James had been growing more distant from the Red Sox ownership and front office in recent yearsGETTY IMAGES
Longtime Red Sox advisor Bill James on Thursday announced that he was "leaving the organization after 17 years," writing that he "no longer felt useful to the Red Sox and was ready to do something new," according to Jason Mastrodonato of the BOSTON HERALD. James, in a post on his website, wrote, "I've fallen out of step with the organization. The normal flow of work assignments to work products has deteriorated to basically nothing; honestly, I should have left a couple of years ago." Mastrodonato notes James had been "growing more distant to the Red Sox in recent years, most notably last November, when the team had to publicly release a statement separating their ideas from his" (BOSTON HERALD, 10/25).
CHANGING TIMES: In Boston, Alex Speier writes James was "widely identified as the father of sabermetrics." His work as author of "The Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract" from '77-87 was "considered revolutionary," and "informed the perspective of numerous" execs, including Red Sox Owner John Henry and Cubs President of Baseball Operations Theo Epstein. When the Red Sox hired James as a Special Baseball Advisor in November '02, they saw a "chance to bring in someone willing to challenge both conventional wisdom and the front-office echo chamber in a way that would yield better decisions." However, James' "perceived role" often "vastly outstripped his actual one." In the '19 Red Sox media guide, James' title "shifted from that of senior advisor to baseball operations to 'baseball consultant'" (BOSTON GLOBE, 10/25).
