Why I Like Sox Management
By Karlsie
With everyone dissing Sox management for not resigning Theo, I thought I'd share a story of how the current management far exceeds anything we've ever seen running the show at Fenway. They say you should judge a man not by how he treats his dinner guests but, rather, how he treats the waitstaff. I am here to say that, by that standard, the current Sox management are the type of people I am proud to work with.
Over the course of the season, I have had the pleasure of working with a couple of folks in the front office on a few projects. I have watched some of the folks with fancy titles and on sports writers' speed dial interact with the kids in the office who are just starting out. I have observed how they treat the reception staff and even, in a few cases, how they treat the old retirees who work as game day staff in the trenches. In every insistence, I have watched them treat people with a level of dignity and respect that pleasantly surprised me.
Hell, they've even extended a number of courtesies to a certain writer here at yankeessuck.com, even as they cringe somewhat at the name. ;)
More importantly, I have watched how they treat kids.
My 13 year old son has been through a medical hell that most of us can never imagine. He has a less extreme form of the kidney disease that force Sean Elliott and Alonzo Mourning into the headlines with transplants. While the form my son has should never require dialysis or a transplant, we have had our share of getting to know medical staffs at Children's Hospital and other clinics all too well. In fact, I've learned more about the kidneys and a large number of medications than anyone outside of medicine should ever have to learn.
This year, he took being swept by Chicago hard. I haven't seen him this upset about something in a while. I know it wasn't the loss, but that he was using that to release some of the things that bothered him. So I got in touch with a big-wig at the Sox to ask if there was any way I could sit in the empty park with him for a little bit and let him drink in the memories from the season - where he saw all sorts of wonderful things and had a series of "best nights ever."
This is the sort of thing people who are busy trying to broker deals and spin media can ignore - but he didn't. He handed me to someone who could make that happen. On a beautiful fall day between rainstorms, the three of us - the staffer, my son and I - sat in the green monster seats talking about the season, looking at where Manny, Johnny and Trot had worn spots in the outfield grass on their patrol and talked about our fantasy team that had Konerko on first and Vlad in the outfield if Johnny left.
It was a wonderful afternoon and it did the trick. On the way home, my son opened up about something he didn't know how to deal with regarding boy/girl relationships.
The other day, after four years in remission, my son had a relapse. Something I was told would be so rare, they discharged us from the renal program at Children's. On the way home from the doctor's, where they confirmed this was a relapse and not something minor, my son said, "You know what mom, in spite of this, it's been a great year. I got to go to some games at Fenway with you, I have infield dirt and I got to sit in the monster seats. It's going to be OK."
The old Sox crew would never have allowed me to do something like that … even if they did acknowledge my existence since I don't write for the Globe or Herald on a regular basis. (Although I do have the occasional guest column in the Herald, which owns the chain I write for on a weekly basis.) But these new owners, they understand. A month ago we didn't know we were about to take another ride on the chronic illness roller coaster - but because some good people with big hearts gave us a hand when they did, we're started over that first hill with a laugh instead of a cry.
