It's official, Grady Little is gone

No surprise here, the man's been crucified in Boston.

Little will not return to Red Sox
By Gordon Edes, Boston Globe Staff, 10/27/2003

Red Sox officials told Grady Little late this morning that they will not renew his contract for next season, ending his term as Red Sox manager after two years, according to a source with close ties to Little.

An official announcement from the club is expected later today.

Little was let go after guiding the Sox to within a game of the World Series. The Sox fell, 6-5, to the Yankees in Game 7 of the American League Championship Series, and fans widely blamed Little for leaving ace pitcher Pedro Martinez in the game too long.

A search for a successor is expected to begin immediately.

The Florida Marlins beat the Yankees in the World Series that wrapped up Saturday, ending baseball's embargo on major moves and freeing the Red Sox to cut Little loose.

Little's contract expires on Friday, so he was not fired. The team merely chose not to pick up his option for next year.

The Red Sox won 93 and 95 games in Little's two years as manager, reaching the playoffs this year for the first time since 1999. They fell to the brink of elimination in the first round against the Oakland Athletics before winning the last three games to advance to the ALCS, and Little's job seemed secure.

The Yankees took a 3-2 lead in the series as it headed back to New York, and Little seemed to be making all of the right moves.

He left struggling shortstop Nomar Garciaparra alone, and he snapped out of his slump with four hits in Game 6 to force a seventh game. And, because Little chose not to use Martinez on short rest, he had his ace available for the decisive game.

Boston staked Martinez to a 4-0 lead, and it was 4-2 after seven when it seemed like Martinez's night was done. But Little sent him out for the eighth and he quickly ran into trouble; even after Little came out to talk to Martinez, he left him in rather than trust the lead to the bullpen that had struggled all year before finding some consistency in the playoffs.

The Yankees tied it off Martinez in the eighth, then won the game and the series in the 11th on Aaron Boone's homer of Tim Wakefield.

Red Sox players came to Little's defense.

"There's no reason to blame Grady," Martinez said. "Grady doesn't play the game, I do. If you want to judge me or curse me or whatever, I will swallow that, because I am responsible."

Two days later, Little sat in his office and defended the decision to stick with his ace.

"If people want to judge Grady Little on the results of a decision I made in that last game the other day, so be it," he said in his Fenway Park office. "In my heart, I know we had a great season here."

Although publicly commending Little's work in keeping the clubhouse together, the Red Sox delayed a decision on Little's future while angry Red Sox fans called for his job. The team insisted that Little's future would not hinge on the one decision, but it would have been hard to let him go if he had managed the team to the World Series.

General manager Theo Epstein is known to rely more on statistical analysis in assessing players and matchups than Little, who often used his instincts in making decisions. Owner John Henry is also in the statistical analysis camp.

But Epstein was complimentary towards Little's work managing the strong personalities in the Boston clubhouse.

"A lot goes on behind the scenes that people never know about," Epstein said, "different things that Grady Little does to help preserve and improve the chemistry of the ballclub.

"He knows that he did his absolute best and he knows he really helped this team get to the doorstep of the World Series this year and he's proud of that."

Little, 53, became the Red Sox manager on March 11, 2002 after Joe Kerrigan was fired. Kerrigan had moved up from pitching coach on Aug. 16, 2001 when Jimy Williams was fired.

Little managed 16 seasons in the minors from 1980 through 1995 and was San Diego's bullpen coach in 1996. He spent the next three seasons as Williams' bench coach in Boston then had the same job the next two seasons with Charlie Manuel in Cleveland.

In 2002, the Red Sox got off to a 40-17 start under Little but finished at 93-69 and missed the playoffs. This season, they were 95-67 and led the AL in batting average, total bases and other offensive categories.

 

I hope those red soxed bastards don't even get close enough to the playoffs again to smell it as long as Grady is still alive!

How's that for another curse?

 

i like the guy, but this had to be done. it was inevitable.

 

the curse continues and just got extended another 90 years.

 

I agree just because of this:


"Right now I am disappointed that evidently some people are judging me on the results of one decision I made -- not the decision, but the results of the decision," he said. "Less than 24 hours before, those same people were hugging and kissing me. If that's the way they operate, I'm not sure I want to be part of it."
~ Grady Little

 

The scary part is the thought that one of these people would actually be better or that a Yankees coach would want to go there.


.....Monday's Boston Herald, citing a Red Sox source, reported that two candidates to succeed Little could be former Indians manager Charlie Manuel and former Red Sox second baseman Jerry Remy, a television analyst for NESN, a regional sports network partly owned by the Red Sox.

According to the report, others on the Red Sox list are Yankees third-base coach Willie Randolph, Yankees first-base coach Lee Mazzilli, Dodgers third-base coach Glenn Hoffman and former Phillies skipper Terry Francona, now the A's bench coach.

 

86, you want him in Cincy??

 

I just saw the press conference with the Boston brass. I really liked the way they squirmed when one reporter asked if their decision would have been different if Boston had gone to the WS.

IMO the press conference and ESPN's follow up made them look like dicks.

 

Sure.....my only reservation would be that Dave Miley has never got to manage a major league roster. I really don't know if Miley can handle the Majors or not.

While I was disappointed at some of his actions during Game 7 as they unfolded, I think I said in the next day or two on here, I could understand his logic after thinking about it.

Now that Guillen is out of Cincinnati, I can't imagine that the personalities in the Great American lockerroom could be any stronger than what he dealt with Boston.

From the fans perspective, its only been since 1990.

After watching the Bengals shocking play over the last 2 weeks, Grady might be able to buy some additional time and fly under the radar while the city comes to grips with possibility of an actual professional franchise residing in Paul Brown Stadium.

 

guillen......attempting to be the best player in history to play for every team in MLB. god what an ass he is.