Larry Lucchino, Red Sox president and CEO.
Controversial, brilliant, combative, and ever-lawyerly, Lucchino represents the past, present, and future of the 21st century Red Sox. He was the man in charge when the Sox broke the Curse in 2004, and he’ll be calling the shots as the ballclub attempts to rise from the rubble of September/October 2011.
Given the fervor attached to our local baseball institution, Lucchino has maintained a fairly low profile in his 10 years on the job. But what has heretofore been known only inside the walls of Fenway (and in baseball front offices across North America) has become apparent to even casual Red Sox fans: Larry Lucchino is the man in charge.
Check out the file photos: Theo Epstein hired. Grady Little fired. Terry Francona hired. Ballpark renovations announced. Tito leaves. Theo leaves. Ben Cherington hired. The single thread is Lucchino. Looking a little like Tommy Lee Jones, Lucchino is sitting there, in every photograph, at every press conference.
“The buck stops with Larry,’’ says Sam Kennedy, Red Sox executive vice president and president of Fenway Sports Group. “The way I see it, a baseball team has three functions - baseball, the business, and the ballpark. The CEO is the one who manages all three. He doesn’t sit at the table when Theo is deciding who to draft. He doesn’t sit with me when I’m negotiating a seven-year deal with Budweiser, but he pushes back and challenges and manages and leads the people who are doing that.’’
Owner John Henry made this abundantly clear at his impromptu radio appearance at 98.5 The Sports Hub Oct. 14. Challenged about a perceived disconnect from his 2011 team and his focus on Roush Racing, Liverpool soccer, and his futures trading entities, Henry explained that while he and Sox Chairman Tom Werner are involved in many non-baseball ventures, “Larry Lucchino runs the Red Sox.’’
