Red Sox: Time for an exodus of manager John Farrell
By Rick McNair
The Boston Red Sox need a managerial change. The time has come to simply move John Farrell into a created executive position and bring in a new leader.
Baseball has certain philosophical sayings that would be quite appropriate echoing from the mouths of the great Greek philosophers if baseball was a duel between their city states. One certainly applied to the cross-hairs (I am not PC) of managers to wit: “Managers are hired to be fired.” In Boston Red Sox tradition the hue and cry for a managerial head becomes part of the dynamics of a season and this season is no different.
Managers life expectancy on the big stage can be a handful of games or like Connie Mack, who lasted 53 seasons, with a caveat that old Cornelius owned the A’s for most of the 50 years he was at the helm.
Even a legend like Casey Stengel eventually got the baseball ax. Nothing new for the “Old Perfesser” since Casey was given the gate in Brooklyn and Boston. Even the push button success of seven World Series titles did not make Casey immune.
Now comes the annual – certainly for me – of getting John Farrell pushed aside. As we who are outside the loop – fans and media – have no compunction about going all Queen of Hearts and asking for the manager’s head. I am sure Kathy Griffin would avoid us collectively doing anything dastardly.
Farrell must go. That is now on my emotional plate – again – like last season and the season before. But why? Like Potter Stewart described pornography as “I know it when I see it” I have a similar path with Farrell. So I will go into a slide on Farrell and his potential replacements and these will be internal selections only.