BOSTON -- He may be young, at age 28 the youngest ever, in fact, to hold the title of general manager in Major League Baseball. But don't think Theo Epstein is naive.

Like the two men who held the position for the Boston Red Sox on a full-time basis before him -- Lou Gorman and Dan Duquette -- Epstein, appointed as GM on Monday, grew up in New England.

	Theo Epstein becomes the youngest GM ever, a year younger than Randy Smith was for the Padres in 1993.

In fact, Epstein grew up almost literally in the shadows of Fenway Park, about a mile away in Brookline, Mass. He wasn't yet born when the Impossible Dream team fell to the St. Louis Cardinals in the 1967 World Series, and was a year old when the Sox and Cincinnati Reds staged their epic 1975 World Series.

But he knows the history and the territory.

"I grew up," said Epstein Monday with a smile, "second-guessing Red Sox general managers."

Now, others will return the favor.

"This is not an easy job," cautioned Gorman, who constructed Boston's last pennant-winning team in 1986. "In fact, it's probably the toughest job in baseball. It's very demanding."

So too are the customers, starved for a winner and shoe-horned into the oldest and smallest ballpark in the majors where they pay the highest ticket prices in the game.

The honeymoon period will be brief for Epstein, who joined the Red Sox in 2002 as the assistant GM, and the hours will be long. There's a lot to accomplish in a short period of time. The Sox may have won 93 games last season, tying them with the Mariners for the most wins for a non-playoff team in the majors, but that figure was somewhat inflated by an unbalanced schedule which had the Sox playing 38 games -- or nearly one-fourth of their schedule -- against the woeful Orioles and Devil Rays.

The Sox haven't been to the playoffs since 1999, and thanks to the new collective bargaining agreement, must reduce their payroll which had topped the $100 million level in each of the last three seasons. Following the 2004 season, four key players -- Pedro Martinez, Nomar Garciaparra, Jason Varitek and Derek Lowe -- will be eligible for free agency.

Good luck to the new guy. He's going to need it.

At his introductory press conference Monday, Epstein spoke of the challenges facing him.

		Nov. 23 If the Red Sox have to patch some spots with $13-17 million (not counting Cuban pitcher Jose Contreras), they have a lot of depth and future holes to fill. Their farm system is so bad they have only an incredible 28 players on their 40-man roster, and as one AL GM points out, "It's about 22, because of all their non-tenders (Daubach, Rolando Arrojo, Wayne Gomes, et al) and selling Benny Agbayani to Japan." Gammons' notes

"Our short-term goal is to win, win the World Series," he said. "We have championship-caliber players and we're going to do everything possible to be successful. We also want to create an atmosphere to sustain that success long-term."

Overly reliant on big-name free agents (Manny Ramirez) and expensive trade acquisitions (Martinez) in the last few years, Epstein will be charged with improving the team's player development system, which has produced just three everyday players -- Garciaparra, Trot Nixon and Shea Hillenbrand -- for the organization since 1993, Gorman's last season.

That's as much out of economic necessity as anything. Having shelled out $700 million for the club a year ago, the new Red Sox owners have insufficient resources to build a replacement for Fenway and with no prospects for much in the way of public assistance toward such a project, the Sox will have to grow their own players.

"We're going to turn the Red Sox into a scouting and player development machine," vowed Epstein.

Scouting and player development are Epstein's area of expertise. As Kevin Towers' director of baseball operations with the Padres, Epstein helped re-stock San Diego's inventory of young players. Baseball America labeled the resulting group of prospects "among the best in the game."

As he tries to simultaneously meet the fans' appetite to win now and rebuild for the future, he'll be surrounded by new and familiar faces at Fenway. Special assistant Lee Thomas, whose contacts and personal skills are unparalleled, will return with "expanded responsibilities," according to the club.

Mike Port, who filled the GM role on an interim basis for nine months, has been offered the chance to return to the position of vice president of baseball operations. Epstein is expected to add at least one more experienced hand (former Tigers GM Bill Lajoie?) to further help with talent evaluation, and another executive could be brought on board to assist with player development.

Sabermetrics guru Bill James, hired two weeks ago as a special advisor, will provide statistical analysis.

"I'm going to lean heavily on the people around me," Epstein said. "No one person is going to turn the Boston Red Sox into a championship organization. It's going to be a group effort."

The blueprint here may well be the Yankees' front office setup. After the 1997 season, the Yanks put the young and inexperienced Brian Cashman into the role of GM, but were careful to surround him with the likes of Gene Michael and Mark Newman, with decisions usually made as a collective effort.

Ultimately, however, Epstein will be one being judged in Boston. After an unsuccessful run at Toronto's J.P. Ricciardi and a whirlwind weekend courtship of Oakland's Billy Beane, the Sox returned to a list of potential candidates only to decide that Epstein, presumed to be the heir apparent to the next GM, was, in actuality, the right man for the job now.

"It turns out," said CEO Larry Lucchino, who has served as Epstein's mentor since 1992 when both were with the Baltimore Orioles, "the best person for the position was right here in house."

Lucchino also moved to dismiss talk about Epstein's age.

"Age is an arbitrary matter," said Lucchino. "Theo is young, but much older than he was when this process began."

And given the pressures of the job, getting older by the minute.

Sean McAdam of the Providence Journal covers baseball for ESPN.com.