Epstein makes his move after losing out to Lucchino

	After helping his hometown Red Sox win their first World Series in 86 years, Theo Epstein decided not to return as GM on Monday. Simon Bruty/SI
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In the end, it was about ego. It's always about ego.

Theo Epstein's decision not to return as Red Sox general manger had nothing to do with the three-year, $4.5 million contract Boston put on the table, or the perceived slight when Red Sox president Larry Lucchino refused to offer Epstein the $2.5 million annual salary he was willing to give Oakland GM Billy Beane in 2002.

It had to do with ego. Two massive, fill-up-the-room, block-the-hallways egos.

Epstein couldn't have cared about the money -- how could he? Did he feel the $1.5 million annual salary was a lowball offer? Did he feel he was worth as much as Yankees GM Brian Cashman ($1.9 million) or Braves boss John Schuerholz ($1.6 million)? Or did he want a stake in ownership, like Beane has in Oakland?

This was about power, a struggle between Epstein and Lucchino in which the student felt he was finally good enough to carry on without the teacher. Epstein is Lucchino's personal science experiment, a project he has been grooming since hiring a Epstein as a summer intern with the Orioles in 1992. Wherever Lucchino went, Epstein was never far behind, first to San Diego and then on to Boston, where in 2003 he made Epstein the youngest general manager in baseball history at the time.

Now Epstein is gone. That's gratitude for you.

No one is saying Epstein isn't qualified to captain his own ship. In the three seasons Epstein ran the Red Sox they were 288-198 and, oh by the way, won Boston's first World Series championship in 86 years. Epstein has also been positively Beane-esque, rebuilding a barren farm system and showing the same courage as his mentor when it comes to making the gutsy -- if not unpopular -- decision. How many GMs would have dealt Nomar Garciaparra or let Pedro Martinez walk?

But Epstein is still very young. And maybe he still has some things to learn.

The bottom line is that these negotiations, which dragged on for nearly a month, were about Epstein wanting to sit at the head of the table and Lucchino being unwilling to give up the seat. Lucchino isn't your typical president. He's not a money guy -- he's a baseball guy, and what's more, he's a sports guy. We're talking about a man who has earned two World Series rings (Baltimore, 1983 and Boston, 2004), a Super Bowl ring (Washington, 1983) and a Final Four watch (Princeton, 1965). Epstein -- and his career -- might be his baby, but Boston is still his franchise. He's not about to turn over the keys to his 31-year old protégé -- not now at least.

And why should he? Has Epstein earned that level of confidence? Epstein has had two good seasons with one spectacular one sandwiched in between. He won a championship. But he is not Beane. He is not Schuerholz. He's not even Cashman. At least not yet.

Everyone likes to talk about how Boston broke an 86-year drought last season. But Florida won in 1997 and promptly fell apart. Arizona took home the trophy in 2001 and hasn't been seen since. Anyone can win. The real skill is in sustaining it. The importance of 1918 wasn't that it represented the last championship, but that it marked the end of a run where Boston won five titles in 15 years. Show me a stretch like that and I'll be impressed.

This is a lose-lose situation for both parties. Epstein is a rock star in Boston, both literally (his band, Trauser, plays at local clubs) and figuratively. He is wildly popular, evidenced by his being named The Boston Globe's Bostonian of the Year in 2004, and he went to work every day trying to win with a team he grew up cheering for just a few blocks from Fenway Park.

This is as good as it gets for Epstein, who won't have to worry about million-dollar book offers and talk-show appearances at his next stop. In Boston, he is a hero. Somewhere else, he's just another GM. Think that doesn't matter to him? This is a guy whose family résumé reads like one of the Kennedy's. His grandfather and great uncle co-authored the screenplay for Casablanca. His father is a respected novelist. His sister is a television writer. Sure, he's humble. But deep down, don't you think he has grown accustomed to the success?

Lucchino will also find himself on the wrong end of this breakup. There aren't a dozen Theo Epstein's in major-league front offices just waiting to be plucked away and groomed as Epstein was. The only one who would fit that description is Epstein's former assistant, Josh Byrnes, who is now in Arizona running the Diamondbacks. You can bet with these developments, he'll be taking a lot of Epstein's staff with him. And forget a veteran guy like Pat Gillick or Brian Sabean. You think proven commodities like them want to come to a place where their baseball decisions are subject to presidential approval?

Maybe Epstein takes a year off and does social work with his brother in Brookline. Maybe Lucchino says the hell with it and hires a host of young assistants and runs the team himself. Or maybe George Steinbrenner hands Cashman a check for $6 million, says thanks very much and hires Epstein to be his new general manager (can anyone really say that's out of the question?). All we know for sure is that there's a bad moon rising in Boston and Epstein's exit may be only the beginning.