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t appears eminently clear that the Boston Red Sox will appoint either Ben Cherington or Theo Epstein as their General Manager in the very near future. Chances are the Chicago Cubs and Red Sox work out a compensation package for Epstein, or Theo and some of his men, soon and everyone lives happily ever after and life can go on. There is a small chance the sides will not agree and Epstein does return, but let's save that remote scenario for another day.

Eventhough outwardly it looks like the Boston nine is stuck in limbo, one can be sure they are presently moving forward. Larry Lucchino, along with Cherington, are performing the necessary foundation steps for the organization to move past the disasterous end of the 2011 season. It would not even be surprising if they were contacting managerial candidates, although chances are no one else would be scooping them up, until maybe the Cubs start searching for a new skipper.

Whenever the actual GM settles in, he obviously has his hands full. Since, August 25th, if not before, the Good Ship Red Sox, has been sailing off course. On the 25th, the Sox sent out a communication to their players about rescheduling the coming Sunday's game against Oakland because of the threat of Hurricane Irene. The Sox had consulted major league baseball and the offices in New York had decided games in Boston, New York and Philadelphia would have to be moved up to assure they were played. The Sox layed out two possible scenarios for their players and the athletes basically said no to each one. Those proposals included a split doubleheader Friday (very unpopular with the players because they were arriving after 4 that morning from Texas) or a split pair Saturday.  In the end, Sox officials, with full support from MLB, chose to play a split doubleheader on Saturday without the players full blessing.

The players felt ownership disrespected them and were only making sure they didn't miss a gate, putting the almighty dollar ahead of what was best for the employees. Somehow it appears that the players overlooked that MLB was ordering this as well and not just in Boston. Some players felt that the Sunday game would not have to be played at all. The team was two games up on the New York Yankees and nine up on the wild card position, so many felt bag the game. They felt they would not have to make it up, because it never would affect the final standings. The players could not let this go in the weeks that followed. Here and there several mentions were made of the situation. Just like the office or company many fans work in or for, the players saw this as a job. They felt the top down decision was unfair and bad words were continually spread. A cancerous attitude set in and morale dropped to a very low level, From that time on, many players cut corners and felt they could coast to the finish line.

To his credit, Terry Francona saw that the mood of the clubhouse had changed and he called a team meeting. He noticed over time that many of his individual players attitudes and approach to the game had changed and at times he even heard petty griping about the teams bus schedules he had set up. After Francona walked away from his job, he would refect and say "It's my decision. I think it was time for a new voice here. I wanted our guys to care about each other on the field and I didn't think we were doing that."

This group stopped looking for leadership. From August 25th on, many of the stars in the clubhouse became aligned with a cause that spread to most corners of their home at work, putting in the background the chase for a third world championship in eight years. Even longtime captain Jason Varitek lost his power to make a difference. Others attempted to do this or that in hopes of bringing the troops together, but it had no or little effect. Varitek in a radio interview this week mentioned that Epstein had even held a team meeting in hopes of lighting some type of fire. The negativity was steaming out of control down hill and apparently had too much momentum to stop it.

Epstein was right in Francona's departure press conference when he said "everyone shares the blame." What was most important about that statement is the fact there is no one place to point fingers. What is also very noteworthy at this moment is that only a couple of players, Dustin Pedroia and Jonathan Papelbon, have backed Francona to the end and have nothing to be ashamed of. They are not alone in the small group of respectful players, who performed their duties well until the end, but the silence of the majority of the players is deafening in the sense that no apologies are forthcoming. They threw their manager, who had their backs to the end, under the bus and let the vehicle keep running him over. The selfishness that many Sox players displayed was disgusting and the present silence in regards to their skipper, is truly disturbing. Some who have come out and said a thing or two have not really strayed far away from the clubhouse rule that what you see here and hear here stays here. They really don't seem to have taken ownership of the season that let get away. Somehow, it does not seem to hit home, that they were a part of the biggest collapse in major league history.

By the way, the Red Sox swept the doubleheader on the 27th, winning back to back games for the final time in 2011 and eventhough no one knew it at the time, the team would never be the same again. The sweep was one more convincing factor that this was a special team. It completed a stretch when Boston lost only two of sixteen series. Players and managers alike are always saying you  play to win each series. ("You might split or lose a few and that's okay, but you play to win each series"- John Valentine Sox infielder 2001) The Sox won the A's series with offense in game one 9-3, pounding out 13 hits and scored all their runs in the first five innings, before having to sit through two rain delays which totaled three hours. Eventually in game two, four Sox pitchers, starting with Erik Bedard, showed the staffs pitching depth. Alfredo Aceves eventually picked up the win to go to 9-1 to conclude the greatest winning percentage start of any MLB pitcher ever at 23-2, tossing three hit ball and  placing the team at 80-41 ahead of the pack and on a pace to win 100 games.

One might think 62 hours away from the park on the weekend of Irene (Sunday game already played-Monday an off day) at this point of the season was a perfect landing for a team in their position. The Yankees, who the Sox had a 10-2 advantage over at the time)  would be in town on Tuesday to begin a three game series.  There would be thirty days left in the 2011 regular season with only two days off. This time off, should have been welcomed and just what the doctor ordered. Instead, several players felt that they had been basically forced to do too much and that their views were not respected. This cavalier attitude dominated the clubhouse for far too long and the Sox did not win any of their nine remaining series, as too many players in uniform lost sight of their championship goal.

Since the season concluded, several papers, led by The Boston Globe and Boston Herald  have printed accounts of what they felt led to the infamous collapse, including the doubleheader scenario which from here was the biggest contributor. Three pitchers named in those articles, Josh Beckett, John Lackey and Jon Lester, went a combined 4-8 and added 1.23 runs a game to their earned run averages from August 27th on. Beckett went from 11-5, 2.43 to 13-7, 2.89, Lackey from 12-9, 5.98 to 12-12, 6.41 and Lester 14-6, 3.09 to 15-9, 3.47. It is certain that those three players were not alone in falling short of expectations down the stretch, but it is interesting to show how certain people performed from the August date on.

Distractions can become incredibly toxic to the teams success. One has to really feel for Francona, who piloted this ship past both an 0-6 and 2-10 start, steering them through the 80-41 stretch, only to lose his charges to a bevy of childish causes. The skippers' strength over a  seven and five- sixths year period was that he respected his players to the fullest and treated them like men. Unfortunately, he was managing a team with too many boys on it down the stretch.

This brings one back to the subject at hand. Where does the new/old General Manager go from here. His hands have been at least partially tied by the reports of certain players behaviors. Trading or just eliminating some players will be costly. The good news is that the climate could turn out to be just right for several players, if they are men, to be determined enough, to put their best foot forward and lead the way to the championship dream. The bad news could be compound. The team has some bad apples. How does the GM stop them from ruining the whole bunch permanately?