01:00 AM EST on Thursday, November 3, 2005

BOSTON -- There was Theo.

There was John Henry.

There was Tom Werner.

There was no Larry Lucchino.

And no real answers, either.

That's about it, the line score of yesterday's gathering at Fenway Park, the hits, runs, and errors of a press conference that went on for about an hour and was about as frustrating as trying to get inside Manny's head.

Why did Theo actually leave?

What are the facts as opposed to the fiction?

What really happened in a negotiation that turned rancid?

Was there really a civil war inside the front office between Theo and Lucchino and this is simply the bloody fallout: Theo gone and Lucchino's reputation as tattered as an old baseball left out in the rain?

You had a better chance of deciphering the Da Vinci Code.

So there was Theo essentially saying what he'd said in his statement Monday night. How being the Sox' general manager is a job you have to give your heart and soul to and he decided he no longer could do that. How any reports of a power struggle between him and Lucchino were innacurate, but the right thing to do was to move on, as if he were some old man at the end of his career, not some 31 year old wunderkind, only a year removed from winning the World Series.

There was John Henry, who looked as out of place as Manny at a Harvard seminar, blaming himself and saying that "Larry Lucchino is not the problem."

And Lucchino?

Larry wasn't there.

No matter that he's a key part of this scenario, the designated heavy in this newest Red Sox soap opera, the CEO who somehow bungled this negotiation and let Epstein walk away. No matter that, in many ways, Lucchino has been the public face of this franchise for the last four years, making a weekly appearance on a Boston radio station, accessible to the media, never getting a question he couldn't find a way to dance around.

Larry wasn't there.

No matter that Theo said, "Larry and I like each other." No matter that he had been with him for 14 years, and that he wants good things for Lucchino. No matter that he said Lucchino and his ability to steer the franchise "was a big factor in bringing me here in the first place and a big factor in our collective success."

Larry wasn't there.

No matter that Henry said that Lucchino has been maligned for the past couple of days and "I think that's wrong. I think that's innacurate. This is not Larry Lucchino pushing Theo out." No matter that the baseball operations staff was on the steps to Henry's right, looking as young and fresh-faced as some college field trip, everyone there in obvious support of Epstein. No matter that yesterday was the symbolic send off for Epstein, as though the entire organization was there to wave goodbye.

Larry wasn't there.

Where was he?

Was he inside Fenway somewhere, rolling marbles around in his palm like some baseball version of Captain Queeg?

Was he hiding in the training room, off limits to everyone, nursing his wounds?

Where was he, and what was he thinking?

That was the unanswered question as the press conference droned on, full of sound and fury, and in the end signifying next to nothing.

For Lucchino was the elephant in the living room, even if he wasn't there, the man who had lost the power struggle with Epstein, for the simple reason that Epstein had walked away when no one thought he would, adding up to what Henry called a great, great loss.

Lucchino was the one we wanted to hear, the one who might have been able to shed some light on how this ended up the way it did, everyone gathered inside Fenway Park on a November afternoon to hear Theo Epstein's farewell press conference. He was the one who might have provided some answers on an afternoon when answers were as elusive as a Manny press conference.

You would think he would have been there for no other reason than he's the public face of this franchise, its CEO. You would think he would have been there to send out the message he wishes things could have been resolved, that he wishes Theo well, blah, blah, blah, the new spin. You would think he would have begun the first day of damage control, both to his image and the perception that the Red Sox are going to be fine, that the organization is strong enough to withstand the loss of anyone, Epstein included.

For yesterday was the end of Theo Epstein's too short run with the Red Sox.

And Larry wasn't there.

Connect the dots.