Boston Red Sox

The Boston Red Sox did more in 2007 than just win their second World Series in four years and show that their previous win was more than a mere curse-busting fluke. The Red Sox became baseball’s gold standard operation.

The powerful New York Yankees still are the game’s highest-grossing team, but the Red Sox are no slouch in that category, with their own estimated take last year soaring toward $300 million.

But beyond mere money, the club’s efforts to expand internationally through the acquisition of pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka and the formation of a three-year partnership with Japan’s Chiba Lotte Marines; build a sponsorship base that has tripled during the six-year ownership tenure of John Henry and his partners; and successfully renovate storied Fenway Park, have collectively made the Red Sox the game’s unofficial organizational leaders.

Even Red Sox officials, typically eager to play up their underdog status compared with the archrival Yankees, were finally forced to admit as much.

“This is certainly a different feeling. Different, but great,” said Mike Dee, Red Sox chief operating officer, after the World Series win last fall. “We were the hunter before, even after winning in 2004. We’re definitely the hunted now.”

Like many successful organizations, the Red Sox groundswell owes significantly to deep continuity within senior leadership. The brief 2005 departure of general manager Theo Epstein is now a distant memory, and the executive team of Henry, partner Tom Werner, President Larry Lucchino, Dee, senior vice president Sam Kennedy and club manager Terry Francona have all worked together for at least four years with a bare minimum of public rancor.

Compare that with the Yankees, which this past offseason turbulently changed managers, saw Alex Rodriguez opt out of his contract before re-signing with the club, and ushered in the bombastic era of co-chairmen Hal and Hank Steinbrenner, who took a well-publicized verbal swipe at Red Sox Nation last fall.

“It’s a constant thing with [the Yankees]. You can never match the revenues they generate, and yet, we get lumped together,” Henry said. “We’re not even close, and the new ballpark [the Yankees will open in 2009] is going to put them in a whole different universe. But what we’ve tried to do all the same is go toe to toe with them. We had to get younger on the field, which is what we’ve done, and be creative. We’ll continue to be as opportunistic as we can.”

Being opportunistic also has meant continuing to find ways to pack people into Fenway Park while still charging the game’s highest average ticket price. The ballpark’s sellout streak entered 2008 at 388 games and is all but certain to set an MLB record this summer. Joining that list of new opportunities are the popular introduction of Red Sox scratch-off tickets with the Massachusetts State Lottery and a sponsorship with Japan-based Funai Electric Co. that leverages the arrival of Matsuzaka.

“John and his group have raised the level of identity and have expanded the value of their brand, the MLB brand and, as all ships rise together, our brand value and the value of all MLB teams,” said Oakland A’s owner Lewis Wolff.