FORT MYERS, Fla. — From the recruitment of Theo Epstein to signing Jon Lester to using the Fenway Park blueprint in their Wrigley Field renovation, there’s no doubt the Chicago Cubs’ chairman, Tom Ricketts, has a serious case of Boston envy.
The next thing you know, they’ll serve clam chowder at Wrigley with Matt Damon and Ben Affleck in the owner’s seats behind the dugout.
“There’s something flattering about it,” said the Red Sox CEO, Larry Lucchino. “If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then we’ll take it.”
The one thing the Red Sox have that the Cubs’ owners desperately want is a championship ring. That’s Epstein’s mission. Epstein, of course, has a couple of rings from his days running the Red Sox and might have stayed to try to win a few more if not for a famous falling out with Lucchino and fellow Red Sox owners, John Henry and Tom Werner.
But life throws you curveballs every so often, and now the Cubs are seemingly on the verge of contending with a farm system many rate as the best in baseball, while the Red Sox are coming off a last-place finish following their 2013 world title.
The Red Sox opted to throw cash at the problem for this season, signing free agents Pablo Sandoval, Hanley Ramirez and 19-year-old Cuban infielder Yoan Moncada, while making several other moves to get back in the mix. Lucchino corrected me when I mentioned the offseason “rebuild,” a word that’s banned in the Red Sox offices.
“We’re not interested in that slow process (of rebuilding),” he said. “We play for championships. That’s what we want people to understand. We have three in 10 years.”
The Red Sox, Lucchino said, never would do it the Cubs way, throwing away seasons to build a farm system in return for sustained success.
“Part of it is we have an obligation to our fans who support us so fervently and buy so many of our tickets,” he said. “And when I say ‘go for it,’ I mean go for the postseason, though John Henry said so well here the first day of practice – ‘We play for championships.’ And if that means refocusing after finishing last, then we do it. But we’re not trying to finish third.”
The Red Sox could go from last-to-first again, as they did in 2013. Or they easily could flop if Sandoval’s belly gets any bigger and Ramirez’s bulked-up body leads to hamstring injuries.
“It’s an interesting team in the best sense of the word,” Lucchino said. “There are question marks with some of the young players, how quickly will they mature and contribute. There are some question marks with some of the new players, how quickly will they adjust and contribute, and some question marks with some of our older, core players.
“And always, as with every team, there’s a question about pitching. But this is a team with a bunch of stars. You don’t need just stars to win. You need good, regular guys – ‘Joes’ as they used to call them. You need the stars and you need the Joes, and I think we have both. What we can’t be sure of is health and good luck.”
The Red Sox have no real ace and made an all-out effort to re-sign Lester, whom they dealt to the A’s last summer. Instead, Epstein swooped in and reeled Lester in for $155 million.
Asked if he regretted the way the Lester situation was handled, Lucchino said: “I haven’t thought about it for a while. We wish him, uh, some success in Chicago.”
He then leaned back and laughed. Some success in Chicago?
“We wish he chose to come back here, but he hasn’t,” he said. “As (Patriots coach) Bill Belichick would say, ‘We only talk about the guys on our team.’ ”
Lucchino also declined to give his thoughts on what Epstein has accomplished since his controversial ending in Boston. The two are no longer close, but he said Epstein sent him a “nice note” after a recent motorcycle accident in February.
“Very thoughtful of him,” Lucchino said. “That’s the last contact I have had with him.”
If Lucchino is happy for Epstein for receiving plaudits on his rebuild, he’s not about to say so.
“What has he done in Chicago? Actually I don’t feel any great connection to what he has done in Chicago,” he said. “That’s up to him and the Cubs. We have enough issues focusing on our own franchise.”
Epstein didn’t care to comment on Lucchino either, having to deal with his own team.
The former friends are busy minding their own business, and doing things their own way.
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