Henry has brought glory and success to this franchise, something I wasn't sure I'd ever see in my lifetime. We saw past GMs and owners treat blacks poorly, not even send a contract to Fisk (losing him for nothing) and years and years of spending just enough to give us the impression we might win.
What did we do? We flocked to Fenway in droves, signed up for NESN every year, and bought Red Sox memorabilia left and right.
Now, Henry decides to step back, and when I say step back, I'm talking still being a top 5 spender in MLB, and people want to rip him a new A-hole and boycott the team.
99.9% of the time, I take the side of the employee or union, but I'm siding with Henry on this one. The guy has single-handedly brought us up from the ashes. Four freaking rings!
Plus, it's not like Henry has pledged to never spend again. He spent way more than any other team last year and then paid a hefty tax on top just to watch us flop. I'd want to reset, too. We should be able to win without going over the tax line by $40M every year, and if it takes a year to reset, before we get back into the race, I'm fine with the strategy.
We all knew DD was going for "today" at the expense of tomorrow, and eventually that strategy catches up to you.
It caught up to us earlier than anyone expected, and to me, resetting is the best way to make the rebuild shorter and better.
I'll still have fun watching the Sox, this year. I'll watch every pitch of every game and actually feel better this year than last. I expected us to win in 2019 knowing our time was near. Now, I have lower expectation for the upcoming season but am way more optimistic about the extended future, which includes way more than just one year.
It would have really sucked watching us lose again in 2020 knowing we'd also be screwed for many years to come.