New Red Sox Owners Quickly Fire Duquette
Dan Duquette, the controversial and aloof Boston Red Sox general manager who brought Pedro Martinez to Fenway Park but inexplicably let Roger Clemens leave, was fired Thursday, less than 24 hours after the team’s new owners completed their $660-million purchase of the franchise.
Duquette, whose eight-year tenure was marked by his contentious relationship with fans, reporters and players, was replaced on an interim basis by the club’s assistant general manager, Mike Port, the no-frills executive who served as Angel general manager from 1984 to ’91.
Showing an emotional side he rarely displayed in Boston, Duquette, a native of Dalton, Mass., and a graduate of Amherst College, choked back tears as he said farewell to his dream job during a news conference in Fort Myers, Fla.
“I’m most disappointed that I will not have the opportunity to realize the goal Red Sox fans and I have shared for too long: a World Series championship,” he said. “No one loves the Red Sox more than I do.”
Duquette will be paid until Jan. 26, 2004, as part of the three-year, $4.5-million contract extension given to him by the previous owners. Port, 56, has been Boston’s assistant general manager since 1993 and vice president of baseball operations since 1996. It was unclear how long Port would be interim general manager. “It could take a few weeks or a few months,” said Larry Lucchino, the team’s new president under new owners John Henry and Tom Werner.
“It is a key long-term decision that should not be dictated by a clock or a calendar.”
Port was surprised by the move, saying he wasn’t sure if he would be part of a housecleaning or the beneficiary of it.
“It’s an awesome responsibility ... and I am ready and prepared to accept it,” Port said.
In many ways, Port was the Dan Duquette of the 1980s. Cautious, guarded and conservative in style and apparel, he was one of the first general managers to talk more like a lawyer and less like a baseball man when he replaced Buzzie Bavasi on Sept. 1, 1984.
Port began sentences with phrases such as, “At this point in time,” and “I submit to you,” a language one writer dubbed “Port-ugese” and turned off players and agents. Port was viewed by some as cold and calculating.
Port made many minor deals but seemed reluctant to pull the trigger on major deals. One of his best trades came at the end of 1985, when he acquired pitcher John Candelaria, outfielder George Hendrick and reliever Al Holland for pitchers Pat Clements and Bob Kipper, and outfielder Mike Brown.
Many criticized the deal because Clements and Brown were considered top prospects, but Candelaria played a key role in the Angels’ 1986 division-title run, going 10-2 in 16 starts, most of them in the second half. The Angels came within one pitch of the World Series that October before a devastating Game playoff loss and an eventual American League championship series loss to the Red Sox.
Like Port, Duquette’s Red Sox teams won only one division title, in 1995, but they did earn wild-card playoff berths in 1998 and ’99.
While Duquette’s greatest coup was acquiring Martinez from the salary-dumping Montreal Expos for pitchers Carl Pavano and Tony Armas Jr. in 1997, he will also be remembered for driving Clemens, the most accomplished pitcher in Red Sox history, out of town after the 1996 season.
Duquette miscalculated Clemens’ market value, saying the future Hall of Famer was “in the twilight of his career.”
Clemens left and won three more Cy Young awards and two World Series rings.
In 2000, a rift developed when temperamental outfielder Carl Everett quarreled with then-manager Jimy Williams, but Duquette failed to back his manager, saying it was “more important how [Everett] produces on the field.” Several Boston players fumed at the general manager.
And last year, Duquette spent $110 million on player salaries in an attempt to end the Red Sox’s 83-year championship drought, only to have the season disintegrate amid a series of injuries and turmoil and Williams’ firing as manager.
