I was reminded recently of a chance meeting with former Red Sox GM Dan Duquette in a Framingham bar about a dozen years ago.
Duquette, a native of Dalton, had his career as a high-level baseball executive begin in Montreal with the late, great Expos franchise under future Red Sox president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski, whom he’d eventually succeed as the GM for the Expos.
Duquette helped build a winning team in Montreal that famously was on its way to a potential World Series title in 1994 before the strike cancelled that postseason.
Duquette got his dream job with the Red Sox in 1995, succeeding the affable Lou Gorman, who held the job from 1984 through 1993. “The Duke” turned around the fortunes of the Red Sox almost immediately, and the team went from 54-61 in the strike-shortened 1994 season to an 86-win team in 1995, and Boston only had one losing season during Duquette’s seven-year tenure.
Shortly after John Henry and his new ownership group bought the Red Sox in early 2002, Duquette was summarily dismissed, and it placed veteran GM Mike Port in charge of the team in 2002, before the youngster, Theo Epstein, was given the reins in late 2002.
You probably know the rest. Boston ended its 86-year World Series drought in 2004, followed by another championship in 2007, and then additional World Series titles under GMs Ben Cherington (2013) and Dombrowski (2018).
But veteran baseball observers knew that Duquette’s fingerprints were all over those 2003 and 2004 teams, which won 95 and 98 games, respectively.
That’s why I thought it was a fair question to ask Duquette back in 2010 (a year before he would be hired by Baltimore to rejuvenate that flailing franchise) about a subject that he probably was frequently asked, and had to patiently and painfully answer: Did the Red Sox give you a World Series ring after the 2004 championship season?
No, he answered.
I never really thought about this snub thereafter, but upon my recent recollection of meeting him, I decided to do a little investigative reporting, because it has, over time, become more and more clear that Duquette should not only have received a ring, but should get more recognition and appreciation in the eyes of the local fandom regarding his influence upon, and his architecture of, the 2004 curse-busters.
Why wouldn’t the Red Sox have given him a World Series ring? After all, a guy like Brandon Puffer, a righthanded relief pitcher who never played a game for the 2004 Red Sox, was given a ring after being on the parent club for one day that season but never seeing game action.
Puffer had pitched well for Triple-A Pawtucket that summer and was summoned to the majors on Sept. 2. He did not get in the game that night, and was designated for assignment the next day because the Sox wanted outfielder Adam Hyzdu on the roster.
In addition, every member of the Red Sox organization, including scouts, broadcasters, grounds-crew members, and clubhouse attendants got rings in 2004.
Well, you might say, Dan Duquette was not an employee of the Red Sox that season, so why does he deserve a ring like those others who were receiving checks signed by John Henry?
Because technically, Duquette was employed by the Red Sox in 2004. As reported by the LA Times, Duquette was to be paid until Jan. 26, 2004, as part of a three-year, $4.5 million contract extension given to him by the previous Red Sox ownership group, prior to the team’s sale to Henry & Co.
But there’s also a bit of mystery in the club’s response to those asking about why Duquette wasn’t ringed up like others involved in the 2004 championship season.
Because in 2011, Epstein, in an email to Sports Illustrated, said “(The Red Sox) tried to acknowledge Dan’s contributions at the time with our public comments and by presenting him with a World Series ring.” Yet when I tried to contact Duquette through his Duquette Consulting company, I received the reply, “The Red Sox organization did not recognize Dan Duquette’s contribution to the 2004 championship team with a ring; if you need further clarification, you might want to contact the team ownership.”
Interesting; apparently someone is misleading us here, and the likely culprits are the Red Sox.
Either way, here are the reasons why Duquette certainly should have received a World Series ring, even though Epstein, in that 2011 email to SI, snidely and backhandedly said, “Dan deserves a lot of credit for putting much of the core of the '04 club in place … We added to the core with David Ortiz, Curt Schilling, Keith Foulke, Bill Mueller, Orlando Cabrera and Kevin Millar, but much of the nucleus was there.”
During his tenure with the Red Sox, Duquette and his scouting team drafted such key 2004 components as Kevin Youkilis (2001, eighth round); they signed free-agent outfielder Manny Ramirez (the 2004 World Series MVP) to an eight-year, $160M deal in 2000; they signed A’s free-agent outfielder Johnny Damon in Dec. 2001 (four years, $31M); Duquette made one of the best trades in franchise history as well, acquiring Jason Varitek and Derek Lowe for closer Heath Slocumb at the trade deadline in July 1997; and probably most importantly, changed the culture of the team and its pitching staff by acquiring the best pitcher in the game at the time: free agent-to-be Pedro Martínez, who was traded to the Sox in Nov. 1997 for Carl Pavano and Tony Armas Jr., and was soon signed to a six-year, $75 million contract extension (with an option for a seventh at $17 million) by Duquette, at the time the largest contract ever awarded to a pitcher.
Yes, Duquette did let fireballer Roger Clemens walk after the 1996 season after calling the Rocket “in the twilight of his career,” but if Boston had kept the then-fading Clemens (who was 10-13 in 1996), then they never would have been able to afford Pedro, who never was accused of steroid use like Clemens was for his subsequent 11 seasons in Toronto, New York, and Houston.
Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I rest my case. If non-factors like the aforementioned Brandon Puffer and Adam Hyzdu, along with Ellis Burks (11 games), Andy Dominique (seven games), and Mark Malaska (a solitary relief appearance) get 2004 World Series rings — and even Nomar did as well, even though he played for the Cubs from Aug. 1 on — it’s time for former GM Dan Duquette to get his bling.
Even if it’s two decades after the fact.