09:42 AM EST on Thursday, January 26, 2006

BY SEAN McADAM
Journal Sports Writer

BOSTON -- Through a day-long series of interviews, press conferences and one-on-one conversations, prodigal general manager Theo Epstein and CEO Larry Lucchino continually stressed one point over all others: it wasn't about the power.

So, then, what was it about? What caused Epstein to walk away from the Red Sox on Oct. 31? And what changed, leading him back to the franchise some 85 days later?

Some educated guesses:

While he and Lucchino didn't clash over chain-of-command issues or matters of autonomy, they did differ on general baseball philosophy, and, as Epstein alluded to yesterday, "the fundamental direction of the franchise."

Lucchino wanted the Red Sox to aim high every season and focus on the present. The fans, paying the highest ticket prices in the game, expected nothing less, and the string of consecutive sellouts, dating back several seasons, was evidence of their undying support.

It may not be possible to win it all every year, but Lucchino believed the Red Sox had a responsibility to try. Sox fans, Lucchino believed, wouldn't settle for wholesale overhauls or rebuilding efforts, and the team's 2004 championship had served only to whet their appetites.

Epstein, by contrast, was more interested in taking the long view. Rather than attempting to win a title every year, the general manager's goal was to make the playoffs most seasons, while realizing that in some seasons, some retrenchment was necessary.

Occasionally, it was perfectly acceptable to take a step back in order to eventually take two steps forward.

While the fan base and some in the organization shared an obsession with the New York Yankees, the baseball operations department saw the Atlanta Braves as a more apt model. Though the Braves have won just one World Series of late, they have won 14 consecutive division titles and qualified for the postseason every year since 1991.

Equally impressive, the Braves continue to be largely homegrown, with the ability to periodically reload by integrating their own young (and inexpensive) prospects.

The framework for conflict, then, was set.

While Epstein focused intently last season on the Red Sox surplus of early-round picks in the annual June draft, believing that sound scouting decisions could stock the Sox' farm system with blue-chip prospects for years to come, Lucchino and others were more concerned with holding off the Yankees and winning a second consecutive championship.

AP photo

Team president and CEO Larry Lucchino, left, and Executive Vice President/General Manager Theo Epstein meet with reporters at Fenway Park yesterday.

These dueling approaches were reflected across the organization. On the business side, there was an emphasis on branding and marketing and promotion. Meanwhile, the baseball operations department, its attention fixed squarely on the on-field product, began to feel almost slighted, as if too many people within Fenway Park had forgotten that the record-breaking crowds were, at least partly, driven by the success the team had enjoyed.

Sometimes, the conflict spilled into personnel decisions. While some valued big-name players who could serve as magnets for NESN, the team's television arm, Epstein and his lieutenants in the baseball operations department recognized that such players, by definition, were more established, and thus older and more likely to warrant expensive long-term contracts.

These star players could limit the Red Sox doubly -- by taking up larger shares of the payroll and clogging the pipeline of prospects. Either way, the Sox would be sacrificing flexibility, a definite no-no in the modern game.

As he watched his investment grow substantially because of Lucchino's business acumen and celebrated his team's third consecutive trip to the postseason, principal owner John Henry failed to recognize the schism developing in his own organization. By the time the differences began to contaminate the contract extension talks between Lucchino and Epstein and led to Epstein's departure, it was too late.

Slowly, over the last 2 1/2 months, Henry brokered a truce between Lucchino and Epstein and addressed the fission that had split the organization in two.

Management consultants were hired to redress the tug-of-war between the business and baseball sides, and improved communication -- both internal and external -- was given priority.

An agreement now exists that the Red Sox are a baseball team first and foremost. That simple lesson, it appears, was forgotten until just recently.

smcadam@projo.com / (401) 277-7340