As disastrous a decision the Boston brain trust made in December 2011 in hiring Bobby Valentine as the Red Sox manager, it made an outstanding decision a year later in hiring John Farrell to replace him.

Lest skeptics doubt that Farrell is the primary reason the Red Sox have gone from worst to first this season, look at the Toronto Blue Jays.

After finishing four games ahead of the Red Sox last year, the Blue Jays allowed Farrell to resign as their manager and go to Boston while they amassed the most expensive payroll in their history ($128 million, the majors’ 10th highest).

While Farrell and the Red Sox have flourished in Boston, the Blue Jays have foundered in Toronto, reversing the Red Sox direction and plummeting to worst in the American League East.

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Baseball writers these days seem to be hung up on historic developments, often calling events historic when they are in no way historic. But here’s one event I can label historic without fear of contradiction.

This week Vin Scully, the long-time Los Angeles Dodgers’ broadcaster, and I had a telephone conversation that was the oldest telephone conversation in age and baseball coverage between two baseball old-timers who had never previously spoken to each other.

That’s not a record that will make next year’s edition of “The Elias Book of Baseball Records,” but I believe it is noteworthy if for no other reason than asking the question how can a baseball broadcaster and a baseball writer cover the game for a combined 120 years or so and never …

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In the more than 40 years I have known Bud Selig, I have never heard him tell a joke. Ten days ago, speaking to reporters at the conclusion of the owners’ quarterly meetings, the commissioner told a joke.

He didn’t mean to be funny, and no one laughed, but taking a moment to reflect and putting it in context, it was funny.

Asked about the status of the Tampa Bay Rays’ effort to get a new ball park to replace dismal Tropicana Field, Selig said he had received a “very discouraging” report two days earlier from the Rays’ owner, Stuart Sternberg.

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