Theo Epstein has fantastic response to being named greatest leader

Fortune magazine named Chicago Cubs president Theo Epstein the World’s Greatest Leader in its annual list, and the man himself had a rather incredulous response.

Epstein finished ahead of the likes of Pope Francis in landing the honor, but he made it quite clear that he felt extremely undeserving.

“Um, I can’t even get my dog to stop peeing in the house,” Epstein told ESPN’s Buster Olney in a text. “That is ridiculous. The whole thing is patently ridiculous. It’s baseball — a pastime involving a lot of chance. If [Ben] Zobrist’s ball is three inches farther off the line, I’m on the hot seat for a failed five-year plan. And I’m not even the best leader in our organization; our players are.”

Epstein is right that baseball is rather luck-based, but this is a guy who has, with the Red Sox and Cubs, constructed the teams that ended two of sports’s most famous championship droughts. That doesn’t happen by accident, though the guy would rather just cut loose than end up on lists like this.