Noting that Theo Epstein just resigned from the Boston Red Sox, I read some interesting thoughts on why he may have done so from Bill Simmons of ESPN.com…
There’s one other factor here, and I guarantee it’s playing a bigger role than just about anyone can understand …
When you dream about doing something for a long time, and then it happens, it’s never actually as good as you think it would be. There’s almost a surreal letdown of sorts after the fact. And it’s impossible to explain unless it’s happened to you. For instance, ever since I was in college, I dreamed of having my own sports column and covering a Boston team when they won a championship. That’s all I wanted. In the spring of 2001, ESPN found me. Nine months later, my beloved Patriots went to the Super Bowl and shocked the Rams in New Orleans. I wrote about it every day, and on the morning after they won, my column ran on the front page of this Web site. Greatest professional moment of my life, right?
Well, something weird happened. After that game, I couldn’t stop thinking, “All right, what happens now? What do I do? How can I top my dream moment?”
And the thing is, you can’t. The moment happens, it ends, you celebrate and feel good about yourself … and then it’s on to the next day, and you have to figure out what the next challenge is, and deep down, you’re wondering why you didn’t enjoy that watershed moment more than you thought you would. I don’t know Theo, I have never met him, and the experience of being the general manager of the first Red Sox championship in 86 years was roughly 100,000,000 times more profound and important than my experience in New Orleans. But the fact remains, after that Super Bowl column, I struggled writing this column for the next seven to eight months; eventually, I ended up moving to California to write for a fledgling late-night television show. That Super Bowl trip changed everything for me.
Did something similar happen to Theo after winning the World Series? Is this what happened to David Caruso when he said, “Screw it, I don’t need ‘NYPD Blue’ anymore?” On a much, much larger scale, is this what happened to talents like Dave Chappelle, Eddie Murphy, Kurt Cobain, Michael Jordan and everyone else who either walked away from their alleged dream job or sabotaged it in their prime? Is that why the Peggy Lee song “Is that all there is?” rings especially true in moments like these?
Right now, I don’t have an answer for you. But since I failed to get my previous “car keys” prediction down on paper, allow me to make another one for you: I see Theo taking the year off. I see him going into relative hiding, growing some sort of goofy facial hair like a fu manchu, maybe even growing his flattop out. I see him refusing just about every interview, laying low, maybe doing some consultant work for Josh Byrnes in Arizona. I see him moving out of the city to salvage what’s left of his privacy. Hell, he may even have a crappy music album in him.
And a year from now, maybe two, he’ll come back to baseball refreshed and recharged, armed with enough savvy to avoid another front-office quagmire like the one in Boston. Maybe it won’t be his dream job, but that’s the thing about dreams — sometimes they come true, and sometimes you have to deal with the consequences and figure out what’s really important to you.
Something tells me that Theo hasn’t figured this out yet. I hope he does. Overrated or not, he still goes down as the guy who brought the Red Sox their first World Series title in 86 years. And after something that monumental, maybe you need a couple of years to come up with the right encore. To be continued.
Why write this here? Two reasons- one, to encouarge my Dodgers to hire him ASAP (unlikely) and two, well, to pass on some wisdom to anyone who might care (OK, they know who they are). Next time I promise I’ll get back to goofy links and my crappy random humor.
