Duquette acts show how GM can fire himself

For those who may have missed it, Red Sox GM Dan Duquette fired himself Sunday night. The announcement of his demise is pending the complete collapse of the Sox for this year and new ownership for next.

Duquette, who fired Jimy Williams as manager, continued to consolidate his control over everything north of New York Sunday with the embarrassing and unnecessary firing of pitching coach John Cumberland.

Cumberland, from Westbrook, had been the bullpen coach until Joe Kerrigan took over as manager and promoted him. His firing after Sunday night’s game could not have been more untimely or unseemly.

Cumberland is the ultimate good soldier. He is a quiet, get-the-job-done guy without aspirations to take anyone’s job or get in anyone’s way. Prior to Sunday you probably never read a quote from John Cumberland. That was just the way he wanted it. That is why both Williams and Kerrigan wanted Cumberland on their staffs.

Now let’s set the stage for the fiasco. The Yankees have just painfully swept the Sox. The Sox season is over and it nearly ended on a perfect game being pitched against them. The players are psychologically hurting in the clubhouse after the game and are surrounded by the largest number of press to cover a game this season.

Now enters Dan Duquette. In the midst of all this, rather than waiting for the Sox day off on Monday, Cumberland is called into the manager’s office just off the clubhouse. After being offered a demotion to the minors and refusing, Cumberland is fired.

He storms from the office to the clubhouse in a fury. Cumberland may not have been quoted before, and what he’s saying now isn’t printable. As word of his firing spreads among the players, the lid comes off the boiling pot.

The paint is chipping off the walls, so blue and hot is the language coming from this now-destroyed Sox team. And then, above the din, comes a line from Nomar Garciaparra that will rate right up there with the curse of the Babe: “This is why nobody wants to come here to play.”

But Duquette isn’t done yet. Incredibly, and with a complete lack of human decency and compassion, Duquette tells the press Cumberland was drinking too much. Attempting to cover his own butt for what is now a first-rate debacle, Duquette reaches for the sewerage pile and starts slinging.

Oh, but there’s more. Now Pedro Martinez, knowing the year is over, suggests it might be better if the Sox shut him down and let him get ready for 2002. Duquette, not happy to take the issue up behind closed doors, decides here’s another chance to show he’s god of all things Red and Soxey.

Duquette says to the press, “The fans want to see Pedro. Fans pay good money and Pedro will pitch.” Thus sayeth the all-knowing and all-powerful GM of Soxland.

The fans also wouldn’t mind if Pedro’s arm doesn’t fall off in September so they can watch him pitch for a few more years, maybe even a year when the team secures a World Series berth. Duquette, though, is too busy to think of that as he displays his “I’m one of you” fa?ade to the fans as he tries to cover up the Sunday night massacre.

On Tuesday, we learn that Martinez has a tear in the rotator cuff. Martinez says, “What I don’t appreciate is Duquette saying I’m healthy, because then it is not true. I’m going the best that I can to help the team, but I’m not 100 percent.”

Somewhere out there, there are the new owners of the Sox, watching all this without the power to act – yet. When the sale is complete, we’ll find out as fans what’s in store for us. If Duquette remains, say hello to the curse of the Babe, revisited.

If he goes, we can think back to that Sunday the GM fired himself.

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