John Henry Took the Coward's Way and Refused to Talk to His Players After Firing Alex Cora
Winslow Townson. Getty Images.The only explanation for why a multi-billionaire with all the business acumen in the world, who could easily be making more billions in the financial markets, would instead choose to be despised by sports fans on two continents:
And it is that John Henry has a Humiliation Fetish. It's the only theory that makes sense. He's one of those powerful, Master of the Universe types who gets off on being shamed and humiliated. Some wealthy business moguls will pay a dominatrix to ritually abuse them. He gets aroused by being hated by huge segments of the population. And his method of choice is to take their genuine, generational love of a sports franchise and treat it as nothing more than something he can monetize. Just another venture capital enterprise:
And the boos and the "Sell the team" chants directed at him on both sides of the Atlantic are his version of getting spanked with a leather riding crop. It gives him an erotic thrill. That's the only hypothesis I can come up with that makes any sense. Because why else would he need any of this aggravation?
For certain, we can rule out any possibility that he cares about winning. Otherwise he'd spend money the way his competition does:
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We can also cross off the list any idea that he loves the game or enjoys being around athletes the way most franchise owners do. If that were the case, he'd treat them like men, instead of commodities. And when he made a major decision like firing their highly respected, universally popular manager, he'd have the balls to look them in the eye and talk to them, the way real leaders do. That's not John Henry:
And that weaselly, pathetic, Low-T way of handling this situation, leaving it up to your underlings to do the heavy lifting, is lost not lost on the players:
Henry won't talk to the paying customers. He won't take questions from reporters. He refuses to post on the socials. And now, after firing the manager midseason for the first time since Jimy Williams, he and Sam Kennedy hide behind Craig Breslow's skirt and use Chad Tracy as a meat shield. Proving once again Henry has billions in his accounts, but not one iota of integrity.
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Sell the team already. And buy a shirt.