It was Tuesday, September 1 when they all filed into the Fenway Park baseball conference room: Pro scouts, amateur scouts, administrators, all for one of those change-of-command meetings that can lead to sleepless nights and bottles of Tums.
Dave Dombrowski, hired a mere two weeks earlier as Boston's incoming president of baseball operations, walked in to conduct the meeting and, as he did, carried with him a couple of the thickest notebook binders that maybe had ever been seen in Fenway.
The reams of information and notes contained within did not lead directly to landing ace free agent David Price for an astounding $217 million over seven years.