Former Red Sox Pitcher Fired as Women’s Pro Baseball League Manager After 3 Games originally appeared on NESN. Add NESN as a Preferred Source by clicking here. Former Red Sox closer Keith Foulke was hired to manage the Boston Hunters of the Women's Pro Baseball League in the league's inaugural season, but his stint came to an end quicker than anyone could've expected. Foulke was fired by the Hunters after only three games and replaced by former MLB infielder Jemile Weeks, who briefly spent time with the Red Sox in 2014 and 2015. Foulke spent more than a decade in the major leagues and served as the Red Sox' closer during the team's dream 2004 season. An all-star with the Athletics, Foulke had 191 career saves and spent three seasons in Boston. Here's more to know about Foulke's unusual firing and his response. Why was Keith Foulke Fired? The WPBL explained Foulke's firing as a baseball decision, Boston.com reported. "It was really about just the connection he had with the players and finding a coach who was better with a younger team," WPBL commissioner Justine Siegal explained to the outlet. “It’s not that deep.” Siegel also attributed the decision to Foulke's inexperience with younger players. “We needed someone with the experience with a younger age group to give them the confidence and give them very specific skills in real time on how they could get better,” she said. Foulke, on the other hand, said he suspects his decision to commute to games from Arizona was the source of the problem despite those arrangements supposedly being part of his agreement to coach. Foulke missed two days of training and one practice after the start of the season, an absence he attributed to medical appointments for his wife. "Did they convey that to the commissioner? Did they convey that to the assistant coaches that they provided for me? I do not believe they did," Foulke said to Boston.com. “So when I wasn’t there, I think that was a big shock. Like nobody else knew the plan that we had in place." Every game during the WPBL season is being played in Springfield, Illinois, but Foulke said he wanted to make sure he had time to spend with his family before committing to the job. Foulke was fired a day after the Hunters' first win, so the news came as a surprise so early in the season. More Red Sox
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