Still, Theo Epstein wasn't panicking. His whole life -- all 30 years -- had prepared him for this moment and he felt ready for the challenge. He'd never quite get over the way it ended in 2003, but the feeling-sorry period had long expired.
Epstein and his twin brother, Paul, were born on December 29, 1973, the same year that the American League introduced the designated hitter. The boys were the proud progeny of Leslie and Ilene Epstein, and grandsons of Philip Epstein, who wrote "Casablanca"
with his identical twin, Julius. Leslie Epstein is a novelist and the director of the creative writing program at Boston University. He moved to Boston in 1978, just in time to witness the great Red Sox fold. He is also an avowed Yankee-hater, not above taking a few broadsides at Steinbrenner. He has said that rooting for the Yankees is like voting Republican. Theo's mom, Ilene, is also a twin, and runs The Studio, a fashionable women's clothing store in Brookline's trendy Coolidge Corner with her sister, Sandy, and their friend Marcie Brawer. Theo is fond of telling people he saw a naked woman for the first time at The Studio. Theo's older sister, Anya, is a screenwriter who wrote scripts for the NBC series, "Homicide: Life on the Street." She is married to a Yankee fan and their daughter, Theo's niece, wears both Red Sox and Yankee garb. Taller and balder than his famous twin, Paul Epstein is a social worker at Brookline High School. Children of learning, children of some privilege, Theo, Paul and Anya grew up in a spacious apartment on Parkman Street in Brookline, not far from the Beals Street birthplace of John Fitzgerald Kennedy. It was closer still to Fenway Park, where the Red Sox of the 1970s featured sluggers named Rice, Lynn, Fisk and Evans. The twins attended about 15 home games per year, earning citizenship in Red Sox Nation before it was recognized in the UN Charter. When they couldn't go, they watched on television and their sister remembers battling for TV time to view her one hour of "Little House on the Prairie."
