Larry Lucchino

Red Sox president/CEO Larry Lucchino talked to the Dennis & Callahan show Wednesday morning, and with the trade deadline fast approaching, one of the biggest topics of conversation was the Red Sox off-the-field plans as they gear up for the final stretch. Lucchino was quick to dismiss any notion that the team will not pursue top trade targets despite recent reports that it has gone above the luxury-tax threshold.

“We are at the bottom end of the tax threshold. We’re not at the highest tax rate. We’re at the lowest tax rate,” Lucchino said. “But [the idea that we'd spend less] is just not true. I’m telling you. I know what our financial plans are, and that is not true. We have money set aside to acquire talent if we can find it, but having said that this is not a promise or a prediction that a trade will happen. We’re not going to do something just to keep our record alive by making deals on July 31.”

Lucchino was also quick to back the Red Sox training and medical staff, which has come under fire given the team’s recent run of injuries and especially after Jacoby Ellsbury expressed that he was misdiagnosed.

“We have a world-class medical staff. That’s not to say that they are perfect in all situations and can foresee the future in all situations. We are extremely proud of the medical staff we have from Mass General and our orthopedists, our internalists, our specialists. We are proud of them, and they do a fine, professional job so let’s dispense with that. We made a change when we got here a year or two into our ownership, and that’s one of the desirable ones.”

What follows are some more highlights from the interview. To hear the interview in its entirety, go to the Dennis & Callahan audio on demand page.

Will the news about you guys being above the luxury tax affect how the moves you’ll make before July 31?

We are at the bottom end of the tax threshold. We’re not at the highest tax rate. We’re at the lowest tax rate. But that’s just not true. I’m telling you. I know what our financial plans are, and that is not true. We have money set aside to acquire talent if we can find it, but having said that this is not a promise or a prediction that a trade will happen. We’re not going to do something just to keep our record alive by making deals on July 31.  It’s got to be a deal that makes sense. Theo [Epstein] parts with prospects less willingly than he would part with his first-born. Read the rest of this entry »

Peter Gammons

NESN Red Sox analyst Peter Gammons joined The Big Show on Friday afternoon to talk about the current state of the Red Sox, possible acquisitions they could make nearing the trade deadline, and George Steinbrenner.

“Well, I think in the end, he’s done a great deal for the game,” Gammons said on Steinbrenner. “He was the only owner who really understood that baseball is entertaining. He did buy a team and within four years he had a world champion with Reggie Jackson and Goose Gossage and all those guys he brought in.”

Gammons also touched on the recent comments made by Dan Duquette on more evidence surfacing that could link Roger Clemens to performance-enhancing drugs.

Below is the transcript of the conversation. Visit The Big Show audio on demand page to hear the interview.

What are your feelings on the Red Sox right now?

I didn’t like the series matchups with Texas coming in here and then going on a 10-game road trip. I guess what they’re hoping is they get [Clay] Buchholz pitching tonight, [Josh] Beckett tomorrow, then after this week they get their rotation. They have to hope they carry them until they get all their players back.

What do you think their mindset is going into the last couple weeks? Is it just a wait and see attitude with them?

I mean, if there was something really good available they would probably go through with it. You’re not going to trade two players for a 10-home run hitting backup outfielder like David DeJesus. He’s a nice guy but once [Jacoby] Ellsbury comes back, he’s your fourth or fifth outfielder and that’s Kansas City’s primary chip, so that doesn’t work. Right now, they’ve looked around at pitchers. The Pirates won’t trade Joel Hanrahan who’s kind of like the best middle man in the league and Toronto wants Jose Iglesias for Scott Downs and that’s not happening, especially with Downs now hurt. They have to hope they get more innings out of their starters and around the 31st teams try to dump a couple salaries.

I maintain this season comes down to his next four weeks. Do you think they have enough muscle to stay in it?

I think they do if once they get Beckett and Buchholz back, they have [Jon] Lester, Buchholz, Beckett, [John] Lackey, and [Daisuke] Matsuzaka for their five-man rotation. They have to carry, which is entirely possible. Any sabermetric rating, they have Lester and Buchholz who are two of the three best pitchers in the league. Joe Girardi said he would have probably started Buchholz is he had been available for the All-Star game. That’s what has to happen, this is the time when the pitching has to carry them. Read the rest of this entry »

Bill Lee

Former Red Sox pitcher Bill Lee did not soften his stance on George Steinbrenner following the Yankees owner’s death Tuesday. “As far as Steinbrenner’s passing? Good,” Lee said in an interview with New Hampshire TV station WMUR. Added Lee: “Trust me, if hell freezes over, he’ll be skating.”

Lee, who spent 10 of his 14 major league seasons with the Red Sox and took part in a number of heated battles vs. Steinbrenner’s Yankees in the mid-1970s, claimed that Steinbrenner tried to have him banned from baseball. “He said I was an incompetent and I was bad for the game of baseball,” Lee recalled. “Well, I’m not a convicted felon like George Steinbrenner, and he’ll take that to his grave.”

Lee continued his rant during an appearance on WEEI’s Planet Mikey show Thursday night. “He tried to run me out of the game a long time ago, after the [1976 Red Sox-Yankees] brawl,” Lee said. “He said I was a pariah, I wasn’t good for baseball. … I told him basically to shut up.”

Added Lee: “He may have been good for the Yankees organization, but he was definitely a thorn in my side.”

During the WMUR interview at a golf tournament in Concord, N.H., Lee said of Steinbrenner, “I used to have nightmares of him. I was hallucinating one time and I thought he came into my hotel room window, and I realized I didn’t have any windows. And I was on like the 38th floor. [Play-by-play broadcaster] Dick Stockton was with me. He’ll vouch for it.”

Asked if he had any sadness about Steinbrenner’s death, Lee said: “I have no sadness. I’m Irish, I’m Catholic, and when you’re gone, you’re gone.”

On Planet Mikey, Lee joked his golf game improved dramatically when he learned of Steinbrenner’s death. “When I heard he was dead, I went out and sank seven 30-footers,” Lee said. “I was like on Tequila. I was floating. I took the team — we were 1-under and we went to 10-under, and the best golfer was me, and I’m a 15-handicap.”

To see the interview at WMUR.com, click here. To listen to Lee’s interview on the Planet Mikey show, click here.

Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein joined in on the praise of the late George Steinbrenner, who died of a massive heart attack on Tuesday morning at the age of 80. Epstein praised Steinbrenner for his generous donations to many charities, especially in his later years, including five-figure donations to the annual Jimmy Fund Radio/Telethon on WEEI.

“Our condolences go out to the Steinbrenner family and the Yankees organization,” Epstein said Wednesday during an option Red Sox workout at Fenway Park. “Obviously, he was a great icon in baseball and great competitor. He was someone who hated to lose and ran his organization accordingly. We’re finding out more and more, that he was someone with a huge heart, as well, who might have been hard to work for, at times, but that doesn’t give you the full measure of the man. Seems like a great man and built a great organization. He’ll be missed.”

[Click here to listen to Theo Epstein's recollections of George Steinbrenner.]

Early in his career, Epstein was working in the Padres front office when he had his first – and most memorable encounter – with Steinbrenner.

“I remember in ’98, I was working for the Padres, and the Yankees swept us in the World Series and I was walking toward our clubhouse and he was kind of storming by and getting ready to hit the champagne and he had 50 or 60 media members following him in his wake as he was kind of sprint-walking down the tunnel,” Epstein said. “That was my first, direct vision to him and that will always be how I remember him, just leading the pack and doing things his way.

“He was a great part of the rivalry and he is the Yankees so he’ll be missed.”

Red Sox skipper Terry Francona also had his own Steinbrenner story to tell.

“When I was a young player the Yankees used to train at Ft. Lauderdale when I was a young player with the Expos,” Francona recalled before Wednesday’s voluntary workout at Fenway. “He actually came up to me… I was probably 22 years old. And he made a point of telling me how much he liked my dad.”

Steinbrenner, a native of Cleveland, watched Francona’s father, Tito Francona, play with the Indians from 1959-64.

[Click here to listen to Terry Francona recall the life and times of George Steinbrenner.]

“My dad had good years at Cleveland,” Francona remembered. “Again, I was a young kid and scared to death of him but it meant something to me that he said that. And over the years I’ve run into him, most of the time in Tampa. I think the one think that sticks out with me isn’t all the stuff that’s competitive and free agents.

“I think the one thing that sticks out is whenever there seems to be a problem or a disaster or…he seems to be like first and writing the biggest check and I think that’s pretty cool. Whatever you want to say, I’m sure there’s a lot of things that have been said, positive and probably negative, he seems to like to come to people’s aid, and I always thought that was pretty neat.”

Was he surprised when Steinbrenner introduced himself once upon a time?

“A little bit,” Francona admitted. “I was 22 years old and trying to mind my own business. It was pretty cool.”

The Red Sox sent out a press release on the passing of New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner on Monday. Red Sox principal owner John Henry, who was once a minority owner of the Yankees, expressed his condolences to the 80-year-old Steinbrenner’s family.

“I had the good fortune to call George Steinbrenner both partner and friend,” said Henry. “I had the privilege to watch George as he built a system that ensured his beloved Yankees would have a strong foundation for sustained excellence. And then we fiercely competed in the American League.

“George Steinbrenner forever changed baseball and hopefully some day we will see him honored in baseball’s Hall of Fame as one of the great figures in the history of sports,” said Henry.

“George Steinbrenner was a formidable opponent and baseball’s greatest rivalry will not be the same without him,” said Tom Werner, Chairman. “As the longest tenured owner, he left an indelible mark on the game. I worked with George in my position as the owner of two Major League franchises and saw first-hand his passionate leadership style, his zeal for winning, and his love for the game. Above all, I knew George as a competitor and today Red Sox Nation lost a person who truly relished the prospect of facing the Red Sox and doing all he could to make sure his beloved Yankees would come out victorious.”

“George Steinbrenner was one of the most important people in the history of the game, and his impact touched all aspects of the business of baseball,” said Larry Lucchino, President/CEO.  “His vision for the Yankees turned around a once struggling franchise and manifested itself in the form of seven World Series Championships and 11 American League pennants. My respect for George went beyond the baseball field because of his sincere and longstanding commitment to charity, and to people in need.  He had a giant heart, often well hidden from public view. Part of his legacy here in Boston will be the profound kindness he showed to numerous local philanthropic causes, especially as a regular and generous contributor each year to the Jimmy Fund of the Dana Farber Cancer Institute.”

For more on the Red Sox, go to WEEI.com/RedSox.