Actually, it is only about the Red Sox if you make it about the Red Sox. I'm sure Boras has a boatload of data to tell the Red Sox what to do. He does that for every club where he has a client. Scutaro is the only real connection here. The others are stretches (okay maybe Lamont but really?). It is actually sad that we have to read about how the Sox are connected when in fact no one takes them seriously anymore.

    It's about the Red Sox in many other areas besides the World Series.  There is an article in this week's New England Journal of Medicine about the Red Sox.  The authors noted that the Red Sox gained a competitive edge over many other teams by hiring Bill James and including sabremetric analysis in their decision making.  They said that medical research would be improved by adopting that type of analysis to medicine.  The Red Sox lost their competitive edge as other teams adopted sabremetrics in the last few years, and the Red Sox ignored James' advice when they signed Lackey, Crawford, and Valentine

http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp1211131?query=TOC

Pathetic drivel as usual from Shaughnessy. This World Series couldn't be less "about the Red Sox". It's this "Hub of the Universe", "Red Sox Nation" nonsense fostered by Shags and his ilk that makes Boston teams and fans the subject of scorn and ridicule around the country. Get over it.

Both the Giants and the Tigers appear to be good spitters. If the camera stays on anyone more than 5 seconds, you're going to see launch a goober. Gross!

In the immortal words of George Costanza, "it's not a lie if you believe it". Dan, you matched that today with, "it's always about the Red Sox". You point out some interesting things but saying that, during this World Series, it's always about the Red Sox is a massive reach. That said, until baseball ops starts considering a player's makeup, instead of just stats, it will continue to bring in the wrong players. Considering the team's owner is a numbers guy who totally buys in to Bill James and sabermetrics, this isn't likely to change. That's why they get rid of good makeup guys like Mike Aviles, Marco Scutaro and Jason Bay and bring in animitrons like JD Drew and Adrian Gonzalez.

Dan, great article.I moved to the Bay Area about 18 years ago and have been an ardent Red Sox fan since the early 60's. Over the last few years I've adpoted the Giants as my National League team and have watched the differences between how the locals view the Giants here vs. how things happen in Beantown, and I must say, that the Giants and their fans have a much more positive view of how things play out on a daily basis. If someone makes a mistake here, the talk shows don't light him up for weeks on end. It might get mentioned, but it passes quickly. And the way Bochy manages these guys reminds me of Francona during the "good old days".. I hope my beloved Sox find a way to get back on track.. but I don't think the fan base will ever change much.. it's in their DNA.

Nice navel-gazing... I suspect what was meant to say was "it is always about Dan Shaughnessy".