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It was bound to happen at some point. Baseball insiders knew it was coming. Some astute fans knew it was coming. Dan Duquette’s childish and meddling ways have finally blown up in his face.
Dan Duquette, or as many call him, the Duke, the general manager of the Boston Red Sox, has been on rocky ground with Sox fans since his arrival. He couldn’t go out and get the big free agent. That notion appeared to be quelled this off-season after he signed Manny Ramirez, the most sought-after offensive free agent available.
But that all came apart on Aug. 16, when he fired manager Jimy Williams after the Sox had lost six of eight games, five of which to the Oakland A’s, the hottest team in baseball at that time, and the Seattle Mariners, by far the best team in the majors all season.
Duquette hired the pitching coach, generally regarded as one of the game’s best, Joe Kerrigan, to take over. Duquette said at the time it was the best move to make sure the Sox could win the AL East title.
Well, not even a month has passed, and the team is completely out of the hunt. When Williams was fired, Boston was five games behind the New York Yankees in the division. Going into Sunday’s game they were a season-high 12 games behind.
When Williams was fired, about half the players in the clubhouse were happy about the move, while the other half were upset. Over the course of only three weeks, fighting between the players, coaches and managers has only gotten worse, not better.
Pitching coach John Cumberland was fired one week ago after last Sunday’s loss to the Yankees at Fenway. Duquette’s reason was that Cumberland was “drinking too much.” Duke, we know that the true reason you fired him was because you needed someone else to blame for this tailspin. Chances are, Cumberland stuck up for Jimy Williams over that time as well, which would have made him more likely to be a casualty of the 8-year-old kid running the Red Sox.
And don’t think that this is the first time something like this has happened with Duquette. Remember when he tried to hire Felipe Alou when he fired Williams, and Alou would have none of it? There was a reason for that. It’s because Alou got fed up in Montreal with Duquette’s meddling in the clubhouse. No one was happier to see Duquette leave the Expos for Boston than Alou. And why did so many players leave Montreal during Duquette’s final years there? It wasn’t all for money.
Let’s remember that this is the Dan Duquette who let Roger Clemens go because he “washed up.” Two Cy Young awards and two World Series’ rings later, he’s still going strong. This is the same Dan Duquette who forced Mo Vaughn out of Boston by having him trailed by private investigators.
And now he has wrecked a World Series caliber team for selfish reasons.
Nomar Garciaparra and Pedro Martinez are both publicly discontented and Manny Ramirez now regrets signing with the team in the first place.
Duke, I’ll make a suggestion to you as new ownership comes in next season: just resign now. If you don’t resign, they will fire you. And Red Sox fans everywhere can rest assured that Dan Duquette will never have a job in Major League Baseball ever again after this season.
Good riddance, Duke! Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.
