Free Francona: The Red Sox Years by Terry Francona, Dan Shaughnessy Page B

exhibit was responsible for Negro Leaguer Leon Day’s plaque in Cooperstown. The project also launched the career of the man who hired Terry Francona to manage the Boston Red Sox.
    In Baltimore, young Epstein caught the eye of Larry Lucchino, the man who ran the Orioles and built Camden Yards. Soon after Camden was built, Lucchino went to the Padres, taking Steinberg with him. In San Diego in 1995, Steinberg called for Epstein, who was graduating from Yale. Twenty-one-year-old Epstein started at the bottom. He was responsible for the messages that appeared on the Jumbotron (“Julie, Will You Marry Me?”) and monitored the whereabouts of “Flag Man,” a Padre mascot. He also handed out press notes to baseball writers in the press box. He didn’t have his driver’s license and relied on Steinberg for rides to and from work. At the urging of Lucchino and Steinberg, he attended the University of San Diego law school.
    Theo moved into the Padres’ baseball operations department in 1997. He also graduated from law school, passed the bar, and was immediately offered a $140,000 position with an Anaheim law firm. He was making less than $30,000 with the Padres. Reacting to the offer, San Diego GM Kevin Towers bumped Epstein to $80,000 and made him director of baseball operations in 2000. In February 2002, after the Red Sox sale to John Henry, Tom Werner, and Lucchino was formalized, the Red Sox fired GM Dan Duquette, hired veteran company man Mike Port as interim GM, and hired Epstein as Port’s assistant.
    It was always understood that Port was a short-term solution for the new Red Sox owners. During the 2002 Sox season, Epstein reported directly to Henry and Lucchino, but he was not the GM-in-waiting. Henry had his eye on Oakland superstar GM Billy Beane. When he owned the Florida Marlins, Henry had been wildly impressed with a presentation Beane made to baseball executives. Henry loved the way Beane was able to get the cash-strapped A’s into the playoffs for three straight seasons. Henry’s entire life was rooted in mathematics, and he saw Beane as a kindred spirit.
    When the Sox finished out of the playoffs in 2002, while Oakland won 103 games with a $41 million payroll, Henry went after Beane. Henry offered Beane $12.5 million over five seasons, and when Beane agreed, Henry uncorked a bottle of champagne. A day later, the Sox owner was shocked when Beane changed his mind and decided to stay with Oakland. The Sox had few realistic options. Toronto’s J. P. Ricciardi, a central Massachusetts native, had also taken himself out of the running. Somewhat apprehensive because of Epstein’s age, Henry and Lucchino agreed to take a chance on their boy wonder. On November 25, 2002, 28-year-old Theo Epstein became the youngest general manager in the history of baseball. He promised to build a “scouting and player development machine.” In anti-Duquette fashion, he also said, “I’m not standing here thinking I have all the answers.”
    Theo’s first game as GM was a disaster. With no established closer, the Sox were forced to go with a “bullpen by committee”—a collection of kids and veterans who’d never demonstrated they had what it took to finish games in the big leagues. It smacked of new-age Bill James arrogance, the Sox insisting that they knew more than anybody else. The “committee” coughed up a 4–1 lead in the ninth on opening day, losing when Tampa leadoff hitter Carl Crawford hit a three-run walk-off homer off Chad Fox.
    “That was a kick in the gut,” said Epstein. “Guys in the media were licking their chops because the whole bullpen story was so easy to write.”
    The 2003 Sox discovered David Ortiz, won 95 games, and came back from 0–2 against Oakland to make it to the seventh game of the ALCS. They came within five outs of making it to the World Series.
    After coming so close, Epstein came out swinging in the winter of 2003–2004. The Sox successfully traded for stopper Curt Schilling and