Sox greasing the skids for a sliding scale?

Does the variable pricing used for the new Red Sox right-field roof section, which almost certainly will be duplicated in some fashion for the Monster seats, signal a future in which the Sox will follow a growing industry trend to scale the house according to the attractiveness of the opponent? "We have not had a lot of debate for any type of broader or general approach to variable pricing," said Mike Dee, recently promoted to chief operating officer. "We've gone to a very simple approach affecting about 1 percent of our capacity, basically just two forms of pricing."

The right-field seats, which went on sale last week, are priced according to whom the Sox are playing. Tickets for Opening Day, for games against the Blue Jays, games against the Yankees, plus the interleague opponents (Dodgers and Phillies), will sell for $100 apiece. All other games will be for $75. Monster seats, which went for $50 apiece for every game last season, will have a new pricing scale, expected to be announced this week.

"There are about 14 or 15 teams in Major League Baseball that are engaged in some kind of variable pricing," Dee said. "Some are as simple as this. Others are crazy: day of the week, opponents. There's sort of a general migration toward the airline model: You fly on a Tuesday during the peak time on a 14-day advance ticket, you pay less than you would on a Saturday during a peak time, with a two-day advance.

"I don't think that's in our sights right now. That doesn't mean it may not be later, but if we've spent more than an hour talking about extensive variable pricing, that probably would be about right. We're aware of what other people are doing, but we're not really sure that fits what we're doing here."

Dee also was asked whether the new right-field roof section is a further indication that ownership has decided to cast its future with Fenway Park instead of a new ballpark.

"I still don't think we've reached that fork in the road yet," he said. "We may be getting closer to that fork in the road. All the projects we've undertaken, whether it be adding the seats on the Green Monster or now the right-field roof or in many cases, not adding seats but just improving the comfort of Fenway -- the Big Concourse, we're doing a major expansion of our Gate E concourse down the left-field line to take away a bottleneck there, open it up, make it wider -- these are all projects that are countermeasured by two criteria.

"One is they have to have some reasonable degree of business sense. That doesn't mean it has to make sense for 30 years. If they can stand on their own for five years or 10 years, can you make sense of making that kind of investment?

"The other criteria: Do we improve Fenway to make it more comfortable for our fans? Not a day goes by that we don't think of ways to try to make the Fenway experience positive. We really have to pick our spots.

"If we've heard one constant concern or complaint, it's that you can't move around. I get up from my seat and it takes me two innings to get a beer or go to the bathroom. We kind of focused on creature comforts so fans have the kind of experience that doesn't take away from the experience on the field.

"So in a direct answer to your question, I don't think we're there yet but I think hopefully this is another illustration that demonstrates what can be done at Fenway. And if we reach that point in time where we say we're committed, the fact that we would have undertaken the projects that we have with hopefully some degree of success and a warm acceptance by our fans will demonstrate that it's something worth doing.

"One of the things we faced when we got here, the old regime had spent the last three years convincing people you need a new ballpark. During the sales process, you had everybody with a different horse in the race. You had Joe O'Donnell and Steve Karp saying new ballpark, [Frank] McCourt saying new ballpark, [Charles] Dolan saying whatever makes money, Les [Otten] and Tom [Werner] was saying upper deck at Fenway, let's renovate at Fenway, and the approach we've taken has been somehow in between all of that.

"We've gone with, and we choose our words carefully, improvements at Fenway. This is not a renovation. We're trying our best to improve the ballpark and the experience our fans have."

Better odds

Johnny Damon's belief that Grady Little was down on him because of his partying ways stemmed, one Damon confidant said, from Little's disapproval of a side trip Damon took to Las Vegas on one Sox excursion to the West Coast. The confidant said that Damon probably is better off without Jeremy Giambi, a running mate on the road since their days together in Oakland . . . One Sox official said last week that re-signing Nomar Garciaparra had become the team's top priority, and he was confident the club would be able to do so. The last offer the Sox made was for three years plus an option, which presumably raised the average annual value of the deal above the $12 million offered by the Sox in early December . . . On the day Sandy Koufax visited Fort Myers, working with Curt Schilling among others, a crew was wrapping up the filming of a Ford commercial starring the new Sox pitcher. In the ad, Schilling is about to leave his home in Arizona and is trying to decide what kind of vehicle he should drive to Florida. Guess what he picked. (Hint: There was a surfeit of Ford pickups in the players' parking lot) . . . Fanciest car in the Sox parking lot belongs to Pedro Martinez: an Aston Martin Vanquish, a newer version of the car that James Bond drove in "Die Another Day." "Pedro is one of a kind, though," said Derek Lowe, who took a little spin with Martinez the other day, the roar of the car engine temporarily transforming a quiet side street into a Grand Prix course. "Pedro had them make his a convertible, and Aston Martin doesn't make that car as a convertible." One car enthusiast listed the price of a Vanquish as $228,000. The Vanquish can go from 0 to 100 in 10 seconds, according to the experts. Wrote one car reviewer: "We cannot come close to really imparting the sound of this 6-liter V-12; a lion's roar, heard in person, would stir this kind of emotion. Sure, we're waxing poetic on you, but the sound of this motor is really something you must hear to understand -- a deep, low rumble at idle and a huge throaty baritone hum that turns into a scream at redline."

Timing was right

New Dodgers owner Frank McCourt is taking some heat because he pledged to acquire a new hitter for an offense that ranked last in the majors in numerous categories last season. Departed GM Dan Evans said his hands were tied this winter while McCourt awaited approval, and there was one report that the Dodgers were in the mix for Vladi Guerrero but did not close the deal because McCourt was told that such an expensive signee might hurt his chances of getting a green light to buy the club. McCourt said the reports of him vetoing a deal for Guerrero were false. Eleven years ago, when the Giants were being sold by Bob Lurie to the current ownership group headed by Peter Magowan, Magowan was given the go-ahead by Lurie to sign Barry Bonds to what was then the game's biggest contract, a six-year, $43 million deal. Why couldn't McCourt have done something similar during his transition stage? "Baseball feels very, very strongly that prospective owners not act like presumptive owners," McCourt said. "They feel very, very strongly about that. I am familiar with the Giants situation. That caused a lot of consternation. That was not something we felt any need to replicate in this particular situation. We've already made a very big move here. The big move we made was to bring in Paul DePodesta [as GM]. We're not just looking to bring in one bat, say, a righthanded bat in the 4-hole and then say, `Now, OK, everything is great.' We're looking for whatever number of bats that creates the offense for this team to win, and not just this year. We want to build a perennial winner. It used to be every year, people thinking Yankees-Dodgers. That's our goal. If it's not Yankees-Dodgers, Red Sox-Dodgers, that's great, too. But we want to bring the Dodgers back and put them on the top of the heap." With Dee having turned down the chance to be Dodgers president, McCourt said he may serve in that role indefinitely, He also said he has given some thought to installing his wife Jamie in that role, but he prefers the role she's in now, vice chairman . . . Theo Epstein on DePodesta, the newest young (31) Ivy League grad (Harvard) to be installed as a GM: "I know him fairly well. We've had a number of conversations over the years. Great guy. Very, very smart, very, very good baseball instincts. He turned down a job with Toronto a couple of years ago, so I'm just glad he's in the National League." Next Ivy Leaguer to land a GM job: David Forst, the former Harvard shortstop and captain of the Crimson baseball team, who was promoted to assistant GM of the A's by Billy Beane after DePodesta left.

Talk of the town

Welcome to New York: It only took a couple of weeks for Alex Rodriguez to become the object of an item in a tabloid gossip column. The item alleged that Rodriguez's tastes in nightlife were similar to Mo Vaughn's when he was with Boston. Gary Sheffield also got a taste of what it will be like in his new venue, Sheffield taking exception to reports about his torn thumb ligament being in the paper even before he'd been to see a hand specialist. GM Brian Cashman left a meeting to drive to where the Yankees were playing to have a talk with Sheffield, reminding him that in New York, there are few secrets. Sheffield claims he played with the torn ligament last season in Atlanta; the Braves medical staff disputes that, saying their tests did not show a tear . . . Yankees manager Joe Torre, on how the landscape has changed in spring training: "Spring training used to be you'd just come, sit around, dress, and go home. Now they have to find ways to make money." . . . The latest edition of Baseball America is raving about three high school pitching prospects from New England, all righthanders: Jay Rainville, from Bishop Hendricken High School in Warwick, R.I.; Mark Rogers, from Mount Ararat High School in Topsham, Maine; and Andy Gale, from Phillips Exeter Academy in Durham, N.H. All could be first-round picks come June. Gale's father, Rich, pitched for the Sox and three other teams . . . While all parties involved deny the annual rumor that Ken Griffey may be traded back to Seattle, one major league executive insisted that the Yankees have been quietly making inquiries. The Yankees are currently down a couple of outfielders, with Bernie Williams to miss the season-opening trip to Japan and Sheffield hindered by his thumb injury . . . Cubs manager Dusty Baker did not take kindly to Sporting News columnist Ken Rosenthal asserting that Baker leaves his starting pitchers in too long. Rosenthal wrote that fatigue may have contributed to Mark Prior and Kerry Wood faltering in the final two games of the NLCS last season against the Marlins. "How come people don't just leave me alone?" Baker said in Arizona last week. "Why are they talking [trash] all the time? People have been trying to bring me down, for whatever reason. They say what I can't do. Very rarely do I hear what I have done. But, actually, that makes me stronger. That's OK. That's how it is." . . . Martinez, on having a 100- to 110-pitch limit, insists that should be enough pitches for a complete game. When it was noted that a pitcher is more likely to need 120-130 pitches to go nine, Martinez said: "With 120-130 pitches, you're looking at surgery by the end of the year." . . . The Spaceman, Bill Lee, will do color on the radio for the Montreal Expos when they make their first trip to Puerto Rico this season.

Material from personal interviews, wire services, other beat writers, and league and team sources was used in this report.