After two years, 188 regular season wins, and a trip to the American League Championship Series, the Red Sox have parted ways with Grady Little. Are the Sox making the right move? Who should get his job?

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People need to get over the sentimentalness of firing the dumb, easygoing southerner. Let him go back to fishing. I will give him plenty of respect for his handling of the clubhouse, but that doesn't make up for decisions made on the field. I'm not even speaking of the Yankees Vs. Sox game. For instance, how about against Oakland Pinch hitting Adrian Brown. Would you rather have Nixon against a lefty specialist or Brown against anybody? Come on. Any pitching decision during the regular season, BAD. There are some situations that are automatic baseball moves. For instance, intentionally walking the bases loaded in the 9th with less than two outs and up by a run. The runner who you are putting on first means nothing. These are the most basic rules out there and our manager neglected them. I think he is great for the players, but that is what the bench coach is for and thats why he has always been a good bench coach. Now lets get a baseball guy in here and play the game like its supposed to be played. And, no, I don't mean Bobby Valentine!

Jay, Milbridge

Great decision. This guy was responsible for so many more losses than just game 7. He made the same mistakes time after time. Some constant blunders: 1) Defensive move: Damian Jackson in for Todd Walker. Is Jackson a gold glove fielder? Far from it and Walker is not much worse than Jackson. This move seemed to constantly come back to haunt the Sox as a game would go to extra innings and now you have a solid bat our of the lineup for Jacksons 165 LB. home run swing. 2) Pinch running in the 6th or 7th inning for big bats like Ortiz. They blew leads and then were stuck with Jackson or Gabe Kaplers bats. 3) i"strike 'em out, throw 'em out" far too often in both series. 4) Burkett.....great guy but when he is done he is done...give him the hook early...why wait until he gives up a few more runs in a middle inning? 5) Bullpen...he finally gets things going and then is afraid to use them. 6) The guy did not have the stomach for a high profile manager job. Let him go coach in some city like San Diego where they do not care about winning and losing baseball games. The Sox need a guy with guts. Fregosi may be the guy. I love Tom Kelly or Jim Leyland but they seem as if they do not want back in. By the way...Jerry Remy?? Give me a break. He is a good color guy but he has 0 experience....Lets hope they make a wise choice.

kevin, plainville ct

Grady was what the Sox needed at the time. Did a great job sewing the club together. However not the best tactician on the field. He may be great at building player confidence but that is an attribute best suited for the minor league level. I think he brought the team as far as he was able. Time to move to a better field general. Thanks Grady but it's time to say adios.

Larry, Saratoga Springs

I think it is unfortunate that Mr. Little's contract was not extended. All of this year the Red Sox were a very exciting team - winning many games after trailing the opposition, sometimes with their last "at-bats". Those efforts may in part be the result of shrewd thinking about team make-up, etc. (e.g., most Red Sox players have high on-base percentages, increasing the odds for scoring runs, making "come-backs", etc.), but this year the spirit of the team seemed also to play a factor. Mr. Little, as manager, obviously played a large role in fostering that spirit. In this age of multi-million dollar salaries and product endorsements, free-agency and players living out of their suitcases, sabermetrics and labour disputes, I don't think its an easy thing to encourage players to play like kids again - supporting each other enthusiastically, game-in/game-out, with an all-for-one, one-for-all attitude. This was the attitude of the Red Sox this year - an attitude conspicuously missing from many previous Red Sox teams. Mr. Little made a mistake in keeping Mr. Martinez in the 7th game beyond 7 innings (hind-sight being in all cases 20/20). However, he made many clever decisions during the year, yielding over 90 wins. And, more importantly, he developed a team that played like a team, and kept us interested in Red Sox baseball throughout the year. Most of us never left the TV set or (for those lucky enough) the ballpark until the last out of the ninth inning because the Red Sox always had a chance to win. I think of all Red Sox personnel, Mr. Little most deserves our thanks for that. He also deserved another contract, which I think would have guaranteed another great year of Red Sox baseball.

Peter, Vancouver, BC

Grady Little was a good man who did a good job helping to get the team to the ALCS. However, he always seemed to have a shaky hold on game decisions especially with regard to how he used the bullpen and how he chose to pitch to certain batters. There were WAY too many signs that Pedro had to come out early in that fateful eighth inning. Only delusional or too charitable fans would lobby that it was Pedro's decision to continue to pitch. It's the manager's job to make the right call and on that night and on several others, Grady wasn't up to the task. The 2003 Red Sox were a very talented team that could have used a steadier and more experienced hand and let's hope that they finally get the right man for the job in here next year.

Andrew, Mendham, NJ

I think firing Grady was not a bad idea; he made some utterly inexcusable calls throughout the season that really stood out in the spotlight of the playoffs. They were extremely lucky to sneak by Oakland -- thankfully the A's proved themselves to be just as poorly managed as the Sox. I wonder, though, how wunderkind Theo Epstein and "the Three Amigos" can blame Mr. Little for not (and I paraphrase) following the organization's commitment to pure statistics. Their statistical basis for a "bullpen by committee" was one of the biggest travesties of the season, and had they had an established closer earlier in the season, perhaps they would have finished with a better record than the Yankees. Their decision to rid themselves of relievers Chad Fox and Ugueth Urbina isn't inherently a bad one, but look who has new World Series rings? And anyone should realize that winning four out of five must-win playoff games is a pretty good percentage... except that the one they lost was in epic fashion to their arch-rivals. I think the most unsettling thing about this decision, though, is the precedent it sets: who in their right mind would want to manage a team where winning 93 games in your rookie year managing in the bigs, followed by improvement to 95 wins your second year (in spite of having no defined bullpen) and losing in seven games (in extra innings!) in the ALCS to a team that has a payroll 40% greater than yours is considered a *failure.*

Dave, Cambridge, MA

The Red Sox are making a big mistake. Little has the respect and support of all the players in the clubhouse and that hasn't been the case in Boston for a long time before Grady came. His in-game decisions may be questionable but most of them have worked out, they got all the way to the ALCS. The blame should be Pedro who is getting paid 17.5 million dollars to not give up 5 runs in game 7 of an ALCS at Yankee Stadium. The Red Sox will have trouble finding a replacement who will be able to command respect the way Little does, not to mention the move in itself may make it harder to resign Ortiz and Walker who were both major Little supporters. Bad move in my opinion.

Jake, Needham

My earliest memories of watching professional baseball go back to the early to mid-50's when I was about nine years old. Ted Williams was my hero and everything I tried to do as a player from that point on was patterned after him. I also became a big Red Sox fan at that time and hated the Yankees who they played on TV quite often in the days when there weren't that many teams to watch. Even though my allegiance has since shifted to a more local team, the Rangers, I still root for the Sox against anyone else they play and was certainly pulling for them against New York a couple of weeks ago. I'm as dissappointed as anyone that they weren't able to pull out a win the last game, but to put the blame on the manager to the degree that so many Sox fans and the local media have tried to do in the past few days is a bunch of bull. Obviously, some of them have forgotten how weak the bullpen was for much of the season. Had they have been more effective, the Sox would probably have won their division to start with and maybe Grady Little would have had felt more confident in bringing one of them in. How anyone can really blame the manager for sticking with his ace in the situation he was in to the extent to call for his head on a platter is beyond rational. Obviously, the strategy didn't pan out, but whose to say a switch at the time would have changed the outcome of the game. Grady Little has nothing to be ashamed of. The same can't be said of some of Sox fans or the Boston media, and that goes double for the classless ownership who ought to know better and didn't even have the cajones to tell him to his face, and let him go over the phone

Gary, Decatur, TX

Who gets the job now? Who will do any better? I think it was a mistake to let Grady go-but he would have been run off the field his first time out to the mound next year. Trade Nomar Trade Pedro they had their chance...and did not get it done. Lets get some top level prospects in here for a new start, in a new ballpark in S. Boston. Fenway just isn't working for us!

rp, wilmington

#1 If Grady was so good for "Chemistry", why didn't we hear about it when he was a bench coach years ago in Boston? Also, Grady was the coach of the team when if fell apart last year. Did he take a crash course in "Chemistry" between season #1 and season #2? Word to the unwise...it was players like Ortiz and Millar who brought in the chemistry. Winning made that Chemistry apparent to all of us. Thank Theo for that, not Grady. As for #2, why isn't Remy on the poll? Who knows more about this team? And as made painfully apparent by Fox's terrible broadcasters, who knows more about baseball? If he doesn't work out, do what they always do. Find some one else. But give him a chance.

Parker, Dedham, MA