E-Mail This Article to a Friend Won’t get fooled again: Fenway’s new bosses are getting in tune BY CHRISTOPHER YOUNG

At a press conference on Thursday to announce the Red Sox’ intentions of hosting a blood drive at Fenway Park on September 11, team president/CEO Larry Lucchino told the assembled group, "We feel that since we already have the fans’ hearts and souls, we feel it would be appropriate to stick it to them one more time and get their lifeblood as well."

Okay, maybe he didn’t quite say that.

But while many have accused the team and its food and drink concessionaire, Aramark, of already employing bloodsucking tactics, we come today not to bury Caesar, but to praise him. In other words, all vampire jokes aside, we come to give credit where credit is due: the current Red Sox ownership — in place since March of 2002 — has shown that it first and foremost cares about the fans. If it makes them more money, all the better, but the fact is that owner John Henry and his partners, along with Lucchino, GM Theo Epstein, and Dr. Charles Steinberg, the team’s executive vice-president of public affairs, have gone to great lengths to put to rest all memories of the real Evil Empire: the previous administration, led by Yawkey Trust CEO John Harrington and the singin’ GM himself, Dan Duquette, a/k/a Mr. Roboto.

What has happened at Fenway Park in the past 17 months is nothing short of extraordinary. In fact, I’d venture to say that the new ownership has done more on behalf of the fans in its short tenure at the helm of New England’s most beloved sports franchise than the previous regime did over the course of the past 25 years.

The upcoming blood drive is but once small instance. Sure, it’s a win-win situation for both the team’s PR machine and the American Red Cross, but it’s one thing to sponsor an event; it’s quite another to open up your doors and let the heathens take over the joint, as will be the case on September 11, the two-year anniversary of the terrorist attacks. The Sox won’t just be letting the potential donors into one of the nondescript function rooms, but will instead invite the masses to use the luxurious .406 Club as the waiting room, and the Red Sox Hall of Fame Club as the giving-blood room.

And they aren’t stopping there. They have already made plans to have assorted Red Sox personalities be present to entertain fans in the "waiting room," and have said they will encourage current players — who will be on an off-day following a nine-game road trip — to attend the event.

Sure, this is all a nice story given the nature of the blood-letting spectacle, but this kind of occurrence has become typical of the new ownership’s commitment to reaching out, not only to the local business community and the city of Boston, but to the regular Joes who on a nightly basis fill Fenway or follow the games on radio, TV, or the Internet. Sox fans finally have in place a management team that really, truly gives a damn about the followers of the team, and is committed to going to great lengths to make the business of being a Sox fan an enjoyable one. And while the Red Sox players themselves have at times been less than complimentary to the folks who regularly follow the team, the front office has more than cancelled out that occasional surliness with acts of fellowship and innovation.

There are all kinds of examples of steady improvement:

• The honesty and openness of management. Owner Henry and President Lucchino are everywhere, it seems, and they do not leave the PR business to henchmen and marketing whizzes; they are front and center whenever anything Red Sox — good or bad — hits the light of day. Lucchino has a regular weekly gig on a local sports radio talk show, and he is routinely a warm and witty guest. Can you imagine Harrington or Duquette appearing in such a forum, taking calls from irate fans? And if there’s a controversy surrounding the team, someone from the brass is certain to make a statement and get involved, rather than drawing the cloak of secrecy and silence — par for the course for the last ownership team. At times they will defend members of the team, but more often than not, Lucchino or Henry will say, "We may have to have a chat with him about that." The accessibility of the owner, president, and GM are unprecedented, and the fact that Henry has a box seat right next to the dugout shows that he is more a man of the people, rather than an ivory-tower kind of luxury-box brie-eater.

• The ballpark. While the long-term future of Fenway Park is certainly a lingering question, there is no questioning the Sox management's commitment to improve the conditions of the old girl. Bringing in architectural consultant Janet Marie Smith — the mastermind behind the creation of Baltimore’s Camden Yards ballpark, which became the model by which all modern stadiums are now based — was a stroke of genius, and her moves thus far have been nothing short of wondrous. The recent opening of additional concourse and dining space behind the right-field grandstands was much heralded, and while some might say that it can only bring more money into the team’s pockets, the fact is that the new area is an improvement. Try to think of anything ballpark-related that the previous administration did to significantly improve the fan experience at Fenway. The only ones I can remember off-hand are the introduction of Wally, the Green Monster as the team mascot, and the daily tours of the park that fans can now take. You need a year-round marketing department to come up with those?

Ever since John Henry and his partners took over, there has been nothing but upgrades. Gone were the arrogant designs of the "New Fenway Park" and the implicit taking-by-eminent-domain the adjacent tract of land for a new stadium. Instead, the existing facility has been steadily enhanced. Certainly, some of the negative aspects of the ballpark simply cannot be addressed due to limitations in its construction and in the surrounding streets, but what the new folks have done is revolutionary. By constructing a bank of seats above the left-field wall, the team provided an addition that not only added valuable seating to the majors’ smallest park, but provides a distinctive view of the game. Since the "monster seats" have been built, I have yet to hear of one person critical of the seats and their aesthetic transformation of the cherished left-field wall. How about the Red Sox clubhouse? It’s still ridiculously small, as is the visitors’ clubhouse, but the new owners addressed the issue and made subtle improvements to make the area significantly more comfortable for the players and their families. Add to that minor improvements to the fan experience — such as mounting scoreboards that give pitchers’ stats, pitch count, and speed; widening the concourse down below and eliminating the gate between the bleacher area and the grandstand; and significantly upgrading the number of concession stands and the quality of food and drink available at them — and you have a whole new ballgame.

• Opening the doors. The upcoming blood drive and last week’s daylong Jimmy Fund charity fundraiser last week are prime examples of how the new bosses are not afraid to let the masses come in and have a look around. While past Sox regimes would have been happy to sponsor any event benefiting the team’s cherished charity, to actually host the event at Fenway and allow the whole operation to originate from the old ballyard was an entirely different story. Three distinctive events for the cancer fundraiser were held at various venues within the stadium walls, even with a ball game scheduled for that evening. In addition, the owners last year opened a private function room to fans, where they could eat, drink, and be merry after games. Fans can gather in the "Players Club" in the late innings of the ongoing game, or after the game has concluded, to sit at tables, grab a bite to eat, and even listen into the flagship station’s post-game radio show broadcast from a corner of the club.

What all of this says is that not only do the new team owners have a remarkable and long-term vision for the ballpark and its fans, but it also exposes the fact that such imagination was missing for so long in the dark recesses of the minds of the previous administration. What John Henry et al. have done is focus on the experience of the fan, not only in bringing character players to town and thereby building a more cohesive unit on the field, but in helping each fan to better appreciate his or her visit to the hallowed shrine that is Fenway Park. It seems like a pretty basic strategy, but it was one that seemingly evaded the supposedly sharp minds among the keepers of the castle in the post-Yawkey years.

Why couldn’t Harrington and Duquette and the rest of that management team make even half the improvements the current organization has?

We’ll never know, but for Sox fans, they should be grateful that the changing of the guard ultimately came to pass, because things can only get better as the new guys get more firmly entrenched in the business of running a franchise and being part of Red Sox Nation.

It was not that long ago that yours truly couldn’t wait to see plans get under way for a new ballpark. But with the changing face of Fenway Park slowly but surely making things better for one and all, I’m not so sure about writing Fenway’s obituary. Thanks to the Sox brass, a lot of people are starting to feel the same way.

And while a lot of John Henry’s employees — the ones that wear the starched whites down below — still seem a bit too grumpy at times, their occasional melancholy is more than balanced by the folks behind the curtain who have come out of the darkness and made the home of the Green Monster into the Emerald City itself.

Sporting Eye runs Mondays and Fridays at BostonPhoenix.com, and Christopher Young can be reached at cyoung[a]phx.com