the perfect manager for that moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n\u201cNothing ever goes perfectly according to plan,\u201d Epstein said. \u201cThere were plenty of missteps and errors and misjudgments by me along the way. But for the most part, one of the perspectives that 10 years gives you is that it\u2019s really hard to win.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s one thing to assemble a bunch of talent. It\u2019s another thing to have that group turn into a championship team that stands up in the face of adversity at the most important times. That\u2019s more than just numbers. That\u2019s more than just talent. It\u2019s what these guys are about, and how they come together as a group.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you remove any one of those people from the mix, it\u2019s different and we don\u2019t win. Obviously, all the players, but even people behind the scenes, everybody contributed in their own way and sacrificed together. So, yeah, you can\u2019t plan for that, but you can bring in the people with the right stuff, treat them the right way and try to nurture it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Listening to Epstein talk about culture and team-building, it\u2019s natural to wonder if he would want to become more heavily involved in the sport at the club level again rather than his previous consulting work with Major League Baseball.<\/p>\n
Whatever else is out there, it probably doesn\u2019t involve frequent text messages from beat reporters, nonstop calls from doctors and trainers with injury updates, and everything else that comes with a 24\/7 job and no true offseason.<\/p>\n
Seeking to better align his personal and professional responsibilities, Epstein resigned after the pandemic-shortened 2020 season and relocated to Connecticut to be closer to extended family on the East Coast.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve got plans,\u201d Epstein said. \u201cBut for where I am right now, I\u2019ve got a perfect balance. I have a very fulfilling mix of professional roles, and I also have an amazing family. I\u2019m getting to spend time with them. My oldest is getting ready to go off to college, so I\u2019m right where I want to be.\u201d<\/p>\n
By walking away with a year remaining on his contract, Epstein also helped orchestrate a succession plan that allowed his longtime general manager, Jed Hoyer, to become team president and make the big decisions on the remaining members of the 2016 team.<\/p>\n
When Epstein first arrived in Chicago, he attributed a guiding principle to legendary football coach Bill Walsh, who believed leaders have a shelf life that lasts about 10 years. By that point, Walsh believed, coaches and executives should embrace change or risk becoming stagnant.<\/p>\n
But if the Cubs hadn\u2019t won that epic Game 7 in Cleveland and 1908 still hung over the franchise?<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, I wouldn\u2019t have left voluntarily,\u201d Epstein said. \u201cWe were all here to do one thing. We got it accomplished. Everyone was in it together. Everyone can die happy. We had more work to do, but that\u2019s when it sunk in for me, knowing that I could choose my path going forward. (But) I wasn\u2019t going to leave without getting the job done.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHICAGO \u2014 Amid a wave of nostalgia for the Chicago Cubs team that ended a 108-year championship drought,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":809480,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,5156,5158,591,85],"class_list":["post-809479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-boston-red-sox","tag-chicago-cubs","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/809479","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=809479"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/809479\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/809480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=809479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=809479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=809479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}