The top leader in the organization is replaced. The faces around you on the team begin to
change. The organization, in the words
of management, is ‘going in a different direction.’ New strategies are drawn up, a new playbook is
devised. The organization begins to lose
the previous players as the work load and game plans shift to new leadership,
who wish to bring in their own players.
All normal organizational behavior over a period of time.
Except with the Boston Red Sox. They have to be more dramatic.
A friend and I traveled to Fenway Park last Thursday for a
game against the Anaheim Angels (sorry, can’t use the other name). By the end of the second inning, the Sox led
6-0 and appeared in control. The Angels
scored 8 runs in the top of the third, and the roller coaster began. The game was marked by poor fielding, lousy
pitching, a questionable home run, and a ton of runs scored with two outs. In the fifth inning, my friend opined that
the game would end up 13-12; that was the score at some point in the ninth
inning, but it mercifully ended after ten innings with California winning,
14-13.
This was a watershed moment for the Sox, and the final straw
for management. They are not making the
playoffs this year, and wedges in the locker room have appeared as a number of
players apparently met with ownership to complain about first-year manager
Bobby Valentine.
So by Saturday morning, management cleaned house. In a dramatic move (even for drama-obsessed
Red Sox Nation), key components of the team were traded to the Los Angeles
Dodgers – power-hitter Adrian Gonzalez, outfielder Carl Crawford, starter Josh
Beckett, and backup infielder Nick Punto.
The General Manager termed the trade a salary adjustment;
the three primary players represented a huge chunk of their payroll. He determined the team was not going to win with
them, so the trade gives the team more payroll to work with during the
off-season.
But the true message here is about who is in charge. Before Saturday morning, this was not Bobby
Valentine’s team. Gonzalez, Beckett,
Punto (and backup catcher Kelly Stoppach, who was banished two weeks ago) were
all part of the group grousing about Valentine’s methods. I can envision Valentine going to management and
saying, I can’t win with these guys. You
hired me to bring Boston back to the World Series; it won’t happen with this
group. Let me put my type of players on
the field.
Basic organizational transitions happen in baseball as
anywhere else. New management, new
leadership, new direction. Out with the
old. It generally takes longer than a few days.
Of course, I could be wrong.
Someone pointed out to me that the final proof will be if Bobby is still
there when the 2013 season begins next April.
If he’s not, the overhaul will take another new direction
with a different team.
