A “sexy team.”
That’s what Red Sox ownership told Theo Epstein it wanted, according to a book co-authored by former Boston manager Terry Francona. What ownership got was Adrian Gonzalez and Carl Crawford.
And we all know how that worked out.
Epstein, who left as the team’s general manager after the 2011 season to become a top executive with the Cubs, said Boston owner John Henry, chairman Tom Werner and president Larry Lucchino — faced with sagging ratings on NESN, the team’s regional sports network — made the team’s image a priority, according to excerpts released yesterday by Sports Illustrated.
“Francona: The Red Sox Years,” co-written by the Boston Globe’s Dan Shaughnessy, is scheduled for release by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt today.
“They told us we didn’t have any marketable players, that we needed some sizzle,” Epstein is quoted as saying. “We need some sexy guys. Talk about the tail wagging the dog. This is like an absurdist comedy. We’d become too big. It was the farthest thing removed from what we set out to be.”
In November 2010, a group gathered at Fenway Park to review results of a $100,000 marketing research project the Red Sox had commissioned. According to the book, the marketing report said: “(W)omen are definitely more drawn to the ‘soap opera’ and ‘reality-TV’ aspects of the game … They are interested in good-looking stars and sex symbols.”
Gonzalez and Crawford — who was injured for much of his time in Boston — were traded to the Dodgers last summer along with Josh Beckett after the Red Sox fell out of contention.
By then Francona was gone, leaving after a tumultuous 2011 season. He worked for ESPN last season and the Indians hired him in October as their manager.
In the book Francona made it clear he was no fan of Red Sox ownership.
“They come in with all these ideas about baseball, but I don’t think they love baseball,” Francona said. “I think they like baseball. It’s revenue, and I know that’s their right and their interest because they’re owners … and they’re good owners. But they don’t love the game.
“It’s still more of a toy or a hobby for them. It’s not their blood. They’re going to come in and out of baseball. It’s different for me. Baseball is my life.”
Francona said owners refused to let the Red Sox play day games on final days of homestands because of television.
“One thing the players were always asking for was getaway day games,” he said. “The owners would never go for it. They couldn’t have more day games because the ratings were already suffering, and that would have hurt worse.”