Co-Average White Guys of the Week: Larry Lucchino & Theo Epstein
I don’t know why I’m even calling these guys out as average; They’re both far below average. I’m as annoyed with these two individuals as I have been with anybody attached to the sporting world in my lifetime. Of course, being a Yankee fan, I don’t like anything Lucchino (president) and Epstein (GM) of the Boston Red Sox do - unless it’s giving up it’s extrordinary young talent in exchange for crap, which has been the norm for them in recent years - but Signing Matsuzaka takes the cake.
Baseball has basically stepped over the point of no return. The Red Sox paid $51.1 million dollars to the Japanese team which owns starting pitcher Matsuzaka’s contract, just for the rights to negotiate a deal with the young player. This isn’t included in the player’s salary, it’s just the “posting fee”. I’ll discuss the flawed posting system next time. The Red Sox and Matsuzaka signed a 6-year $52 million offer. So if you do the math the total paid is $103.1 millon. That’s almost 17.2 million per season paid to a pitcher nobody’s ever seen thrown a major-league pitch.
By getting this deal done, they’ve shown MLB and Japan that $51.1 million isn’t an unreasonable number. One thing is for certain: The Yankees are no longer the team everyone loves to hate, because they spend the most - Boston has taken that honor. So for contributing to the destruction of the game I love, despite your titles of president and general manager of a Major League Baseball franchise, I say: Mr. Lucchino and Mr Epstein: You’re both outstanding examples of average white guys.
Date: 12/14/2006
Name: Larry Lucchino
Title: President and C.E.O
Company: Boston Red Sox
Reason for Nomination: For co-authoring the biggest travesty in baseball history, dating all the way back to Raphael Palmeiro’s steroid bust. For making baseball more about the money than about the game, and for making at least one Red Sox fan uncomfortable with the direction the team (and the game) is moving.
Date: 12/14/2006
Name: Theo Epstein
Title: General Manager
Company: Boston Red Sox
Reason for Nomination: For co-authoring the biggest travesty in baseball history, dating all the way back to Raphael Palmeiro’s steroid bust. For making baseball more about the money than about the game, and for making at least one Red Sox fan uncomfortable with the direction the team (and the game) is moving.
