For 39 years, the byline appeared in The New York Times probably more than any other. This week it is making a return engagement. It’s the byline you have seen on this Web site approximately 550 times in the past five years:

By Murray Chass.

Why is it back in the Times?

It is the culmination of a two-year effort to get the Times to set the record straight on free agency and unconfuse its readers. Some of my critics – yes, I have critics; what fun would I have writing this column if some readers didn’t disagree with me? – have attributed my desire to induce the Times to acknowledge and correct its errors as a way to embarrass the newspaper.

That, however, was not my goal. I am a fanatic for …

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Speaking separately to the top two executives of the Los Angeles Dodgers, I asked both the same first question:

Which of your teams will show up in October?

“I only have one team, the Dodgers,” president Stan Kasten said. “I hope the Dodgers show up in October.”

General manager Ned Colletti offered a different answer. “I don’t worry about that,” he said. “I worry about today. It’s a cliché, but I take it one day at a time.”

On the day I spoke with Colletti, last Friday, his Dodgers won again, 4-0, for their 41st victory against 8 defeats in the last 8 weeks, a phenomenal run that has saved the $220 million team from immortal humiliation.

Before that run, the Dodgers had …

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John Henry divided the years of his youth among Illinois, Arkansas and California. He made his many millions in Florida and Connecticut. It wasn’t until the last month of 2001, when Henry was 52, that he began a foray into Boston, where he is now an icon as principal owner of the Boston Red Sox and owner of the Boston Globe.

As owner of the Red Sox, Henry oversaw World Series championships in 2004 and 2007. As the new owner of the Globe, Henry has become the recipient of one of the most astounding deals in finance history.

Henry recently opened his bulging wallet and took out $70 million to give to The New York Times for the Globe, New England’s premier paper, and assorted other area media properties, including the Worcester (Mass.) Telegram & Gazette.

What is astounding about the deal is …

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