Responsibility
The most comical add on television is for an insurance company. The ad ends with the tag line, "Responsibility, what's your policy?" I have yet to make an insurance claim where the company didn't make every effort to avoid responsibility.
When an institution fails someone has to be held responsible. The Boston Red Sox are a multi-billion dollar, Boston institution. At the moment it looks like they will back into the playoffs. Regardless the season is an abysmal failure for "greatest team of all time" (proving again the age old adage, "that's why they play the games".) Given the bloated payroll which will make them unable to re-sign Ellsbury and Pedroia the Sox will continue to fail for the foreseeable future.
In December of 2009 when Theo signed John Lackey he said, "Lackey was a proven winner, a playoff performer, and he would be the best number three pitcher in the majors." Given Lackey's lifetime .577 winning percentage you could also say he was a proven loser. (His divorcing his wife in the middle of cancer treatment, the same wife he used an excuse for his poor performance makes him a "loser" off the field as well.) Not only was he not the best number three pitcher he was the worst starting pitcher statistically in all of Major League Baseball.
The Red Sox routinely beat Lackey in the playoffs while he pitched for the Angels. What's more telling is that in anticipation of a one game playoff tomorrow Theo was looking to make a trade for a pitcher rather than start the $16 million a year Lackey.
Many of the Faithful believe I have been to critical of Theo. (His $15 million man JD Drew just did an imitation of my 8 year old nephew turning a routine fly into a double.) They say he doesn't play the game. This concedes my argument as Theo is responsible for the players who do play the game.
The alternative would be to fire Francona. Granted on the few occasions were Tito has had to make a tough decision it has usually been wrong, particularly with regard to the pitching staff. But overall Francona has done a decent job with the mediocre hand that Theo has dealt him.
So let's hope we get an early Christmas present when the Sox dump Theo. Of course he could do what all incompetent leaders of failed institutions do just wait for a taxpayer funded bailout.
KOKO
