Nonetheless, partly as the result of Duquette's shortage of people skills and partly as the result of the media's resulting and general disdain for him, the Duquette Years were marked by tumult. The tremors continued right up to Dec. 21, 2001, a date that marked both the signing of Damon to a four-year contract and the announcement that a group headed by John Henry would be the owners of the Red Sox. In between news conferences, on a day that should have marked one of his most glorious contributions to the Red Sox, the typically thick-skinned Duquette erupted at me in a corner of a Fenway Park conference room, as sure a sign as any of the changing landscape.

To our personal relationship, which still exists, no damage was done.

But professionally, even Duquette seemed to know he was on the way out.

In the years since, under the watch of Henry, fellow owner Tom Werner, perpetually-driven club president Larry Lucchino and prodigy Epstein, the Red Sox have gone to previously unimaginable heights. No longer a dysfunctional collection of angry souls who got in each other's way, the Sox are now a booming business and baseball operation. Where once the Red Sox fought themselves and most everyone around them, the manager of the team (Terry Francona) last season went so far as to leave a thank you note and a bottle of liquor in the locker of Manny Ramirez, the brilliantly talented left fielder who frequently needs assurance that he is loved.

This year, barring some unexpected development, Francona will become the first Red Sox manager in more than 60 years to complete five full seasons with the club. (He is now signed through 2011.) Meanwhile, the Boston roster remains largely unchanged from the end of last season, which is both a staggering development in this age of free agency and a sign that the Red Sox have become a stable, self-sufficient operation that is growing from within.

The proof? Last season, while winning the World Series, the Red Sox were credited as having the game's second-best player-development system according to respected trade publication Baseball America. Last postseason, first-year players Dustin Pedroia (the eventual AL Rookie of the Year), Jacoby Ellsbury, Daisuke Matsuzaka and Hideki Okajima were all critical contributors; left-hander Jon Lester, a cancer survivor, won the deciding game of the World Series about three months before his 24th birthday.

Of course, children are largely a product of the environment in which they are raised, which speaks to the culture in and around the Boston organization. There was a time the Red Sox feared young players could not handle the pressures that came along with playing in Boston, now the children flourish. For everyone from young closer Jonathan Papelbon to Ellsbury, Pedroia and budding ace Clay Buchholz, the Red Sox have never been an organization weighed down by its past; instead, each was reared in a Boston organization where winning was expected, which has created an entirely different dynamic in and around the ball club.

The Red Sox don't look over their shoulders anymore.

They look ahead.

"That's a great thing to have associated with your organization," Epstein said last fall when Boston overcame a 3-1 deficit against the Cleveland Indians in the AL Championship Series — just three seasons after the Sox similarly erased a 3-0 ALCS deficit against the rival New York Yankees. "It establishes a real culture of winning and overcoming obstacles through the organization. You can't teach that."

OK, so maybe the Red Sox aren't a dynasty.

At least not yet.

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