The news conference should be at Fenway tomorrow afternoon. Halloween. No tricks. No boos. Look for the traditional handshake and jack-o-lantern smiles from Theo Epstein and Larry Lucchino. They'll say they look forward to many more years working together to bring championship baseball to Boston.
It's too bad it went this far. Too bad it took this long. Theo's old contract expires at midnight tomorrow, and there were a few hours last week when it felt like he might actually leave the Sox.
Now it looks as though Theo's new deal will be announced tomorrow and life will return to normal on Yawkey Way. Theo can get back to business, trying to trade Manny Ramirez and figuring out what to do about center field, first base, third base, and the pitching staff for 2006.
The unfortunate part of the entire episode is that a lot of inside stuff went public. The father-son dynamic of Lucchino and Epstein has been unveiled before all of Red Sox Nation. The family linen was aired publicly and now every move will be examined for fingerprints: Theo or Larry? Did they agree? Did Theo have to talk Larry into it? Or was this some bigfoot move by Lucchino?
Theo Epstein is a truly remarkable young man from a truly remarkable family. He would be a success in any field of his choice and Boston is fortunate that he set out to have a career in baseball. He got to the mountaintop faster than anyone in the history of the game and deserves to be paid accordingly. But he did not get there alone. And that's why he's not signed yet. That's why this has taken so long.
The Theo-Larry story is as old as the Bible. Mentor meets protege. Mentor teaches young person all he knows. Eventually, the prodigy is ready to make it on his own and no longer feels he needs the old man. That's what we've seen unfold on Yawkey Way, and that's why the Theo deal is not done yet.
Larry taught Theo too well and now he is looking in the mirror as he tries to hammer out a deal with the GM he made in his own image. Both are merely doing what they are trained to do. In Theo's case, he's doing what Larry trained him to do.
