October 21, 2011 Tribune From the 'Kid' to the 'Savior' After a remarkable rise to the top in Boston, Epstein brings his passion and formula to Chicago By: Phil Rogers BROOKLINE, Mass. — Nine years ago, after the Boston Red Sox made little-known assistant Theo Epstein the youngest general manager in baseball history, a steady stream of reporters visited this peaceful hamlet, just beyond the shadows of the Prudential Center and Fenway Park in bustling Boston. Leslie and Ilene Epstein, Theo's parents, pulled out photo albums and told stories about their daughter, Anya, and the twins, Theo and Paul. They talked of the night in 1986 when the ground ball went through Bill Buckner's legs. They told the so-called "spanking'' stories, about the times when the children misbehaved. Theo blushed, and everyone else laughed. It was an innocent time, a sweet grace period for a city that can be hard on its sports teams. But the Epsteins haven't been as welcoming this month, not with the heightened attention swirling around his potential move to Chicago. The Red Sox and Cubs are trying to agree on the athletic value of a GM who brought Boston World Series championships in 2004 and '07. The Cubs reportedly are offering a package that is worth almost $20 million over five years and apparently comes with an unprecedented ability to spend money in an effort to bring the Cubs their first championship since 1908. That's how strongly Cubs Chairman Tom Ricketts has come to believe in Epstein, 37, whose hiring will become official when the teams agree on a compensation package. He ended an 86-year championship drought in Boston and in doing so revealed a formula others believe will work for him in Chicago. "I would tell you if he spends the same amount of time he spent in Boston in Chicago, you'll have a World Series,'' said Curt Schilling, an ESPN baseball analyst who was an ace for the Red Sox's two championship teams. "I don't question that for a second.'' When Epstein took charge of the baseball operations department at Fenway, he and his cadre of hard- working, light-sleeping disciples turned the once-quiet offices into a corporate version of "Animal House," at least in the late hours. After the 9-to-5 staff had gone home, Epstein, Josh Byrnes, Jed Hoyer, Craig Shipley, Ben Cherington and others would put in marathon hours of grunt work analyzing data, producing manuals for scouts and minor-league coaches and writing Carmine, the organization's computer program used to analyze players' statistics and tendencies. At some point someone would bring out wiffle ball bats or golf clubs and whack balls down hallways and into offices, at times shattering glass or damaging drywall. "It was a crazy place to work, but I don't think it's like that anymore,'' said Byrnes, who now is an assistant GM with the San Diego Padres. "Theo was probably working 20 hours a day then, and midnight golf was just a thing we did. There were times we'd work through the night, and it got wild … (But) when Theo took the job, he was single. Now he's married with children. He's got reasons to get home.'' Epstein isn't as open as he was when he took over in Boston either. He closely guards the privacy of his wife, Marie Whitney, and 3-year-old son, Jack, and his own family has become wary about bringing out the scrapbooks for reporters. The great family stories go back at least two generations, to his grandfather Philip and great uncle Julius, screenwriters who count the movies "Casablanca" and "Arsenic and Old Lace" among their credits. Leslie, who is the director of Boston University's creative writing program, is a Rhodes scholar and prolific novelist. Ilene has operated a thriving boutique in Brookline Village for decades. Leslie responded warmly to a recent request for an interview but cautioned he would meet a reporter only after he had gotten Theo's blessing and eventually declined. The timing seemed too sensitive with the Red Sox making the Cubs play games to get him. Epstein, who had gotten to know Larry Lucchino when he interned for the Baltimore Orioles while attending Yale, started his career in San Diego. He had been recruited by Lucchino, then the president/CEO of the San Diego Padres. He followed Lucchino to Boston in 2002, after new Red Sox principal owner John Henry had hired him as club president. Epstein was Lucchino's protege, but the two would clash and grow distant over time. Epstein quit for nearly three months after a disappointing 2005 season — sneaking away from a Halloween function at Fenway Park wearing a gorilla suit — but returned. The relationship between Lucchino and Epstein remained a challenge, however, and eventually pushed Epstein away from his beloved Red Sox again last week, this time for good. "Larry's a difficult guy,'' said an executive with another major-league club. "We all know that. He's a difficult person. We all love Larry because he has such great passion for whatever he gets involved with, but Larry the Lawyer pops up a lot, the arrogant guy. I don't know anybody who has worked with him long without his arrogance getting in the way. I'm not surprised that things are ending the way they are in Boston. I'm surprised it lasted as long as it did.'' When Epstein was hired to run the Red Sox, he was a rebound choice after Henry had been rejected by the object of his affection, "Moneyball'' star Billy Beane of the Oakland Athletics. "You can have more than one good choice,'' Lucchino said at the time. It turns out he was right. Epstein, 28 — or "almost 29,'' as Lucchino called him — was The Kid in those days. He comes to Chicago with a different tag: The Savior. Same guy. Similar challenge. Proven model and work ethic. But Epstein will join the Cubs under totally different circumstances than he did his hometown team and without the innocence that made his rise so much fun for him and those lucky enough to be along for the ride. Paper trail When Beane stunned Henry by turning down baseball's second-highest revenue team to stay with one of its smallest franchises, Lucchino told Henry to hire the incredibly smart workaholic he had discovered as a PR intern, first in Baltimore and then San Diego. He had been brought to Lucchino's attention by Rick Vaughn, who in 1993 assigned Epstein to write a piece on Baltimore's Negro League connection for the Orioles' game program. Epstein worked overnight on the paper and far before the deadline turned in an essay that Vaughn passed along untouched. It was the perfect paper. "It was pretty clear he was destined for something bigger than the PR office of the Orioles, not to denigrate the PR office of the Orioles,'' said Vaughn, now a vice president with the Tampa Bay Rays. "It was pretty clear he was special, clear he had a lot of skills. He was very mature. He was the intern who was more mature than his 35-year-old boss was.'' After Epstein earned his degree in American Studies at Yale, Lucchino put him to work in San Diego. Kevin Towers, who had just become the Padres GM, handed him a radar gun and a seat behind home plate when Epstein voiced a desire to move from media relations into baseball operations. "He's one of the smartest, most intelligent guys I've ever known,'' Towers said. "He's so bright that it's dangerous. … His work ethic is unbelievable, absolutely off the charts. And he has such a great way about him. I introduced him around to agents, other people, and he was somebody everyone liked, everyone wanted in the room. He learned some things from me, but I learned a lot from him. I looked at things from a scout's perspective and he knew analysis. He made me see you don't have to be a baseball player to know baseball.'' While working long days assisting Towers with scouts and minor-league staffers, Epstein also put himself through law school at the University of San Diego. Legend has him swapping Padres tickets to classmates who would keep detailed notes, helping him essentially be in two places at once. Pouring through scouting reports and crunching numbers, Epstein became fascinated with undersized infielder David Eckstein. He urged Towers to put in a claim when Eckstein hit waivers in 2000, calling him "an on-base machine.'' Towers passed, then watched as Eckstein helped lead the Angels to a World Series championship two years later. After Epstein finished law school, he was recruited by several firms. Towers recalled how Epstein called him to say that he had gotten a job offer with a chance to make three or four times as much as his $50,000 salary with the Padres. Towers said that was great, then asked Epstein if that was "what you want?'' Epstein said "absolutely not'' and added he wanted to see how far he could go in baseball. Towers bumped up his pay, gave him a title as director of baseball operations and then fought successfully to keep him when the Toronto Blue Jays offered him a bigger job. Epstein was a regular visitor to Towers' house in those years, frequently coming over for "Monday Night Football" games and other sporting events, and often shared his desire to try to help his hometown Red Sox end the so-called Curse of the Bambino.