Bill James announces he’s retiring as Red Sox consultant
When Bill James joined the Boston Red Sox in 2002, it had been 84 years since the franchise’s last World Series title.
On Thursday, James announced on his website that he is retiring as a consultant for the Red Sox, who won four World Series championships during his tenure.
James, who lives in Lawrence and is considered by many as the father of sabermetrics, wrote on his website that he is leaving the Red Sox “on the best possible terms.” James, who turned 70 earlier this month, has big plans for the future.
“I’m not ‘retiring’; I’m just retiring from the Red Sox, and I’ll start collecting Social Security, but I still have about 500 work projects that will go forward,” James wrote. “I have two books written that I need to get published; I have more books that I am writing and more books that I want to write. The annual Handbook will be out in a week or so. I have a TV project in the works; I have big dreams. I’m going to get a dog, and a bicycle, and my wife and I will travel, as we always have. I’m only 70; I haven’t quite decided whether I want to be remembered as a poet or a playwright or a mystery writer. I will continue to post articles here; in some ways my time will be more available now than it has been.”
James published his first “Baseball Abstract” in 1977, and kick-started a writing career that has seen him write on baseball and history. After joining the Red Sox, James worked with three general managers and Boston won World Series championships in 2004, 2007, 2013 and 2018.
“A 17-year run is a long run,” James wrote. “I mean, I did the Baseball Abstract for 11 years, and it still defines my career 30-some years later. ... I was very fortunate to work in and around Fenway for a couple of decades, but my time has come. I’m 70 years old, maximum take-your-Social-Security-dammit age, and, to be honest, I haven’t earned my paycheck with the Red Sox for the last couple of years.”
