We talked at length about why Dave Dombrowski got fired, but the “how” of it all is rather interesting.
It was unexpected. We know that. The Sox just won the World Series. The timing of it -- at midnight, after a Sunday night game on the opening Sunday of the NFL season when the Patriots made big news -- was a tad unusual too. It happens like that sometimes, but it gives off the impression of being hasty or, at the very least, makes it look the team was trying to bury it, as if this sort of thing could be truly buried.
But I’m mostly fascinated with how the Red Sox, apparently, seem to have no interest in explaining the why:
#RedSox announce Dombrowski being fired. No press conference with ownership. Just a release.
— Pete Abraham (@PeteAbe) September 9, 2019
You’d think a presser would be in order, wouldn’t you? Instead we’re going to get a lot of stories in which anonymous sources tell reporters things that put Dombrowski in a bad light. Which, while a time-honored Boston sports tradition, is certainly less than illuminating.
We’re already getting a little bit of that today, as I saw one article in which the Red Sox’ spending under Dombrowski was cited by an anonymous source as a problem. Which is weird given that I have no doubt that all of his big expenditures -- Chris Sale’s extension, the J.D. Martinez signing, etc. -- got signoff from ownership.
Now, though, that’s Dombrowski’s fault, I guess, and no one will be able to ask John Henry a question about why such spending was fine with him six months ago but ceased being fine as of midnight last night.