Ben Cherington needs a history lesson and a helmet

            If New England was personified by it's teams the Celtics would be the legs, the Bruins the fists, the Patriots the brain and the Red Sox the heart. However, with the possible exception of sitting behind the desk in the Oval Office, being General Manager of the Boston Red Sox might be the most thankless job in America. If not, it belongs in the pantheon of sports jobs where the pressure outweighs the paycheck (see. GM of the New York Nicks, GM of the Montreal Canadians, Etc.)
            In a notoriously demanding sports town, the role of Red Sox GM is easily the hardest position to find love. It may have to do with the one hundred and sixty two game season, giving fans of all shapes and sizes seven whole months to find something to complain about. It could be the simplicity of the game. Baseball avails itself to the every man, there are no numbered defensive schemes or complex offenses its a slower game requiring fewer but more magnified decisions. It might be the kids, almost every New England child grow up playing little league baseball and at least once falls in love with the game. It very well may be the climate, New England's harsh weather lends itself to sports or really distractions of any kind. New Englanders care so much about their teams that sports talk radio runs twenty four hours a day on countless stations where constant complaints can turn worries into full blown panic by mid-summer. 
             In most places all a general manager has to do is win. At Fenway Park you need to win, constantly. Former Red Sox GM Theo Epstein was by all measures one of the greatest executives in Red Sox history. He ended an eighty-six-year old curse and in nine years in Boston he won two World Series Titles and was voted The Sporting News Executive of the decade. Yet, after failing to make the playoffs in 2010 and 2011 with the ladder including loosing eleven out of fourteen games to miss the playoffs, Theo Epstein was gone.

                In his shoes steps a man who has already replaced him, enter Ben Cherington. For a little over a month Cherington and current Cub's GM Jed Hoyer filled in for Theo well he took an absence from the team. In that time Cherington pulled the trigger on sending highly touted prospect Hanley Ramirez to the Marlins for Josh Beckett and Mike Lowel. The trade gave the Red Sox the 2007 World Series title with Mike Lowel being named World Series MVP, although coincidentally Hanley Ramirez has developed into one of the premier short stops in the game.
              As Red Sox GM, Ben Cherington will soon find out you get criticized not only for the moves you make but the ones you don't. Over the course of nine years Theo made some wonderful moves from signing an unknown David Ortiz (who turned into a seven time All Star), trading beloved Nomar Garciaparra (for the pieces need to win the 2004 World Series) to trading for Curt Schilling and Adrian Gonzalez. However, none of those victories sit in the mind of Sox fans quite like his failures. He signed John Lackey to a eighty two million dollar contract, tossed one hundred million dollars on Japanese phenom Daisuke Matsuzaka and blew seventy six million trying to find a shortstop between Julio Lugo and Edgar Renteria.
             In Boston fans tend to remember the duds, I'm looking at you Jose Offerman, Vin Baker, Tony Eason and Dennis Wideman. New Englander's gain as much pleasure from complaining as bragging. If it wasn't for the Rick Pitinos and Dan Duquettes of the world then the golden years of Red Auerbach and Bill Belichick wouldn't taste so sweet. There will undoubtably be complaining during Ben Cherington's era as Sox GM but it's the ability to deflect that criticism and stay above the fray that determines a general manager's success in bean-town.
             It's interesting that Cherington's first full season in charge will come on the one hundredth anniversary of Fenway Park, the unofficial cathedral of Massachusetts. It could very well be a defining season in the long history of Boston Red Sox. Well the Celtics and recently the Patriots have been more successful franchises, there still no question who the most popular team in New England is. The constant heart-break, the annual battles with the New York Yankees and the never ending season which plays out like a slow melodrama on radios and televisions from northern Maine to Cape Cod. Baseball adorns itself to New England's culture like lighthouses and salt water taffy. If Cherington wants to carve out his place in Red Sox lore he'll have to learn from the mistakes of his predecessors, step above the criticism and take a long look at what baseball actually means to New England.

- Liam Ariel