first team to win Games 6 and 7 at Yankee Stadium since the 1926 St. Louis Cardinals. They had a chance to win a fifth-consecutive elimination game. They had a chance to win the World Series for the first time since 1918. Maybe it was a bad idea to paint the World Series logo on the Fenway lawn Thursday afternoon.

The Sox aren't going to the World Series because Grady fell asleep at the wheel and Pedro couldn't perform like a star when it counted. So now they go home to watch the World Series on television and we wonder if CEO Larry Lucchino will bring Grady back and we wonder if Nomar Garciaparra has played his last game for the Red Sox. Hard questions in the wake of a terrible defeat.

The 2003 Red Sox were an admirable bunch. Keep them in your hearts for a while. No group of athletes can be truly prepared for the larger forces that clearly have gripped this franchise and the one in Chicago.

The Red Sox-Cubs World Series America wanted won't happen. It's Marlins and Yankees tomorrow night. In the House That Ruth Built.

return to top | return to news