October 27, 200322 yr c/o espn.com BOSTON -- The Boston Red Sox, still smarting from a bitter seven-game loss to the rival Yankees in the ALCS, will fire manager Grady Little on Monday afternoon, ESPN's Peter Gammons reports. Gammons reports that the Red Sox will announce the firing at a 3 p.m. ET news conference at Fenway Park. Monday's Boston Herald, citing a Red Sox source, reported that two candidates to succeed Little could be former Indians manager Charlie Manuel and former Red Sox second baseman Jerry Remy, a television analyst for NESN, a regional sports network partly owned by the Red Sox. According to the report, others on the Red Sox list are Yankees third-base coach Willie Randolph, Yankees first-base coach Lee Mazzilli, Dodgers third-base coach Glenn Hoffman and former Phillies skipper Terry Francona, now the A's bench coach. Little's dismissal has been hinted since the series ended. Although Boston's CBS affiliate, WBZ, reported Sunday that Little would be fired Monday, Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein told ESPN on Sunday night that the report was not true. Epstein said the team had begun its review of Little and hoped to make a decision on the manager's future "as soon as possible," but said that "no decision" had been made on whether to pick up Little's contract option for next season. On Friday, a Red Sox official told the Herald that he would be "real surprised" if Little survived this offseason. Multiple team sources told the paper that all signs pointed to Little's option, which expires Friday, not being picked up. "He's not (team president) Admin (Lucchino)'s guy -- if he were Admin's guy, (Lucchino) would have defended him by now," a source close to Little told the Boston Globe. Earlier last week, Little said he was ready for the worst. "I'm prepared for the likelihood," Little told the Globe. "I am not sure that I want to manage that team. That's how I felt when I drove out of town." Little has been criticized for his decision to stick with tiring ace Pedro Martinez in the eighth inning of Game 7 against the Yankees. Martinez failed to hold a 5-2 lead, and New York won in the 11th inning on Aaron Boone's homer off knuckleballer Tim Wakefield. The Red Sox have insisted that Little's future will not be determined by the one decision, but according to the Herald, the team was concerned about Little's lack of reliance on stats. Many key Red Sox players, including Todd Walker and Manny Ramirez, publicly expressed support for Little's return. In Little's two years as Red Sox manager, Boston was 93-69 and 95-67, and the Sox qualified for the playoffs this season for the first time since 1999. Little became the Red Sox' 43rd manager on March 11, 2002, after Joe Kerrigan was fired.
October 27, 200322 yr Grady didn't throw the ball, he asked his #1 guy if he could do it, #1 guys says he can, Grady puts faith in #1 guy (like he should), #1 guy blows it. Fire Pedro, he threw the damn ball
October 27, 200322 yr Author the guys gets them to the postseason for the 1st time since 1999 in his 2 years he has won 93 and 95 games he stuck with his horse and i guarandamntee you, that if pedro is taken out and they lose, Grady gets lynched anyway John Henry sucks
October 27, 200322 yr it's an idiotic, knee-jerk reaction. nobody should get fired over 1 call. but you have to admit, it was inevitable after he essentially got blamed for the loss by all the sox fans. i don't think they really had much of a choice considering all the backlash there
October 27, 200322 yr Little will land a job somewhere else quickly. Doesn't deserve to be fired though.
October 27, 200322 yr i wouldnt say giants fans want to murder alou. this guy has gotten death threats, lol
October 27, 200322 yr Author i wouldnt say giants fans want to murder alou. this guy has gotten death threats, lol why would they do that?
October 27, 200322 yr Little has been hated by the city since he got there and is a complete moron. He uses D Rep too early, He had a better team than The Yankees everyone outside of NY knew that and yet he let Pedro The Egomaniac decide if he should still pitch. What's the point of a manager if you let The Players decide their fate? Also Das since when are THe Florida Marlins and San Fran Giants, the biggest rivalry in all of baseball and correct me if I'm wrong but I don't remember The Giants/Marlins being The NL Championship.
October 27, 200322 yr Little will land a job somewhere else quickly. Doesn't deserve to be fired though. Some sa he could end up in Baltimore.
October 27, 200322 yr Little has been getting ripped all year, not just in the ALCS. The general take is he's good at holding the team together, but he's a bad game manager. I didn't see enough of the Sox to know if that's true, but that's the take.
October 27, 200322 yr The Red Sox are undergoing a lot of changes right now, and the contracts of Pedro, Nomar, Nixon, and a couple of others are up after next season. Grady also wanted to go into 2004 with a vote of confidence in the form of a 3-year contract. The option was to keep Grady amidst all the flux the Sox will go through, while all the fans hate him, or cut their losses. Grady wouldn't sign another one-year contract, and that's why he was let go. It's not all sunshine and lollipops, people. This is a business. Best of luck to whoever takes over in Boston, because he's gonna need it.
October 27, 200322 yr The Red Sox fans hated him pre-game 7, and they hated him 10x more afterward. They wanted it. They got it.
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