BRADENTON, Fla. -- Joe Kerrigan didn't deserve this. Joe Kerrigan deserved better.

If he was going to be fired after 43 games as the manager of the Boston Red Sox, he deserved the dignity of being fired in November or December. Or at least January or February.

	Joe Kerrigan wasn't the perfect man for the Boston managerial spot, but he shouldn't have gone out this way.

But no one deserves to be fired on March 5 after the sixth spring-training game of the year. Not unless they get convicted of plotting to overthrow the House of Representatives or something.

What was Joe Kerrigan convicted of? What was his crime? Yes, he lost more games (26) than he won (17). Yes, he had never managed before former general manager Dan Duquette invited him to a press conference last August.

But essentially, his crime was this: He said yes to a job he probably never should have been offered.

Now, he's out of that job, out of time to find another job in the big leagues and fighting to make sure his reputation as a brilliant pitching coach hasn't been besmirched by this madness.

Joe Kerrigan didn't deserve this.

He might not have been the perfect man to manage the Boston Red Sox. But he didn't deserve to be embarrassed on a cool March evening in southwest Florida, when he should have been enjoying the splendor and serenity spring training is supposed to be about.

"In Joe's regard, things could have been a lot fairer," Red Sox interim GM Mike Port conceded Wednesday, less than 24 hours after he and new CEO Larry Lucchino had stopped by Kerrigan's office to tell him the agony was over.

"I admit that," Port went on. "But because of the time and circumstances with which we had to deal, it became a matter of balancing fairness to one individual as opposed to what we felt needed to be done in the best interests of the team. Was it fair? No. But we had to deal with the time and circumstances that were upon us."

And that's true. They did. Lucchino was in his sixth day as CEO. Port was in his fifth day as Dan Duquette's successor. It wasn't their fault it happened to be the first week of March at the time.

	“	Things could have been a lot fairer. I admit that, but ... it became a matter of balancing fairness to one individual as opposed to what we felt needed to be done in the best interests of the team. ”
		— Red Sox interim GM Mike Port

But nobody needed to tap Lucchino's phone to know that once he, John Henry and Tom Werner took over as owners of this team, Duquette was going to become an ex-GM. And if Duquette was going to be gone, then it was tough to like Kerrigan's chances of getting a shot to be manager of the year, either.

So it was incumbent upon the former CEO, John Harrington, to make sure this sale got completed before spring training. Or, if it didn't, it was his responsibility to find out the wishes of the new owners before spring training and then carry them out.

In some ways, it's admirable that Harrington didn't want to fire any of his people. But what did that accomplish in the end?

Here's what it accomplished: It forced Duquette and Kerrigan to go to Fort Myers to hang out on baseball death row, to answer daily questions about their own executions and to then endure the embarrassment of losing their jobs in the only portion of the season when most baseball people can actually relax.

Even Dan Duquette didn't deserve that. But Joe Kerrigan, especially, didn't deserve that.

"Joe's got a great mind," Red Sox shortstop Nomar Garciaparra said Wednesday. "He's not going to be out of baseball long. That's for sure. We'll see him somewhere."

Kerrigan's friends were already speculating about where, too. Maybe Philadelphia with his buddy, Larry Bowa. Maybe Houston with Jimy Williams. Maybe the Yankees in a year, after Mel Stottlemyre retires.

But that's a story for another day. The story now is a Red Sox circus that always seems to be parading another dancing elephant into the ring.

What a week they've had: A change of ownership. Then a change of GMs. And, finally, the coup de grace -- changing managers earlier in spring training than any team in at least a half-century.

"I've been here a while," Garciaparra said. "I've learned to just ignore the controversy. I've got to do what I've got to do to get ready for Opening Day. ... I'm used to this stuff. It's nothing new since I've been here."

So now he and his teammates get to brace for the next managerial change.

Third-base coach Mike Cubbage ran Wednesday's game vs. Pittsburgh in Bradenton, as instructed. He even won it, 8-1. He kept the lineup card and wore that seven-run smile all the way back to Fort Myers.

But there were no indications Wednesday that Cubbage is a candidate to do any more than direct a few spring-training games. Then Grady Little or Ken Macha or some other new manager will move into Kerrigan's old office, and Cubbage will go right back to coaching third base.

Cubbage did notice that something was missing when Lucchino and Port called him Tuesday night with the big news. He'd just finished ordering dinner with his wife when his cell phone rang. Next thing he knew, there was a little more on his plate than the stuffed grouper.

Kerrigan was out. He was in. That's what he was told. But not too far in, apparently -- no one ever told him he would be a candidate, too.

"But I was on a cell phone," Cubbage said hopefully. "It was a bad connection. I just figured when I got a little time alone, I'd ask."

That time came Wednesday, back in Fort Myers. He got a noncommittal answer that ought to tell him all he needs to know.

Much like the noncommittal answers Joe Kerrigan had been getting for a week.

"I can't say this was a shock, because I talked to Joe every day," Cubbage said. "And really, he was prepared for it -- probably better than I was."

With more rumors flying over Fort Myers than airplanes, they all had a chance to prepare for it. We just have one question: How do you prepare for that? How do you prepare for a managerial firing six games into spring training?

You practice rundowns, cutoffs and relays in spring training. You don't practice manager firings.

"Honestly, the matter with Joe was becoming a distraction," Port said. "Not to say that now a managerial search is not going to be a distraction. But I'm looking at this positively. At least it's a different distraction. It's a new distraction. But so far, these guys have been very, very good at dealing with the distractions. We have a very solid core of players here. We've had a really good camp so far."

Of course, if the Red Sox got distracted by every sideshow away from the baseball field, they'd go 0-162 every year. In Boston, the circus never leaves town.

But people like Garciaparra have come to realize if you can just perfect your tunnel vision, that passion is a good thing. No, a great thing.

And that, Garciaparra said Wednesday, "is why I love playing there." Despite it all.

"This is the Boston Red Sox," Port said. "This is a big stage -- right up there in so many respects with New York. And maybe because we're a smaller city in some respects ... there may be even greater intensity than New York.

"So when I say this is the Boston Red Sox, I mean this is the big leagues. I say that with respect for the other clubs I've been with. They're in the major leagues, perhaps. But this is the big leagues."

Yes, it's a franchise like no other. In many ways. And now, it's having a spring training like no other. In every way.

Once Lucchino and his cohorts have finished showing the old guard out the door and have brought in their own people, this is going to be a more efficient, fan-friendly and businesslike operation.

But that doesn't mean we can't feel sorry for the victims. And in the end, we feel sorrier for Joe Kerrigan than the rest of them.

Jayson Stark is a senior writer for ESPN.com.