| Dan Duquette | |
|---|---|
| General manager | |
| Born: (1958-05-26)May 26, 1958 (age 67) Dalton, Massachusetts, U.S. | |
| Teams | |
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| Career highlights and awards | |
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Dan Duquette (born May 26, 1958) is an Americanbaseball executive. He is the formergeneral manager of theMontreal Expos,Boston Red Sox, andBaltimore Orioles ofMajor League Baseball.[1][2] He is also the founder of the Dan Duquette Sports Academy.[3] He has twice been named theMajor League Baseball Executive of the Year bySporting News (1992 with the Expos and 2014 with the Orioles).[4]
Duquette is a native ofDalton,Massachusetts. He attended aCatholic grammar school in Dalton during which time he was abatboy for theWahconah Regional High School baseball team. In high school, he was the captain of both the baseball and football teams. After high school, he attendedAmherst College where he was acatcher on the varsity baseball team and alinebacker on the football team. In the summer of 1977 at the age of 19, Duquette helped organize theDalton Collegians, a semi-pro baseball team that operated out of his hometown. In college, Duquette was chosen to the 1979 Boston Herald American All New England College Division All Star team. Duquette was also known to talk to professional scouts who attended Amherst baseball games.[5] He graduated from college in 1980.[6]
After college, Duquette's baseball coach, Bill Thurston, recommended him toHarry Dalton, a fellow Amherst alumnus and general manager of theMilwaukee Brewers. Duquette became a scouting assistant for the Brewers and worked in the scouting department for seven years.[6][7]
In 1987, theMontreal Expos hired Duquette as the director of player development. He spent a few years in that position before being promoted to vice-president and general manager in 1991 (taking over for the departingDave Dombrowski). Over the course of his six years with the Expos, Duquette had a hand in drafting players likeRondell White,Marquis Grissom,Cliff Floyd,Jose Vidro,Kirk Reuter,Javier Vasquez, and many more Major League players. He also signed players likeVladimir Guerrero,John Wetteland, andLarry Walker.[7][8] In November 1993, Duquette tradedsecond basemanDelino DeShields forPedro Martínez of theLos Angeles Dodgers. The Expos were competitive from 1992 to 1994, and they had attained the best record in baseball prior to the1994–95 Major League Baseball strike that ended the season prematurely.[6]
In 1994, Duquette returned to Massachusetts to become the general manager of the Boston Red Sox. He spent eight years at the helm of his hometown team. The Red Sox achieved a record of 656–574 under Duquette, setting attendance records and appearing in the playoffs on three separate occasions (1995,1998, and1999). The team won theAmerican League East division in 1995, but only advanced as far as theAmerican League Championship Series once in their three postseason years. They would lose that series to the rivalNew York Yankees.[9]
As the Red Sox GM, Duquette made several notable moves, including draftingNomar Garciaparra in 1994[10] and trading for Pedro Martínez in 1997 (and signing him to a six-year, $75 million contract).[11] He is also known for lettingRoger Clemens leave in free agency in 1996.[12]
Many of the players that Duquette drafted or signed were on the Red Sox2004 World Series championship team. He is largely considered to have laid the groundwork for that team by signing, drafting or trading for players likeTim Wakefield,Johnny Damon,Jason Varitek,Manny Ramirez,Derek Lowe, andKevin Youkilis.[6][11][12][13] In 2002, Duquette was dismissed from his general manager post less than 24 hours after the Red Sox had officially been sold to a new ownership group that includedJohn W. Henry andTom Werner.[9][11]
After his stint with the Red Sox, Duquette largely stayed out of Major League Baseball for 9 years. In 2003, he opened the Dan Duquette Sports Academy, a sports training center inHinsdale, Massachusetts designed for children aged 8 to 18.[14] In 2004, he became the owner of theNew England Collegiate Baseball League'sPittsfield Dukes (later the Pittsfield American Defenders and now the Mystic Schooners). During his ownership tenure, the Dukes/American Defenders played at his sports academy in Hinsdale and later atWahconah Park in Pittsfield. In 2008, he was part of an ownership group that included Buddy Lewis,Terry Allvord, and Jerry O'Connor that purchased what would become known as the American Defenders of New Hampshire, (later thePittsfield Colonials). He relinquished ownership of both clubs in 2009 and 2010.[15][16] Duquette also helped found theIsrael Baseball League. Despite folding after only one season, it helped 75 players get into professional baseball.[3][13][17] During this time, he also had a part in a production of the musical,Damn Yankees, in Western Massachusetts.[18]
After spending 9 years away from MLB, Duquette returned as the general manager of the Baltimore Orioles in November 2011.[12] In 2012, the team made the playoffs for the first time since 1997. In 2014, the Orioles won the American League East with 96 wins and made it to theAmerican League Championship Series.
Many people attribute the success of the Orioles to the management ofBuck Showalter and Duquette.[3][4][19][20] Duquette signedNelson Cruz to one-year, $8 million contract in February 2014. Cruz went on to lead the league in home runs that year. Other signings and acquisitions under Duquette have included,Nick Hundley,Delmon Young,Steve Pearce, andAndrew Miller.[4]
In early 2015, theToronto Blue Jays expressed interest in making Duquette their new President/CEO. Because Duquette was under contract until 2018 and the Blue Jays did not offer enough compensation to the Orioles, no deal was struck.[1][20]
On October 3, 2018, the Orioles decided not to renew the contract of Duquette after two straight losing seasons, in 2018 the Orioles went 47–115, the worst record in franchise history. Both Duquette and Showalter had contracts that expired at the end of the season.[21]
Currently Duquette is a Baseball Player Development instructor for the online sports-career training schoolSports Management Worldwide.[22]
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The Dan Duquette Sports Academy is asports training center located inHinsdale, Massachusetts, in the United States. The academy provides overnight and day camp with one- and two-week sessions for boys and girls ages 8 to 18. The academy features camps forbaseball,softball,basketball,soccer andfootball. The Sports Academy also sponsors weekend tournaments for youth baseball teams ranging in age from 9U to 19U.
There are three different sized baseball fields, four basketball courts, volleyball court, horseshoe pits, a 2-acre (1 ha) campsite on a spring fed fresh water lake for canoeing and kayaking and 80 acres (32 ha) of hiking trails. The camp uses latest technology, including digital teaching devices, enhances the training experience. The baseball field at the Sports Academy also served as the temporary home of theBerkshire Dukes of theNew England Collegiate Baseball League in 2004 prior to the team moving to its permanent home atPittsfield, Massachusetts'Wahconah Park.
Duquette has twice received TheSporting News Executive of the Year Award (1992 with the Expos and 2014 with the Orioles).[4] He also won theBaseball America Major League Executive of the Year honor in 2014 with the Orioles.[19] Mark Armour and Daniel Levitt ranked Duquette the 17th best general manager in the history of baseball in their 2015 book,In Pursuit of Pennants: Baseball Operations from Deadball to Moneyball.[23]
On May 26, 2022, Dan Duquette was inducted into the Red Sox Hall of Fame via a special awards ceremony, hosted by the Boston Red Sox and Red Sox Foundation, at Fenway Park. Duquette was inducted alongside David Ortiz, Manny Ramirez, Rich Gedman, and Bill Dinneen.[24]
Duquette is married to Amy Aubry-Duquette and has seven children. He lived inActon, Massachusetts, from 1994 through 2011.[25] He currently lives inSandwich, Massachusetts.[17] Duquette's cousin,Jim Duquette, is a former executive of theBaltimore Orioles and theNew York Mets.[26] His other cousin,Pat Duquette (Jim's brother), is the head men's basketball coach atUMass Lowell.[27]
| Sporting positions | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Montreal ExposGeneral manager 1991–1994 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Boston Red SoxGeneral manager 1994–2002 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Baltimore OriolesGeneral manager 2011–2018 | Succeeded by |
| Awards | ||
| Preceded by | Sporting NewsMajor League BaseballExecutive of the Year 1992 | Succeeded by |