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John Henry Clears the Air Red Sox Style on WEEI
'He Left for a Reason to Be Named Later'
(Or Maybe a Deep Throat to Be Named Later)

The Leak Stops Here!
(err, not exactly...)

�Unfortunately we had a lot of contention at the end (of the negotiations). Anytime you have unnamed sources driving the media and there�s a media frenzy, it�s difficult to have a negotiation in which things are leaking our accurate, things are leaking out inaccurate things are leaking out, and that does cause problems in any negotiation and has been a problem in the past in prior negotiation. And it certainly, it creates a trust issue when that�s happening. Well who�s leaking this?...

�You have to have it (unnamed sources) in a free society. I guess you have to have that, after all if you remember Watergate, the problem� that all was about trying to eradicate leaks in the White House, that�s how that all began. And if there hadn�t been an unnamed source, Nixon probably would have gotten away with some things that were going on at that point.

�When I first met Larry Lucchino, one of his aphorisms when I first met him was 'there are no secrets in baseball.' So things have a tendency to leak out� They (the leaks) have done damage, and they have done damage in the past and there�s not a law against it. The unfortunate thing is that when someone calls you for a comment they will say �well we won�t use your name, we�ll protect you, we won�t say, for instance, it came from the Red Sox and then the person has no risk. He can put forward his agenda with no risk and� it may not be an agenda, it may be a simple stab at the truth, but it may not always be 100 percent accurate because they may not be involved in a particular negotiation. It�s an issue and it certainly was an issue near the end because we had a number of leaks that were inaccurate, at least I felt they were inaccurate, I remember one week reading something in the paper and thinking it was highly inaccurate and finding out well maybe it wasn�t that inaccurate but generally the early leaks weren�t that accurate at least in regard to the things I was looking at� but near the end they were and that really causes people to say to each other �well what�s going on here?�

�I didn�t necessarily agree with everything he left over, but I think I understand��

�I think they (leaks that caused things to unravel at the end) were significant (part of the breakdown)

�They�re still happening, there still happening. Today I read on the front page of a newspaper that I didn�t get involved in the negotiations until after Theo quit, and this was an unnamed team source it said� It�s a continuing thing, it�s not going to stop. We can all whine about it that unnamed sources suck but it�s part of baseball.

�You�re right, late in the process, there were leaks that were more accurate and unfortunate. And where did they come from? I don�t know where they came from. I actually tried to find out where they came from. Yes (they were destructive to the process). The problem is the story is being driven by leaks. It�s not being driven by Theo or Larry himself. It�s being driven by people that don�t necessarily have all the facts� but near the end there were some leaks, but only some leaks, that were accurate and those were the ones that would drive us up the wall� $1.2 million for instance. That I saw 20 minutes after the meeting. Yes (that drove Theo up a wall). It drove all of us up the wall. That was a huge irritant at the end.

�What can you do (about the leaks)? You can�t pass a law against unnamed sources. You can try to route them out and make sure that you don�t have them but you don�t really want to go on a witch hunt." -- 11.3, John Henry on WEEI