''I'll believe it when I'm at the general managers' meetings next week in Palm Springs and he's not in his chair. It's like a Mafia hit. You don't believe it until you see the guy at the funeral."
But other friends and business associates of Epstein saw no indication that he had any intentions of reconsidering his decision to leave; at least two said they would not be surprised if Epstein sat out a year and pursued other interests rather than enlisting as a candidate for any of the GM jobs currently available -- with the Phillies, Dodgers, Devil Rays, and possibly the Nationals, if that team is sold.
One highly placed source in the Sox organization said he wondered all along whether Epstein wanted to return.
''In the beginning, evidently, it was about money early on," said another member of the Sox inner circle, ''but in the last couple of days it became more than that. I think Theo felt he was 31, single, no kids, a chance to make a decision he believed in -- and he made it."
Epstein, remember, ''won" his negotiation with the Sox. They offered him a three-year deal at $850,000 a year when this last round of negotiations began, and by the time he said no yesterday, they had met his asking price of $1.5 million a year for three years. So, clearly, Epstein's dissatisfaction over his working relationship with CEO Larry Lucchino, and his inability to have a semblance of a normal existence away from the job, weighed more heavily in his decision.
The issues with Lucchino and his management style, it should be emphasized, are nothing new. They've long been part of the terrain, which is why so many people on both sides of the table thought in the end Epstein would stay. On Sunday, his aides were making suggestions on how the Sox should reshuffle their baseball operations after Epstein's top assistant, Josh Byrnes, left to become Arizona GM. It was a given that Epstein was staying.
