Red Sox owners make surprise trip to Baltimore
When the Red Sox beat the Orioles Thursday night, they had three very important people in the crowd to impress. Team owners Larry Lucchino, Tom Werner and John Henry made an unusual side trip Thursday to Baltimore to visit their struggling team as the attempted to avoid the sweep at the hands of the Orioles.
The owners had been coming from MLB owners meetings in Detroit, and considering the Sox have a big series coming up this weekend in New York against the Yankees, it would have made more sense for the owners to fly directly to New York.
Any speculation that the purpose of their trip to Baltimore was to fire manager Bobby Valentine was quickly shot down, as Larry Lucchino appeared on WEEI Thursday morning and promised that Valentine would not be fired during the season. Instead, it seemed, the owners simply wanted to remind the team of their presence.
While Henry and Werner remained quiet in Baltimore, Lucchino addressed the media before the game, claiming that Sox fans are still passionate about the team and that the franchise is going through a rough stretch that every franchise (except the Yankees, it seems) endures.
“Every franchise, every brand goes through rough times,” Lucchino said “No one is immune to the hills and valleys. We’ve had a long run of success. We’ve created very high expectations for the franchise. Sometimes those high expectations are not met, and the result is a reduction, a hit to the brand and to the team and to the fan base.
“If it’s broke, we’ll fix it.”
At this point in the season, with the Sox sitting 12 1/2 games out of first place and playing sub-.500 baseball, it is not a question whether the team is broken. It will be interesting to see how exactly Lucchino and Co. fix it.
