01:00 AM EST on Tuesday, October 28, 2003

Stat Geeks 1, Old Salty Dog Baseball Traditionalists 0.

That's the latest score from Fenway Park, where the Boston Stat Geeks, a.k.a. the Bambino-cursed Red Sox, announced yesterday they were dumping their Old Salty Dog Baseball Traditionalist of a manager, Grady Little.

Henceforth, the Olde Towne Team will have a New Age skipper.

From now on -- or at least as long as Larry Lucchino and the Sox's grizzled veteran of a general manager, 29-year-old baseball boy genius Theo Epstein, are calling the shots -- the Boston manager will carry a computer printout rather than a lineup card in his back pocket.

Gut instincts will be ignored in favor of technical input. The front office has

made it plain it no longer will back any managerial decision that isn't backed up by solid statistical data. For the New Age Sox manager, people skills will take a back seat to computer skills.

Lucchino insisted yesterday that wouldn't be the case.

"We're not going to be a 'stats geek' organization," he said.

Unfortunately, he sounded an awful lot like Richard Nixon proclaiming "I am not a crook," or Bill Clinton declaring, "I did not have sex with that woman."

"Nor," Lucchino added, "are we going to be an organization run by old, salty-dog baseball traditionalists."

What the New Age Sox would like to be, Lucchino said, is a combination of the two.

Sorry, Larry, but that doesn't compute.

When a manager becomes a number-cruncher -- hmm, what has my guy hit against this pitcher in day games following night games when there's a full moon and we played the previous series in Chicago? -- when he no longer is allowed to follow his gut instincts, he becomes a gutless manager.

That's because, when you manage strictly by the book, you always have an excuse to fall back on.

"Well, you know, fellas, even though it didn't work out this time, the percentages were in our favor," the manager can explain when a move goes awry. "Statistically speaking, it was the right thing to do."

Heaven forbid you should, for example, stick with your pitching ace in the eighth inning of the seventh game of the ALCS.

Does anyone wonder whether if Pedro Martinez -- Prima Donna Petey -- had done his job, Grady Little might still have his?

Prima Donna Petey had leads of 3-0, 4-0, and, with one out and nobody on in the eighth, 5-2, over the Yankees in the game that would decide the American League pennant.

He failed to hold those leads. Failed miserably. And Red Sox Nation blamed Grady Little. Even though Pedro said it was on him.

"There's no reason to blame Grady," Martinez said. "Grady doesn't play the game, I do. If you want to judge me, or curse me, or whatever, I will swallow that because I am responsible."

The Stat Geeks held Grady responsible, because, after all, Pedro had thrown -- gasp! -- more than 100 pitches.

Yet there was cigar-smoking, 72-year-old, baseball lifer Jack McKeon -- a salty-dog baseball traditionalist if ever there was one -- sticking with his ace, Josh Beckett, in Game Six of the World Series in Yankee Stadium.

Pitching on just three days' rest -- Pedro, you may recall, had four -- Beckett went nine innings for McKeon and the Marlins, blanking the Yankees on just five hits.

Since Lucchino, Theo, and the Red Sox's principal owner, John Henry -- who, lest we forget, never came remotely close to winning a championship when he owned the Marlins -- love crunching numbers so much, here are a few they might want to consider:

$17-million. That's what the Sox forked over last Spring for Prima Donna Petey, guaranteeing his inflated salary for 2004. Seems like an awful lot of money for a guy who can't be counted on past the seventh inning, a guy who is 4-7 in his last 19 starts against the Yankees, a guy who was 0-1 this year in four postseason starts, games in which the Sox were 1-3 overall.

95 wins. That's how many games Boston won this season with Grady at the helm, two more than in 2002. The last time a Red Sox team won that many games was 1986, which also was the last time they won the pennant.

If the new guy doesn't win at least that many in 2004, shouldn't he get the ax?

649. And 2,832. And .491. Those are, in order, the number of extra-base hits, the number of total bases and the slugging percentage of the 2003 Red Sox. All are major-league records, as Boston led the majors in almost every hitting category. Does Grady get any credit for that? Or does he only get more blame for failing to win with such an offensive machine?

$106-million. That's what the Boston payroll was this season -- approximately twice what the Marlins spent. Maybe cost-conscious Mr. Henry ought to consider how Lucchino and Epstein are doing in their jobs, compared to the job Grady did.

And, after next year, the Sox will have to negotiate new contracts for Pedro, Nomar Garciaparra, Trot Nixon, Jason Varitek and Derek Lowe.

Priceless. You can't put a figure on what Little was worth in the clubhouse. If a poll had been taken among the players, they undoubtedly would have voted to bring back Grady.

Lucchino acknowledged Little's significant contributions in that regard.

"We had a roiling clubhouse that had to be dealt with," he said. "There was tumult down there. We needed a steadying force."

How will the new guy get along with Prima Donna Petey? What will he do when Pedro blows off the team picture yet again? What will he say when Manny shows up late for a workout the day before the playoffs start? How will he deal with the reclusive Nomar, who's made it plain he'd rather be on the West Coast with his bride-to-be, world-class soccer star Mia Hamm, than remain in Boston long-term?

Expertise in statistical analysis won't help. Better the new guy should be an expert in psychoanalysis. Whatever formula Grady used, it worked.

But he wasn't the guy Henry, Lucchino and Epstein wanted to lead the Sox in the future.

"We feel Grady did a very good job with the 2003 Red Sox," Epstein said. "I understand the players' attachment to Grady. But we have to do what we feel is best for the organization. We want the best manager for the long haul."

"What we're looking for," Lucchino said, "is a balance between various approaches. We want to have greater balance among the tools that can be used."

The balance of power in Boston has swung in favor of the Stat Geeks. The job of manager of the Red Sox is open, and no Old Salty Dog Baseball Traditionalists need apply.