Bye Bye Duquette

fran441 · February 28, 2002 12:50PM

Don't let the door hit you on the way out.

<a href="http://www.boston.com/sports/redsox/news/022802_duquette.htm"; target="_blank">http://www.boston.com/sports/redsox/news/022802_duquette.htm</a>;

spaceman_spiff · March 1, 2002 3:16AM

Fran, you ever see <a href="http://www.bostondirtdogs.com"; target="_blank">this site</a>?

Duquette actually could be a pretty good GM in the right situation. Problem was, in Boston he had no adult supervision and so there was nobody to keep him in check. He was drunk with power. Add to that his non-existent people skills and you had the makings of a fiasco. Why did people take an immediate disliking to Duquette? It saved time.

As a GM he made some good moves and some not so good moves. One of his biggest problems baseball-wise was his bad case of "Tiantitis." He grew up in the Boston area and remembered how the Sox found Luis Tiant on the scrap heap and, well, giving "<a href="http://www.eltiante.com/"; target="_blank">El Tiante</a>" a second chance was one of the best moves they ever made. So Duke kept combing through the "leftover bin", hoping he'd find another Tiant. IMO that mostly resulted in wasted energy. He would have done far more for the team to just build up the farm system which pretty much went to hell on his watch.

[ 03-01-2002: Message edited by: roger_ramjet ]</p>

fran441 · March 1, 2002 7:09AM

You know what turned out to be one of his biggest mistakes? Firing Jimy Williams. That was the last straw for me.

He may have made a few good aquisitions over the past few years but it was at the very expensive cost of the farm system, and a good farm system is the only way you can stay competitive in the future.

Plus, he brought in such players as Jose Offerman and Carl Everett, neither of which could hit last year outside of very short hitting streaks. Other than that, they were useless at the plate. Plus, they were extremely overpaid. Duquette was able to unload Everett in the offseason, but Offerman is still with the team. We did have Pokey Reese for a while, but Duquette thought he could get him cheaper and he got away.

I can't tell you how glad I am that Duquette is gone. It's a mixed bag with Kerrigan for me, because I thought he did a good job as pitching coach, but now he's having apparent problems with Manny and to a lesser extent, Pedro. I don't know what the Sox are going to do here.

BTW, did you call and order tickets last weekend when they went on sale? I started calling at 11:30 (before they were even supposed to be on sale) and called until 4:00 when I finally got through. Got some okay tickets, but they were expensive.

Thankfully, there is a minor league ball club (Lowell Spinners) on my college campus and another minor league ball club (Nashua Pride) in the next town over. I'm gonna see plenty of baseball this year after all.

spaceman_spiff · March 6, 2002 3:53PM

<a href="http://www.bostonherald.com/sport/sports_columnists/gee03062002.htm"; target="_blank">Sox make change for change's sake</a>: Team stuck in the interim

by Michael Gee

Wednesday, March 6, 2002

[quote]FORT MYERS - Joe Kerrigan was hired as manager of the Boston Red Sox as an afterthought.

Kerrigan got fired yesterday pretty much the same way.

The former pitching coach wasn't made the skipper last Aug. 16 because Dan Duquette thought Kerrigan was the indispensable field general for the stretch drive.

Kerrigan wasn't even Duquette's first choice. The GM wanted to fire Jimy Williams no matter what. After that, it didn't much matter to him who stepped in as manager.

The Sox' new management had nothing against Kerrigan. We should all be praised as highly when we get canned. New team president Larry Lucchino went so far as to imply Kerrigan's old job might be available.

''We suggested he take a few days off before making any future plans,'' Lucchino said.

Do nothing 'til you hear from us, Joe.

But through no fault of his own, Kerrigan was the symbol of the Duquette regime that ran the Sox with an iron, if erratic, fist for the past eight years. He was Duke's first hire, the baseball man the former boss liked and trusted most.

So Kerrigan had to go. Fast. Nothing personal, but the new guys want to obliterate any trace of Duquette's presence from the franchise. They sincerely didn't like the way Duke ran the club, and they know it's the easiest way to curry favor with their fan base. Aside from winning, the Sox faithful like nothing better than a good guillotining on Yawkey Way...<hr></blockquote>

fran441 · March 6, 2002 6:28PM

Hey roger, I just got tickets to the May 25 game against the Yankees. They say they had no seats together, but when I actually spoke to someone at the ticket office, I was able to get back to back seats (together, but in different rows). I got them on the end of the aisles too, between home plate and first base, so I'm psyched.

spaceman_spiff · March 6, 2002 6:44PM

Cool. That's like the time my buddy and I rolled the dice and went up to Fenway without tickets hoping to score a pair when we got there. The game was sold out but after it started they opened the ticket office again and sold us a pair half way up behind home plate. We were sitting down when Nomar hit a homer. It was the bottom of the second inning. A little while later this amazingly hot woman sat down in the seat next to me. Wow! Was that a great night!

And the Sox won too. This was the first or second game after Kerrigan took over. They beat the Mariners. That was about the last game that they were still in the race. After that, the bottom dropped out.

Kerrigan did three things right as manager. He wasn't afraid to run - unlike Jimy. He made Urbina his closer. And he started Mirabelli instead of Hatteberg. Those last two were absolute no-brainers. I could never understand why Williams stuck with Lowe and Hatteberg so long - Hatteberg especially.

Oh well. Good luck, Joe. You're a nice guy. You deserved better.

Bye Bye Duquette

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