Dead Man Walking By R W Glaub I once visited a Boot Hill cemetary in a Colorado ghost town. One of the gravestones -I don't remember the name or the dates of birth or death- had an epitaph I'll never forget. It said: "I told you I was sick." This was a man who knew his fate. On the surface, at least, current Red Sox GM Dan Duquette doesn't seem to be so prescient. In fact, he doesn't seem to sense he is at all unwell. Based, however, on the thinly-veiled utterances of the new Red Sox owners, The Duke has about as much chance of hanging on to his job as Osama bin Laden has of being awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. Aside from his public "game face," though, one has to assume Duquette has some idea of his likely fate. For one thing, he has lately been exhibiting the aura of a desperate man. One who really would like to keep his job. For a guy who has for years operated under the Harrington Practice -that of closeting himself in a darkened office with the drapes closed- Dan the Man is now all over the place. He's made media appearances, mixed with players and fans at spring training and in general became much more a public person that he's ever been. Recently, when members of the new ownership started making appearances at spring training, Duquette turned Zelig on us. You rember Zelig -the Woody Allen character who wanted to fit in so badly he became whomever he was with. One local scribe claims photographers at Red Sox camp had trouble getting any pictures of Larry Lucchino or John Henry without The Danny leaning into the frame. Reality is that as soon as final papers are passed on transferring team ownership, Harrington and Duquette will be gone together, like an odd set of bookends. Anyone who's followed this column knows I hurled myself off the Duquette bandwagon quite a while ago. I'm not one of those, however, who demonizes the man. He's done some good things for the team and it is better off than when he took the job. None of that excuses the major errors he's made, though. The kinds of errors that warrant having the reins taken from his hands. Although it's a bit difficult to determine how many of Duquette's problems are from being the victim of his own personality, and how many from having to work under John Harrington, it is clear that Duquette has to take responsibility for many of the team's larger mistakes and miscues. One can argue as much as one wants about whether last year's team would have collapsed without The Duke's help, but I'm not buying any of it. His failure to back up his manager at crucial times, then firing him in the midst of a pennant race, then all the subsequent actions leading to further tumult, were the proximate cause of the collapse. He's made plenty of other mistakes, but his handling of the situation last season is plenty enough reason to remove him as GM. I, for one, simply can't imagine the new owners doing anything else. Talk Back to R W Glaub Fenwaynation Home