Playoff joyride has built-in meaning for Duquette

ST. LOUIS -- The man whose fingerprints are all over the '04 Red Sox was sipping a glass of ice water in the lounge area of the team hotel, where he's staying for the World Series. Former Sox general manager Dan Duquette said he wouldn't have missed this for anything, despite his bitter parting with the team he helped build.

The roster is filled with Duquette guys -- Pedro Martinez, Manny Ramirez, Tim Wakefield, Jason Varitek, Derek Lowe, Doug Mirabelli, Johnny Damon. Where would the Red Sox have been without these core players?

"I'm very happy for this team," said Duquette. "Very happy for the guys like Varitek, Pedro, Lowe, and Wakefield, and all the guys who have been here for so long who finally conquered the Yankees. To go in there and beat them like that was remarkable, and now to be two up in the World Series is very special. Above everything I'm a Red Sox fan. I've been a fan since I was a kid growing up in this area, so I'm able to step back from it and enjoy it as a fan."

Duquette was let go by the Henry ownership in March 2002, when the new group was seeking a clean break from the John Harrington administration. The new regime didn't mesh with Duquette's aloof public relations style.

Duquette hasn't worked in the major leagues since. He said yesterday that he's been offered positions, but nothing remotely close to one that would give him the power he had with the Red Sox.

For now he's content running his expanding Dan Duquette Sports Academy in Hinsdale, Mass., and watching the Red Sox from afar while doing some pregame and postgame commentary for Channel 25.

"I think Theo [Epstein] and Larry Lucchino did a great job with this team," Duquette said. "When we were still there we were trying desperately to get ourselves a No. 2 starter that we could put after Pedro, but we weren't able to pull off signing Mike Mussina, while Theo was able to package a couple of young lefthanded pitchers to get Curt Schilling." Duquette felt he came pretty close on Mussina in the offseason of 2000. After wining and dining Mussina, the Sox lost out to the Yankees. Duquette settled for Ramirez, and the "consolation prize" has had a great Red Sox career.

Also in search of a leadoff hitter, Duquette went after Bernie Williams, who decided to re-sign with the Yankees prior to the 2002 season, leaving millions on the table. Duquette instead signed Damon, and "he's turned into one of the best leadoff hitters in the game and a clutch player. He had a great year this year. He's the ideal player to have for a leadoff hitter." Duquette marvels at Epstein getting David Ortiz off the scrap heap and indentifying Mark Bellhorn as a replacement for a higher-priced Todd Walker. "Trading for Schilling, going out and getting Keith Foulke and building the bench were all big pieces to building around the good core they already had," Duquette said.

Duquette has been criticized for letting Roger Clemens become a free agent after the 1996 season and to a lesser extent for letting Mo Vaughn sign with the Angels as a free agent in 1999. He is blamed for the lack of chemistry on some of the teams he built, and for the signings of players such as Carl Everett. But his biggest coup might have been the Varitek and Lowe for Heathcliff Slocumb deal made at the July 31 trading deadline in 1997.

"As it turns out, we needed a catcher because Mike Stanley was toward the end of his career," Duquette said. "Varitek was a guy I had seen play for Georgia Tech and he was drafted high, but he didn't sign right away, so his career got going a little bit later than it should have. Gary Rajsich, who was our scout on the West Coast, had watched a lot of Derek in the Pacific Coast League and had very high grades on him and he recommended him. And they've been a great tandem for a lot of years."

Duquette said being able to acquire Tony Armas Jr. in the Stanley deal, "enabled us to package Armas and Carl Pavano to Montreal for Pedro."

Ironically, the Red Sox are in position now that if they let Martinez go into free agency, one team source indicated that Pavano would be their major target.

"It's funny how things like that work out," said Duquette, "but that's the nature of the game sometimes."