Red Sox-Dodgers Trade Won't Heal Scars

Remember 2004, Red Sox fans?

Seems like a long time ago, doesn't it? Almost like 86 years ago, to be exact.

Back in November of that year, it was good to be a Red Sox fan.

The Sox had just finished winning their first World Series since, well, you know when.

The team was likeable.

Terry Francona was going to manage forever.

John Henry was the greatest owner in the history of Western Civilization.

And Theo Epstein was our boy genius.

Or so we thought.

Now, it's 2012 and the wheels have completely come off. The team that some people predicted was going to win it all in '11 is a dysfunctional mess worthy of a bad reality show on Bravo.

And now this.

Gordon Edes of ESPNBoston.com reported that a trade sending Adrian Gonzalez, Carl Crawford and Josh Beckett, along with Nick Punto, to the Dodgers for some prospects (code for some stiffs who won't cost that much) is imminent.

Unfortunately, that overpaid stiff already in a Sox uniform, John Lackey remains in Boston, spreading his charm throughout the clubhouse.

This is bad.

No, not the trade. That's necessary. The team needs a figurative cleanse if it ever wants to regain any type of legitimacy.

No, it's bad because it never should have come to this.

However, the brain behind this whole fiasco, Theo Epstein, was allowed to run unabated, and his legacy has been slowly turning the Sox into the New York Mets.

He's with the Chicago Cubs now, infecting that organization with his "brilliance."

It feels like he did this all deliberately. After all, anyone as amazing as Epstein couldn't possibly have thought signing Lackey and Crawford to mind-numbing free agent contracts was a good idea.

Add in the other head-scratching moves he made over the past few years, and it most definitely looks deliberate.

Or, maybe Epstein wasn't the genius that Red Sox Nation thought he was.

I'm going with the latter.

Let me be clear: John Henry and Larry Lucchino are not innocent here. They have pink-hat red lipstick on their hands over this. They allowed Epstein to run this thing into the ground.

They also allowed the inmates to run the asylum, leading to the firing of Terry Francona.

And they are also 100 percent accountable for bringing in the miscast Bobby Valentine.

If any person were looking at this rationally, it might actually seem like a conspiracy to destroy the organization.

But rational thought can't be applied to this scenario. Nope, this is a phenomenon best digested after a lobotomy.

So, after that lobotomy, can I go back to the '03 season?

I need to actually like the Sox again.

I want them to play with heart

I want be delusional about Theo Epstein.

More importantly, I'm itching for a little "Cowboy Up."