Theo Epstein is leaving the Sox, which seems like a bad thing. I've always loved seeing loyalty to a city in athletes - y'know, the guys like Nolan Ryan who wanna stay close to the family and the fans they've grown up with, even though Nolan came up with the goddamn Mets and then the Angels before his salad years in Houston - but the clubhouse of a baseball team must be completely insufferable when you're surrounded by millionaire crybabies and semiliterate wannabe playboys (along with a few aww-shucks gamers, sure, but let's be serious here, this is the Major Leagues of Baseball we're talking about). Epstein has worked out quite well for the team (as has his monster payroll, of course), and it's sad to see him go. I remember shaking my head at what appeared to be a total lack of coherence or vocabulary on his part during the 'We traded Nomar' press conference last year - but Theo Epstein fooled me that day, easy as lying. A million dollar poker face that kid has and no mistake.
I hope things turn out well for him. I wasn't much interested in the Sox this year, and I don't anticipate being much interested in them next year - or maybe ever again. It all seems very much of a particular moment, and a particular group of people, and a particular set of motivations now less present and proximate. But it sounds like he was the behind-the-scenes MVP of the Sox's inevitable World Series victory, and it's a shame that personal asshattery by the team's CEO is what's apparently driving him away (though the blueballed vibe of the White Sox's sweep can't possibly help).
[Yes, by the way: inevitable. But then I'm not much of a believer in destiny, fate, 'luck', so it's just a business proposition bound to a sporting event for me. Meh. And while we're on the subject of cherished myths, Abner Doubleday did not invent the game of baseball. Not even close, I'm given to understand. See Stephen Jay Gould's rousing essay, 'The Creation Myths of Cooperstown,' in your collection of The Best American Essays of the Century for instance.]
