bigfan wrote:
It was almost a given Dan Evans was going to take the GM role, as he was the Asst GM and had worked for the Sox for 20+ years. Many rumors exist at how kenny became the GM. I asked about it and got a 'thats not all true'.
Which tells me some of it was true and I know the part that was true is Kenny not going to the GM or the Asst GM, but directly to Reinsdorf about guys he liked. Was kenny right on any certain players evaluation? I dont know, but I do know he went around the people he wanted to make look bad and took the job they had planned on getting. combine that with a bit of dan Evans being a bit cocky about having the job before he got it, and Kenny gets the job.
And kenny made it known he would be interested in the job, but Kenny has a contract and when you have a contract with Jerry, he doesnt let you just walk away for nothing.
I don't think it is anything more nefarious than JR being in charge of increasing minority opportunities for MLB and his desire to walk the walk. I also believe that JR believed in the program.
KW was qualified for consideration but I don't think he was qualified to be hired at the time of his hiring. If you remember the first couple years KW was a disaster. However, I think everyone understood he would be learning on the job. In fact, I believe they hired Roland Hemond to be his wet nurse.
It was a bit of social engineering on JR part. It takes extraordinary efforts to initiate social/organizational change. I would say that it worked after taking everything into account.
I put Ozzie's hire in the same category.