Boston Red Sox: Why Ben Cherington Could Be Doomed in Boston

It seems as though we may be having a bit of deja vu inside of the Boston Red Sox front office.

For much of the team's managerial search, Dale Sveum was the front-runner to become the 44th manager in Red Sox history. And up until a couple days ago it seemed as though he would be the man to get the job.

He got a second interview with Ben Cherington and met ownership, as well, at the GM and owners meetings. All signs pointed to Sveum becoming the next manager of the Red Sox. They even picked up his tab to fly him out to Milwaukee, where Sveum anticipated an offer being made after the meeting and it seemed as though Cherington was ready to offer Sveum the job.

So what changed?

Enter Red Sox ownership. 

It has been reported that although Cherington wanted Sveum as his manager for the Red Sox, he was overruled by ownership.

John Henry, Larry Lucchino and Tom Werner simply didn't want the former Red Sox third base coach to be the team's next manager. 

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"We just want to make sure we get the right person," Lucchino told reporters Thursday. "We have to consider all the possibilities. This is not a process where everybody is walking in lock-step."

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Well Larry, the man you hired to run the baseball team thought he had the right person and you and the other two higher-ups gave him the cold shoulder and told him he was wrong.

This could be the beginning of a shaky relationship between Cherington and ownership, and sounds eerily familiar to the relationship former GM Theo Epstein had with Lucchino and Company.

On Halloween of 2005, Epstein famously rejected a contract extension from the Red Sox, seemingly because of a rift with Lucchino, and left Fenway Park in a gorilla suit.

It was assumed that Epstein stepped down because he didn't like the shadow Lucchino cast over him and always having to report to the higher-ups.

Only after being offered a more prominent position in the organization did Epstein agree to come back, but he still had to report to Lucchino, the team's president.

By now we all know that Epstein left the Red Sox for a better position with the Cubs where there will be no middle man between himself and the owner like Lucchino.

Now this could just be an isolated incident and Lucchino and ownership might let Cherington handle much of the baseball operations, but if he keeps getting overruled, this could escalate to him leaving Fenway Park in a gorilla suit just like Epstein back in 2005.

Cherington was hired to run the baseball operations side of the Red Sox. Let him do his job. If he is made into some figurehead to filter information from Lucchino to the media, the relationship won't last long.