THIS PAST DECEMBER, in a relaxed atmosphere, I broke bread with a few of the team’s leading front-office folks, among them Red Sox president and CEO Larry Lucchino and Dr. Charles S. Steinberg, executive vice-president for public affairs. In February, I had another opportunity to engage with a larger group of senior staff and executives at a sort of " Town Hall " gathering hosted by the Sox for a range of individuals and business people from the surrounding community. Served modest food and drink, the gathering was held at Fenway’s Hall of Fame Club. After attending these get-togethers, I can honestly say, as have many others, that there is zero resemblance between the conduct of this management and ownership group and that of its predecessors.

On the contrary, the current management team is smart, experienced, and sophisticated. They are personally pleasant and very politically savvy. They also share a clear and singular purpose; they are dedicated to getting everything they want — and perceive they need — to make their Red Sox businesses mega successful. And they seem to be charging full-speed ahead, with little opposition.

You don’t have to spend much time with Larry Lucchino to get to like him and to know this about him. He is consummately charming, with a warm, open manner, a broad smile, and a good sense of humor. Unlike many heads of organizations, he’s also an excellent listener who, like Bill Clinton, engages you as though he’s looking at and speaking only to you. You soon also realize he’s tough as nails and must be a winning poker player, because Lucchino reveals no cards.

During our first meeting at lunch in early December, Lucchino listened keenly and took notes, as he inquired about what it has been like to be a business neighbor of the Sox since 1987 and, more recently, a targeted landowner. He also wanted to know my impressions of the neighborhood’s recent history with the Sox and, with apparent sincerity, he wanted to hear a report on " how they were doing so far, " including the ways I thought they could improve and the things I believed would continue to cause them grief. Regarding the last question, two items were at the top of my list:

Item # 1: The annexation during all home games of Yawkey Way — a publicly owned street — which effectively makes it the private property of Fenway Park. Making matters worse, it’s annexed not just with governmental approval, but with active help from the state and especially from " Hizhonnah " Mayor Menino. Irrespective of what rules, regulations, licenses, permits, or ordinances need to be ignored, twisted, changed, or issued, for the Sox, it happens — and happens faster than a speeding bullet.

The Sox seem to have a penchant for profiting from land that isn’t theirs. What taking Yawkey Way means to the Sox is lots more very profitable concession-stand sales. In this new " special environment, " the old vendors are banished so as not to compete, and the fans can buy a wide assortment of goods and goodies — from souvenirs to peanuts, hats, hot dogs, sausages, sodas, and sandwiches of the Cuban variety, peddled under the name of former Red Sox star and Cuban émigré Louie Tiant. And let’s not forget the most special favor of all: the right to sell lots of the most popular and profitable ballgame beverage — beer — outside the stadium on a publicly owned city street. Just ask any other neighborhood sellers of food and alcoholic beverages whether they could get the permissions required to do what the Sox are doing on Yawkey Way — to serve such things on the streets in front of their businesses — and you’ll understand just how extraordinary is this exception to state and city regulations.

And get this: to maintain its " clubby atmosphere, " the " Yawkey Way Club " will prevent all but ticket holders from hanging out on this public thoroughfare on game nights. That means the Sox have placed guarded turnstiles at each end of the street. Pedestrians who want, or need, to walk between Boylston Street and Brookline Avenue via the only convenient route — Yawkey Way — will be impeded by guards who’ll stop those without tickets from simply walking down their street. Sox officials point out that anyone without a ticket wanting to walk through Yawkey Way will be allowed to do so — with an escort. But leaving aside, for the moment, the outrageousness of being forced to get permission to walk down the street under guard, such broad private use of a public roadway is unprecedented. No other private entity can do on a public street in Boston, or the entire Commonwealth, what the City of Boston, along with state licensing authorities, have given the Sox the right to do.

In the meantime, not only have traditional Fenway vendors been moved off Yawkey Way to less advantageous locations, but the restaurants, clubs, and bars, many of which have served pre-game crowds for decades and have expensive year-round leases and fixed overhead, have already seen their pre-game business from the fans severely reduced by the draw of the new " Yawkey Way Club " and street shopping mall.

Of course, the Red Sox are, at their core, a for-profit business. The Sox’ avarice and audacity in requesting this heretofore-unheard-of expropriation and additional special rights, as another means of making money, is quite understandable. But it is nothing less than scandalous for the city and state to have acquiesced in and expedited the plan’s implementation.

February’s community gathering in the Hall of Fame Club was presented as an opportunity for the Sox to show off a number of major improvements to the stadium, including its expanded seating, as well as to " connect " with their neighbors. The Sox encouraged those present to ask open questions and offer candid impressions of the new owners. When asked about the Yawkey Way takeover, Lucchino again listened and took notes while a Sox spokesperson offered the official Sox response: a) as mentioned, any non-ticket-holder could ask to be " escorted " through Yawkey Way and the Sox were pleased to accommodate all such requests, so that issue need not be a serious one; and b) after a little misspeaking by one Sox official, who inaccurately stated that there were opportunities for neighborhood restaurants to vend on the closed-off street, the official suggested that, in fact, the Sox are paying rent to the city for the use of Yawkey Way, so no one should complain. (Vending rights on Red Sox property are totally controlled by concessions company ARAMARK, which is also a Sox investor.

It seems it hasn’t registered with anyone at the top of the Sox organization that having to " ask to be escorted " through a public way is not only unpleasant, but humiliating. And they don’t seem to get at all that their paying rent — at an amount they refuse to disclose — is irrelevant to the main issue: that the favors handed to the Sox are financially hurting year-round businesses that do not have the same privileges.

This disparity raises a number of other serious questions. Why shouldn’t the club owners on Lansdowne Street be allowed to shut down that public thoroughfare for the same number of days per year as the Sox will close Yawkey Way? And when they do, why shouldn’t they be able to sell whatever they want — including barrels of beer? And why shouldn’t the same privileges at the same rent be afforded the owners of the bars and restaurants along Brookline Avenue, or for that matter anywhere else in the city? Just why are the private businessmen who own the Boston Red Sox any more worthy of renting the city streets (if they are, indeed, really paying rent) than all other private business people? It’s time both Mayor Menino and Larry Lucchino told us all.

Item #2: It is time the Sox officially renounce their intention to build a new ballpark in the Fenway. I suggested to Lucchino that in doing so, he would remove the long-standing pall that hangs over the ability of landlords, myself included, to fill long-term commercial leases in what is already a very difficult and depressed rental market. I also told him that he would likely gain more support from neighborhood groups for the expansion of seating capacity within the current park; I couldn’t, however, see how there would be broad community support for the addition of 10,000 more seats, which would require architectural expansion of the park itself.

At lunch, Lucchino listened and took notes. At the community gathering, he also listened and took notes, but when asked about officially announcing that the Sox would drop plans to build a new ballpark in the Fenway, he offered the same answer consistently given by the current ownership: " It’s an option that we’re not ready to give up. "

Is it any wonder Larry Lucchino and the Boston Red Sox’ other owners and executives believe they don’t have to concede a thing? They are diligently at work adding hundreds of very expensive seats to Fenway Park. They have been handed a city street from which to make money. They are expanding their concession space and general access within their legitimately owned footprint. They have managed the state’s political landscape perfectly. And, unlike the Harrington crew, the new folks have shown a bit of humanity and humility. By opening up Fenway Park, including the field itself, to a number of charitable events, by being more fan-friendly at the games, and by reaching out to the community through a host of other well-executed PR moves, such as the Hall of Fame neighborhood gathering, Lucchino and his management team have dramatically improved their public image. But when you peer behind the PR screen, it all seems just a bit too perfect — and we all know what they say about things appearing too good to be true. Even good PR can take you only so far. Equally well known are the following maxims: " You can fool some of the people some of the time ... " and " Actions speak louder than words. "

Speaking of " actions, " whatever our differences, I know we all agree that the best action the Red Sox can take this year is to win the World Series. In that regard, I’m 100 percent behind Lucchino and his team.