Thursday, April 16, 2009

The Biz of Baseball - The Boston Red Sox

by Devon Teeple

In a continuation of The Biz of Baseball’s Organizational Reports, we are now featuring the franchise that has been one of the most successful in all of baseball: The Boston Red Sox.

After years of heartbreak, the Boston Red Sox are quite arguably the crown jewel of Major League Baseball, the epitome of the way a team can be run. Building through the draft, and a vision of excellence in the front office, the Red Sox Nation has been continuously growing in the past five years. Why have the Red Sox been able to sustain excellence while one set of teams continue to struggle despite brief success; Detroit Tigers, and others have put together a historic streak of losing; Pittsburgh Pirates.

A level of success was born when former Florida Marlins owner John Henry teamed up with Tom Werner and Larry Lucchino. They, along with other investors, purchased the team from the Jean R. Yawkey trust, for $700 million in 2002. Since the merger, the Red Sox have four post-season appearances in the last five years and two World Series Championships; 2004 defeating the St. Louis Cardinals and in 2007 defeating the Colorado Rockies.

However, what specifically is it that the Red Sox do that set them apart from the rest of the teams. If you dissect the team, they do three things very well, Player Development, Office and Field Management and a strong fan base.

Select Read More to see details such as Opening Day player payroll, the impact of FSG, improvements to Fenway Park, and more
The Impact of Theo Epstein

In terms of player development, the head honcho these days is Theo Epstein. Epstein, who is a Yale graduate and earned a law degree from the University of San Diego got his start in baseball in 1992 as a summer media relations intern with the Baltimore Orioles. Two years later, he moved on to the Padres Organization where he spent three more years in Media Relations. Fast forward to 1998, he became the baseball operations assistant and in 2000, baseball operations director.

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