The Owner Opens Up
John Henry Talks About Theo, Lucchino, Manny and The Trade
Eagle-Tribune's Rob Bradford: So if a GM wants to make a trade he picks up the phone and calls Larry?
Red Sox owner John Henry: No. He calls the general manager.
Rob Bradford: That's what I mean ...
John Henry: Well, Bill Lajoie has been the point man, but it depends on who is calling. If the Mets are calling, well they were talking with Peter (Woodfork). Things are divided up. The David Wells stuff has been handled by (Craig) Shipley. Things are divided up. It's necessary. It doesn't work as well as it has worked in previous years, but it works. We lost a terrific GM and a terrific assistant general manager (Josh Byrnes). Last year I feel we had five members of that staff who hadn't been GMs yet who will be one day.
Henry on the trade for Josh Beckett: "I made the point that one could argue that signing A.J. (Burnett) to a long-term contract was potentially cheaper than giving up a number of prospects and acquiring the players we acquired."
On Larry Lucchino being hated: "He's forthright. He doesn't hold back, and therefore he becomes a lightning rod. But that doesn't prevent him from being the best CEO in baseball... I saw a story in the paper that Johnny Damon and Larry had had dinner when they hadn't had dinner. Larry could have just said, 'No' when asked, but he not only said 'No' but went on to say how it was absolutely 100 percent false. He is a lightning rod because he expresses himself in no uncertain terms."
On Theo Epstein being emotionally drained: "I know that he had to get sick of me saying, 'You need to take time off,' or 'You need to take a vacation this week.' For him it was always next week. Three years later ... "
On the possibility of trading Manny Ramirez last July: "The consensus was that there was not a deal involving Manny that made sense to the team. There was not a deal that would have put us in a situation where pitchers would not pitch around David." -- 12.6, Rob Bradford, Eagle-Tribune newspapers
