‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎General Managers

Joe Cronin built an impressive resumé as a player, just as his predecessor Eddie Collins had. Also like Collins, Cronin gained enshrinement in the National Baseball Hall of Fame for his exploits on the field (Cronin entered Cooperstown in 1956). They also both possessed previous managerial experience before assuming front office roles with the Red Sox; Collins had been a player/manager for a little more than two seasons with the White Sox during the 1920s and Cronin served as a player/manager for 13 of his 20 seasons as a player, including 11 years with the Red Sox after joining the club in 1935. After the 1945 season, Cronin stopped playing the field but he led the Red Sox to the 1946 World Series as their manager.

When Collins became ill in late 1946, Cronin took on the additional duties of general manager before he was officially named GM at the very end of the 1947 season. Cronin hired Joe McCarthy to take over for him as the field manger and both the 1948 and 1949 Red Sox teams fought to the final day of the season before they were eliminated at the very last minute. The powerful Red Sox teams from 1946 to 1950 were largely built during Collins' tenure as GM but Cronin's importance as manager from 1935 through 1947 should not be understated.

Unfortunately, the Red Sox experienced a period of some decline through the 1950s and were more or less a middle-of-the-pack team during the decade. In January 1959, the highly-regarded Cronin was named the president of the American League and resigned his position with the Red Sox.

Before being named as general manager of the Red Sox, Bucky Harris spent 29 years as a field manager, 18 of them with the Senators and seven with the Tigers. He had also managed the Red Sox for one year in 1934, the first full year under the ownership of Tom Yawkey. During his playing days he was a second baseman but it was his managerial resume that ultimately got him voted into the Hall of Fame by the Veterans Committee in 1975.

In October 1956, Joe Cronin hired Harris as a special assistant so he was a likely heir apparent when the American League presidency opened up for Cronin. After Cronin took the position at the league's office, Harris was named the general manager of the Red Sox on January 15, 1959. As GM for less than two years, Harris didn't have a great opportunity to make his mark on the team, though he did oversee the debuts of Pumpsie Green and Earl Wilson, whose additions integrated the Red Sox roster in midsummer 1959. However, the 1960 Red Sox slipped to seventh place and on September 30, 1960, both Harris and farm director Johnny Murphy were dismissed.

After dismissing Bucky Harris in September 1960, the Red Sox eliminated the official position of general manager. However, from 1960 to 1962, Dick O'Connell, as Executive Vice President of Business and Baseball Operations, assumed the role and responsibilities of the general manager. Though the club suffered through a desultory stretch in the immediate post-Ted Williams years, O'Connell began to rebuild the team's farm system along with minor league director Billy Evans. O'Connell's efforts in the early 1960s foreshadowed the crucial management role he played in the franchise's 1967 revitalization.

Mike Higgins played 14 seasons in the big leagues, including parts of three years with the Red Sox (1937, 1938 and the second part of 1946). He also had two stints as manager of the Red Sox; from 1955 until partway through the 1959 season and again from 50 games into the 1960 campaign until the end of 1962. In Higgins' second stay as manager, the Red Sox suffered sixth and eighth place finishes in 1961 and 1962, respectively. On October 2, 1962, Tom Yawkey replaced Higgins with Johnny Pesky.

Instead of letting Higgins go, Yawkey made his erstwhile skipper the team's new general manager, filling a position that had sat vacant the past two years. However, Higgins couldn't right the ship in his new role and though he acquired Dick Stuart, who led the league in RBIs in 1963, the team as a whole continued to struggle. Late in the 1964 season, Pesky was replaced by Billy Herman and when the ballclub failed to respond on its way to a ninth-place finish in 1965, Higgins was supplanted as general manager too. Dick O'Connell, who had served as de facto GM immediately preceding Higgins' tenure, became the official GM of the Red Sox when Higgins was let go in September 1965.

Joe Cronin hired Dick O'Connell shortly after World War II to serve as assistant general manager and when Cronin left to become the president of the American League in 1959, O'Connell was promoted to business manager of the ballclub. By all accounts O'Connell was a good administrator and during a 1961-62 stretch when the Red Sox had no formal general manager, O'Connell effectively functioned as such while carrying the formal title of Executive Vice President of Business and Baseball Operations. When Tom Yawkey cut ties to Pinky Higgins in September 1965, the owner bestowed the official GM title upon O'Connell.

The club O'Connell inherited finished only a half-game out of last place in 1966 but after the season, O'Connell named Dick Williams to be the new field manager. Along with Williams, the 1967 Red Sox also benefitted from the development of many of the players who O'Connell helped place in the team's farm system in the beginning of the decade. The 1967 "Impossible Dream" Red Sox won the American League pennant and took the World Series to a seventh game, reviving fan interest in the process. In addition, the 1967 roster was racially diverse and O'Connell is often credited with opening up the team's ranks to the point where merit reigned supreme above any other considerations.

With renewed fan support, the Red Sox stayed above .500 from 1967 to the end of O'Connell's tenure as GM. In 1972, the team came within a half-game of winning the division and in 1975 the Red Sox took the World Series to a seventh game for the second time in nine years. After Tom Yawkey passed away in 1976, jostling for control of the team ensued and O'Connell was eventually let go on October 24, 1977, after 31 years with the Red Sox.

Not long after he became a co-owner of the Red Sox, Haywood Sullivan, a former catcher with the team, became the club's general manager and served in the position until Lou Gorman replaced him on February 1, 1984. In Sullivan's first year, the Red Sox and Yankees found themselves tied at the end of the regular season, necessitating a one-game playoff that is remembered for Bucky Dent's crushing home run and a bitter Boston defeat. From 1979 through 1983, the team won 53% of their games but failed to make much progress.

In the early 1980s, a struggle developed with Sullivan and Mrs. Yawkey opposing fellow owner Buddy LeRoux. However, the courts ruled in favor of Sullivan and Mrs. Yawkey and they retained control of the club. Sullivan wisely determined that his dual role as owner-GM was too much and in January 1984 Lou Gorman was hired as general manager. Many of the players signed under Sullivan began to blossom in the years that followed his tenure - in this case, the likes of Wade Boggs, Roger Clemens, Bruce Hurst and Bob Stanley drove the Red Sox to the 1986 AL pennant.

A Rhode Island native who rooted for the Red Sox growing up, Lou Gorman cut his teeth as an executive with the Orioles, Royals, and Mariners. Gorman then helped build the Mets' talented roster in the early 1980s before he was hired by the Red Sox in 1984. His new club almost defeated his old one in the 1986 World Series, when the Red Sox were just one strike away from beating New York in the Fall Classic. Earlier in the 1986 season, Gorman had made key roster adjustments, including the acquisitions of Don Baylor, Dave Henderson, Tom Seaver, and Spike Owen. These acquisitions propelled the Red Sox to the playoffs, where they overcame the Angels in the American League Championship Series before falling to the Mets.

Following the near-championship of 1986, the Red Sox stayed competitive, particularly in 1988 (after a midseason managerial change) and 1990. In both of these seasons, Boston won the American League East but were swept by the Oakland A's in the ALCS. Unfortunately, Boston fell to last place in 1992 and ranked fifth in 1993. At the end of the 1993 season the club looked for a new general manager, however the well-liked and congenial Gorman stayed on with the club, first as an executive vice president and later an executive consultant.

When John Harrington became the CEO of the Red Sox in the wake of Haywood Sullivan's departure in late 1993, the franchise's new chief executive turned to a fresh face, Dan Duquette, to construct the team's roster. Duquette had become the youngest general manager in baseball history when he'd taken the helm of the Montreal Expos in September 1991 and, like his predecessor Lou Gorman, Duquette was a New England native. In January 1994, Duquette took over for Gorman and brought a more statistically-based approach to player acquisitions. In addition, the club built up a stronger foreign scouting system but the GM struggled at times with the media.

In Duquette's eight years with the Red Sox, the team qualified for postseason play three times, winning the AL East in 1995 and the Wild Card in 1998 and 1999. Duquette oversaw two of the biggest deals in Red Sox history: the 1997 trade for Pedro Martinez and the signing of free agent Manny Ramirez in 2000. When the Red Sox finally won the World Series in 2004, several players acquired during Duquette's tenure contributed to the victory, including Martinez, Ramirez, Johnny Damon, Derek Lowe, Jason Varitek, Tim Wakefield and Kevin Youkilis.

When John Henry, Tom Werner and Larry Lucchino took over stewardship of the Red Sox franchise in February 2002, they soon relieved Dan Duquette of his position as general manager. However, the team was not yet prepared to make a permanent hire and instead turned to Mike Port to be the club's interim GM. Port had served as assistant GM and then Vice President of Baseball Operations since 1993 and his knowledge of the team helped during the transitional year.

Port's most notable acquisition occurred on June 4, 2002, when the club drafted a young left-handed pitcher named Jon Lester in the second round of the amateur draft. Despite 93 wins, the 2002 Red Sox missed the playoffs and after the season the new ownership group set its sights on finding a permanent GM. The Red Sox ownership picked an internal candidate and promoted the team's assistant general manager, Theo Epstein, to the position of GM.

On November 25, 2002, the Red Sox elevated Brookline, Mass., native Theo Epstein to the general manager's seat. Epstein, who had served as the team's assistant GM before the promotion, was 28 years old at the time of his appointment and became the youngest GM in Major League Baseball history. Previously, Epstein had been a member of the baseball operations department of the San Diego Padres after working in the Padres' communications department and as an intern with the Baltimore Orioles before that.

With a sabermetric-oriented focus, Epstein and the Red Sox baseball operations department immediately began to build a championship caliber team. In the winter of 2003, the Red Sox signed Kevin Millar along with free agents Mike Timlin, Bill Mueller and a left-handed slugger named David Ortiz. Though the 2003 Red Sox came within five outs of the franchise's first World Series appearance since 1986, the club looked for new managerial leadership after the season and hired Terry Francona as the team's new skipper. A little over a month later, Epstein convinced Curt Schilling, over Thanksgiving dinner, to waive his no-trade clause and come to Boston.

After adding Keith Foulke as their closer, the 2004 Red Sox started the season on a roll but leveled off a bit during the early summer months. At the trade deadline, Epstein acquired the speedy Dave Roberts and showed the courage to trade the immensely-popular Nomar Garciaparra, receiving Orlando Cabrera and Doug Mientkiewicz in return. Epstein's moves paid off as the Red Sox finished with a flurry to clinch a Wild Card playoff berth en route to winning the club's first World Series in 86 years. At the age of 30, Epstein became the youngest GM ever of a World Championship team.

In their title defense, the 2005 Red Sox reached the postseason again but couldn't recapture their October magic of the year before. After the 2005 season, Epstein and the Red Sox couldn't reach an agreement on a contract extension and the young GM stunned observers when he suddenly resigned his position on Halloween.

After Theo Epstein resigned as the team's general manager at the end of October 2005, the Red Sox promoted two of their own to serve as co-general managers, Ben Cherington and Jed Hoyer. Though retrospectively the two might be viewed as interim GMs, the return of Theo Epstein was uncertain at the time of Cherington and Hoyer's official introduction on December 12, 2005. However, it was clear that promoting two internal members of the Red Sox baseball operations department, who had both worked with Epstein since 2002, helped the organization run smoothly during the 2006 offseason.

Cherington, a native of Meriden, NH who played college baseball at Amherst College, joined the Red Sox in 1999 after serving as a video advance scout for the Cleveland Indians. He handled the club's player development operation before being named co-general manager in 2005. Hoyer, who also grew up in New Hampshire (Plymouth) and played college baseball in New England (Wesleyan), served as assistant to the GM during the 2004 and 2005 seasons before he became co-GM with Cherington.

During their brief stint as co-general managers, Cherington and Hoyer's biggest deal was trading Boston's top prospect, shortstop Hanley Ramirez, and three other youngsters to the Florida Marlins for Josh Beckett and Mike Lowell. The two players the Red Sox acquired in the trade had huge roles in bringing Boston a World Series Championship in 2007, the franchise's second in four seasons.

On January 24, 2006, Theo Epstein returned to the Boston Red Sox as Executive Vice President/General Manager. Though the 2006 Red Sox missed the playoffs for the first time since 2002, Epstein's departure, and his subsequent return, brought a clearer, more effective organizational philosophy to the club's baseball operations department.

After the disappointing finish in 2006, the Red Sox made bold moves over the following winter, including the successful pursuit of Japanese right-hander Daisuke Matsuzaka. In 2007, the Red Sox won their first American League East Division title since 1995 and their 96-66 record was tied for the best in baseball. When the Red Sox defeated the Colorado Rockies in the 2007 World Series, Epstein joined the Yankees' Brian Cashman as the only two individuals since World War II to win at least two World Series titles in their first five seasons as a Major League general manager.

Under Epstein's leadership, the Red Sox reached the postseason six times, the most appearances for a Red Sox general manager. In 2009, Epstein, a graduate of Yale University and the University of San Diego Law School, was recognized by Sports Illustrated as MLB's General Manager of the Decade and was also dubbed Executive of the Decade by The Sporting News. In October 2011, Epstein resigned as general manager of the Boston Red Sox to become the new president of baseball operations of the Chicago Cubs.

Named General Manager of the Boston Red Sox on October 25, 2011, Ben Cherington brings with him a strong background both in New England and with the Red Sox. Serving as senior vice president and assistant general manager of the Red Sox since January 2009, Cherington first joined the Red Sox ten years earlier.

Cherington was born in Meriden, New Hampshire in 1974 and graduated from Amherst College, where he was a pitcher on the baseball team until a torn labrum ended his playing career. Nonetheless, he stuck with the team and helped run the program as an assistant coach, and his dedication eventually landed him his first position in the Majors as a video advance scout with the Cleveland Indians in 1998.

He was hired by the Red Sox early in 1999 as an area scout in the Mid-Atlantic region by fellow Amherst College alum Dan Duquette, and was quickly brought into the baseball operations department that May. On December 7, 2002, Cherington was named assistant director of player development. The following year, he became director of player development, in charge of the farm system and player development.

After Epstein left the Red Sox in October 2005, the team appointed Cherington and Jed Hoyer as co-general managers. When Epstein returned early the following year, Cherington was named vice president of player personnel on January 24, 2006, before being named senior vice president and assistant general manager three years later.

Now in his 13th year with the Boston Red Sox, Cherington has risen through the organization and will lead the team's baseball operations department as the club embarks on its second century at Fenway Park.