Stirred-up Sox still have time to catch Yanks

As the dust settles, let us return to the Red Sox and the move that has Jimy Williams watching games from places other than the dugout.

GM Dan Duquette only needed a superficial reason to can Williams. The two could no longer stand working together because they weren’t working together. A little Sox slump and it was goodbye, Jimy.

Duquette wanted more control over the Sox and Williams would have none of it. Duquette needed to have his players pampered and Williams refused. As David Cone said after the firing, “Jimy posted the lineup and expected players to be pros and be ready to play.” Some of the players didn’t like the lineups and wanted Williams to discuss it with them before it got posted. Williams refused.

Duquette wanted Felipe Alou as manager. Alou is earning Montreal money for doing nothing. When Duquette told Alou the team was being sold and that might change things as early as next year, Alou decided to stay home.

Joe Kerrigan was Duquette’s second choice. Another baseball front office executive told me Duquette asked Alou to guide Kerrigan for a couple of years so Kerrigan could take over as manager in the future. That request may be another reason Alou stayed home.

Kerrigan and Williams were close. Kerrigan knows exactly what went on between Williams and Duquette. In taking the manager’s job, Kerrigan knows he has to listen to Duquette and implement his ideas on the field. Maybe that can work and maybe it won’t.

The danger is the players viewing Kerrigan as a second-choice mouthpiece for Duquette. Players love to run over their managers and if they think Kerrigan has no authority, they will test him and run to Duquette every time they have a problem.

If that happens, there will be dissension in the clubhouse between those who just want to play on the field and win and those who want to play internal politics and win.

Kerrigan is a very decent, up-front guy, but does he have the courage of conviction that Williams had when it comes to managing the Sox on a daily basis? If Kerrigan is looking over his shoulder every day to see if the GM is happy with his moves, the Sox are in trouble.

This is a year when the Sox can overtake the Yankees. If Nomar Garciaparra and Pedro Martinez had been healthy for the season, Boston would be the division leader. They would be there because they have the talent and they had strong leadership in Williams.

Now they have those two players back, but do they have the leadership? Kerrigan would like to have time to settle in, find a workable relationship with each player and figure out the parameters of his job in relationship to Duquette.

There isn’t time enough to do all that before important daily decisions have to be made. There is no wriggle room for the Sox.

The Yankees are going to plod along in a division that no team will lay title to until the end. The Oakland A’s are the most fired-up team in the majors and overtaking them in the wild card race is going to be tough.

The Sox need to be managed with an iron hand the rest of the way. There’s no time for internal disputes and power plays among the players. There is no time for Duquette to be managing the team from the front office.

Williams understood all that and for doing the right thing, got fired. Kerrigan must now understand that and find a way to keep the players and Duquette happy without surrendering his own managerial authority.

This can still be a Sox year, but the time is now.

Old Town native Gary Thorne is an ESPN and NBC sportscaster.