USD Magazine, Spring 2004

I would give my friends rickets co Padres' games and they would give me class notes. " Epstein finished law school and turned down a lucrative offer from a Los Angeles law firm co stay with rhe Padres. When Lucchino left rhe ream in early 2002 co become president and CEO of rhe Boston Red Sox, Epstein jumped ar the chance co come along and fulfill rhe dream of working for his hometown ream. He started as an assiscant general manager and, lacer char year, was tabbed for the GM position. Although he felr quire prepared co handle rhe job, rhe intense scrutiny from fans was more of a surprise. "The nuts and bolts of rhe job, the base– ball side of rhe job, I was very comfortable with," Epstein says, "but I was unprepared for public nature of job. As general manager, you're in the papers and on TV constantly. You lose part of your anonymiry - the abil– iry co just walk down the street and be your– self without people noticing you. I'm still not completely comfortable with that. "

field, Towers says, but soon became seasoned at both skills. "Theo came more from a statistical side of things when he was with me," says Towers. "What I tried co do is teach him the scout– ing side of things . He's one of brightest guys I've ever been around, and he went out and wrote some scouting reports on our own players, and he was right on. For somebody who didn't have any scouting background, it was amazing how quickly he grasped that. " While soaking up the business of baseball in San Diego, Epstein also attended law school at USD. "He was a tireless worker, " Towers says. "You'd give chis kid a project at five o'clock in rhe afrernoon char usually rakes people weeks and ir would be on my desk, completed, rhe next morning. Ir's amazing where he was when he started and where he is now. " T he Padres understood if he needed rime off co study, Epstein says, adding char "I was also creative in my attendance policy ar school. I developed a pretry good sys tem.

Epstein, a lifelong Red Sox fan, was

crushed when his team missed the Wo1-ld

Series by the narrowest ofmargins last

year. For this season, he added more talent

to an already-solid lineup in an attempt

to bring a championship to Boston.

33

SPRING 2004