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It's hit the fan.

With manager Terry Francona gone and general manager/golden boy Theo Epstein apparently on his way out the door to Chicago, the Boston media has unleashed the dogs. Bob Hohler in today's Boston Globe paints a picture of a Boston Red Sox team that went soft, run by a manager who gave up, and played (with a few exceptions) uninspired baseball, leading to their eventual collapse from a team that had the best record in the American League to a team that missed the playoffs on the regular season's final day.

First under the bus were three-fifths of the Sox starting rotation.

All the Sox needed was Josh Beckett, Jon Lester, and John Lackey to apply the skills and commitment that previously made them World Series champions.

Instead, Boston’s three elite starters went soft, their pitching as anemic as their work ethic. The indifference of Beckett, Lester, and Lackey in a time of crisis can be seen in what team sources say became their habit of drinking beer, eating fast-food fried chicken, and playing video games in the clubhouse during games while their teammates tried to salvage a once-promising season.

Being a starting pitcher on a major league team isn't like being a position player when it comes to the dugout and connection with the rest of the team. Starting pitchers only play when they have a scheduled start. If it's not their day to start, they have little direct value to the team during the game. Rarely will they be called upon to pinch-run, they won't pinch-hit (barring a deep extra-inning game and a very good hitting pitcher), and it's doubtful that they'll pitch again until their next scheduled start. So for a starter, it's one day of playing, and four or so days of either sitting in the dugout doing the "rah-rah" thing with the rest of the team or finding something else to do. Easy to say "of course you stay in the dugout and cheer on the team!", but how many of those people pass up conference calls or meetings because it's not a subject that directly involves them?

Also at work here is selective perception from a journalistic standpoint. It's assumed that when Beckett/Lester/Lackey did their frat boy impression, they did so together and not independently. If the Sox end up with the best record in the AL, this exercise is a perfect example of the rotation bonding and coming together as a unit. Since they missed the playoffs, it's detrimental to the team.

Interesting too that Beckett and Lester - Boston's two best starting pitchers during the regular season - are grouped in with Lackey, a pariah to the Red Sox Nation. To imply that expectations for Beckett (who had arguably his best season as a member of the Sox) and Lester (also in route to one of his best - if not his best - season with the team) were the same as Lackey (who was having a nightmarish season) were the same is ridiculous at best. But we group these three together, implying that MAYBE Lackey's been doing this all along, and MAYBE he got Beckett and Lester to start doing it in September, giving the pitchers Lackey-cooties and ruining the Sox season. Ignore the fact that Beckett sprained his ankle September 5th and that Lester left three of his six starts in September with the lead, only to see two of the three end up Sox losses. Surely it was Lackey and his damned bucket of chicken and keg of beer.

But it can't just be all Lackey's horrifying influence:

But the epic flop of 2011 had many faces: a lame-duck manager, coping with personal issues, whose team partly tuned him out; stars who failed to lead; players who turned lackluster and self-interested; a general manager responsible for fruitless roster decisions; owners who approved unrewarding free agent spending and missed some warning signs that their $161 million club was deteriorating.

I'll let you read the rest of the story, but here are the bulletpoints:

• Francona's failure as a manager had to do with his marriage falling apart and prescription drug abuse.
• The front office "sensed serious trouble brewing in the clubhouse" because members of the team balked at scheduling a doubleheader the day after an extended road trip that saw the team play 14 of 17 games on the road.
• The owners bought $300 earphones and held a "players only" cruise on owner John Henry's yacht, which shockingly didn't make the team play any better.
• Before the season started, several Red Sox starters made cameos in a music video for a song called "Hell Yeah, I Like Beer". In July, no one seemed to have an issue with it. Now, it's an example of "the seeds of failure [...] sown long before the shame of September."
• Tim Wakefield is a selfish bastard, because he wants to set the Red Sox franchise record for wins, all the while "taxing the bullpen as the Sox lost four of his five starts" in September, despite the fact Wakefield only started four games in September, and only because he was pushed into starting duty due to injuries to Beckett and Erik Bedard.
• Francona's failures also have to do with him being unable to focus because of stress over his contract option not likely to be picked up and his son and son-in-law being in Afghanistan.
• Dustin Pedroia "and a few others" were the only ones who cared about winning, but mainly Pedroia, because Pedroia is AWESOME.
• Team captain Jason Varitek didn't bother to be a leader when it counted and hates it when people call his house.
• David Ortiz tried to rally the troops in September, but in reality all he wants is that one RBI in August.
• Kevin Youkilis is going downhill fast and becoming a broken, bitter old man who hates Jacoby Ellsbury.
• Jacoby Ellsbury is really good and works really really hard, but only has one friend (Jed Lowrie), so he didn't help the Sox at all.
• Adrian Gonzalez is really good on the field, but lacks "energy or passion off the field", and doesn't like playing night games on Sunday, making him a selfish pussy.
• Theo signed Bobby Jenks, and Bobby Jenks sucks. [Well, duh.]
• Theo signed John Lackey, and John Lackey sucks.
• Theo signed Carl Crawford, even though the owners didn't want to, and Carl Crawford sucks.
• Dustin Pedroia is still AWESOME.

It's really an ugly piece, and filled with unnamed sources which just reeks of either bitter players or perhaps even front office people looking to go in full-blown defensive mode for going into the offseason without the manager (and likely GM) that brought them their first World Series in 86 years and with a passionate fanbase looking for someone to blame. But in one fell swoop, the blame for the Sox 2011 season can squarely fall on the shoulders of the man who built this mess, and the one who couldn't control it, and not necessarily on the new regime, allowing them to start with a clean slate.

Now, the Sox are set up for a "no-lose" situation in 2012 - if they do worse than this season, it's the new regime's process of fixing what was broken, and if they do as good (or better), it's because the bad element has been removed, and fresh blood has breathed life into the team.