It has taken a couple years, but 'Boy Wonder' has finally grown up. He is 'The Man.'

Theo Epstein, 30, is the youngest general manager in baseball, a kid from suburban Boston who grew up rooting for the Red Sox and took over his boyhood team two years ago. That shocked many in the staid old game, but Epstein has done considerably more than keep them afloat. What he's done is drag them into the age of cyberspace — and their first World Series title since 1918.

Epstein is a disciple of the Billy Beane-Oakland A's-'Moneyball' school of running a major league franchise. He believes in value signings such as David Ortiz, young guys on the cusp of their best years who come relatively cheap. He believes in statistics like on-base percentage. He believes in computers and Bill James, both of which he now employs in helping the Red Sox overcome the hated Yankees. And he believes in T-E-A-M, but not in old school T-E-A-M.

When you venture into the Red Sox clubhouse you see many things:

Beards, jheri curls, cornrows, gold teeth, big medallions, loud music and seldom a long face regardless of what has just happened on the field. Throw in a center fielder whose hair and beard style give him a strong resemblance to Jesus Christ and it's an eclectic mix.

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But a winning one.

"We have some different kinds of guys here, but they all are focused on winning,'' Epstein said.

Perhaps most important of all, Epstein believes in making moves, shipping people out and bringing in people. Most of all, he believes in cutting his losses. If he makes a mistake he wants to correct it rather than spend the rest of the year trying to justify it.

For example, last year the Sox tried to convince the baseball world that a bullpen-by-committee would work. It didn't, a fact rammed home by his team's failures with rotating closers and the success of the Yankees' Mariano Rivera. So during the offseason Epstein opened the checkbook and turned on the charm, convincing Oakland A's stopper Keith Foulke to sign as a free agent. This rejection of a plan he helped formulate only a year earlier was a concession to the obvious, but not one some older men in his position might have readily made.

Foulke's acquisition paid off when he saved 32 games in 39 chances and posted a 2.17 ERA. There was no doubt who would close out games any more, allowing manager Terry Francona to use Mike Timlin, Alan Embree and other situation-specific pitchers like left-handed reliever Mike Myers as a set up crew designed to set up Foulke.

Epstein made the same kind of call when he swung a deal last November to land Curt Schilling, who has become the Red Sox's ace. Even though this created the possibility of irking established ace Pedro Martinez, Epstein kept insisting all it meant was Boston now was the only team in baseball with two aces.

This was after Epstein convinced Schilling to waive a no-trade clause and then put together a deal attractive enough to convince the Diamondbacks to let him go.

Martinez may not have liked seeing Schilling supplant him as Boston's top pitcher, but unlike past Red Sox administrations, Epstein didn't care much about that nor acknowledge it. Instead, he did what he felt was best and didn't insult anyone in the process.

But his biggest deals were the ones that never happened. The first was the well-chronicled fight to get Alex Rodriguez in a Red Sox uniform. This dragged on for weeks last winter, driving a wedge between the team and resident star Nomar Garciaparra and briefly getting into newspaper headlines that his arrival might also lead to the departure of Manny Ramirez.

In the end, the deal collapsed amid public recriminations between the Sox and the players' union. Through it all, Epstein kept a lid on his comments and remained focused on the larger issue — settling down his own team and improving it.

That steely focus led him to pull the trigger July 31 on a deal that was the riskiest of his career.

With his team floundering and its playoff chances appearing to fade, he decided the Red Sox's shaky defense had improve and that Garciaparra had grown too morose and had to go. With the trade deadline looming and Garciaparra having missed much of the year due to injury, he shipped him off to the Cubs for two defensive replacements, Expos' shortstop Orlando Cabrera and Twins' first baseman Doug Mientkiewicz. It was stunning news because Garciaparra was as much the face of the organization as Pedro or Manny or anyone else.

He was an All-Star, a batting champion, a team leader and the team's most popular everyday player. Both his skill and his work ethic were widely respected. Now he was gone for a backup first baseman and a light-hitting shortstop with a good glove?

But it worked for Epstein.

Since that time the Red Sox have been the hottest team in baseball in part because they stopped giving four outs regularly to good teams and suffering for their largess. Meanwhile Garciaparra continued to battle injuries and his own churlish nature in Chicago, a city he may leave because of free agency and could be bound for the West Coast.

The trade was heavily criticized in the always aggressive New England media and the early conclusion was he had not gotten enough for one of the game's premier shortstops. Worse, it turned into days of charges and countercharges between his boss, club president Larry Lucchino, team owner John Henry and Garciaparra and his associates for exhaustive accounts of who said what and when, and who was offered what to extend their contract and when, and who turned down what and when, and who threatened to sit out because of injury and when.

Epstein stayed out of the fray, but finally said he wished both sides could just move on with their lives. He pointed out his team had tried to resign Garciaparra to a $48 million contract and said Garciaparra had been a hard working, loyal and productive employee so enough already.

That seemed to quiet everybody. Garciaparra moved on to Chicago and a team that failed to make the playoffs while Epstein stayed on with a team that now has only two homegrown players on its roster but won the World Series.

The boy wonder definitely is The Man. He's the man in charge these days. For a guy who just turned 30 it's a big job, but not so big Theo Epstein can't handle it.

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