Red Sox Confidential

By Doug Bailey | Boston Magazine |

My favorite memory, though, was the warm September night when the Sox clinched the wild card on the last home game of the 2003 season. After the final out was made and the on-field celebration had begun, a security guard spotted my ID and motioned for me to step onto the field. The next thing I knew I was high-fiving players and jumping up and down with joy along with everyone else. I even danced a jig on the pitcher’s mound with my former Globe colleague Meg Vaillancourt, who had become head of the Red Sox Foundation. Running into the clubhouse for some champagne, I had my nice blue suit ruined when outfielder Gabe Kapler doused me with foamy spray from his bottle of bubbly. Returning to the field, I walked slowly down the first-base side, where hundreds of fans were holding empty beer cups in their outstretched hands. I happily poured them champagne from my bottle. At one point, I happened to turn to look at the Jumbotron, and there I saw myself quenching the thirst of that happy throng. The next day my e-mail inbox was filled with messages from people I hadn’t seen or heard from in years. They’d been watching the game and couldn’t understand what the hell this small-town kid from Maine was doing celebrating on their TV screen.  

  • mark

    It’s not often that you get to write your own epitaph. Congratulations, Doug, you’ve done it.

    Now, about your other soon-to-be former clients…

  • Lee

    What’s with the jarring edit after the Henry playmate sentence. Looks like an entire paragraph or more was left out.

  • nadiam

    Wow. You must be massive.

  • holden

    reading this was like witnessing a slow death

  • bob

    I’m not a Sox fan – came to this article from Deadspin link – so no ax to grind. However, I’m curious as to why this clown would think that anyone would believe any of what he writes when he essentially admits that his entire job is to spin (aka, lie!). What an awful guy.

  • Bobby

    I am highly skeptical of this story. I don’t believe any of it.

  • Ewillr

    As a transplanted Massachusettsian, I was enthralled reading this piece. I wonder why there was not more focus on the baseball, especially 2004 and 2007. You tip-toe towards that when you wonder which RS player may be taking steriods – more of that would have been better. But, I miss the Red Sox and this has satiated my need for a baseball fix. Thanks

  • Bo

    Pretty Lame. “Tells all” certainly doesn’t mean what it used to. You get more on Twitter.

  • Ryan

    Doug, you come off as incredibly pompous and self-serving in this article. Absolutely nobody cares that the dirt they gave away wasn’t actually from the field. Or that the grass is painted. Or that John Henry may or may not have dated/partied with a playmate. This is a self-serving article that will only self-serve you in preventing you from gaining employment. You may have thrown your PR career away to reveal close to nothing. No one read this article and came away thinking anything different of the Red Sox.
    In summation, you’re awful.

  • Mark

    Did I just read an article, or was I sitting at a bar listening to some drunk guy brag about how he is supposedly the “guy-behind-the-guy” and was once somebody? A weird, rambling, disjointed musing that lacks a lot of things including purpose, audience, and the line “I tied an onion to my belt because it was the style at the time.”

  • Chris

    This was quite the tell-all haha. Sounds like this guys is actually still working for Larry! Besides trying to make himself look like he made the redsox who they are, I really don’t see the point to this article.

  • S

    No ax to grind. Actually, think it’s pretty cool.

  • doug

    Doug Bailey initials = D.B. = Douche Bag

  • fred

    That was the Diet Coke of juicy sports tell-all stories. Just one calorie, not much juice!