Unless you?ve been living in a hole, you know the Boston Red Sox finally won a World Series after 86 years, defeating the St. Louis Cardinals in four straight.

How did they do it? By assembling the most intelligent front office in the history of baseball.

No, I?m not exaggerating. Boston?s front office is the smartest and best in the history of the game.

It started in early 2002, when commodities trader John Henry bought the Red Sox for $700 million, the most ever paid for a baseball franchise. Henry owned the Florida Marlins, but sold them to Jeffery Loria, who owned the Expos, who were then bought by Major League Baseball.

Henry was born in 1949 and grew up (ironically enough) a St. Louis Cardinals fan in Illinois and Arkansas, listening to Harry Carey and Jack Buck broadcast Cardinal games and playing tabletop baseball games. While in his 30s, while in the process of forming John W. Henry and Company, he began reading Bill James?s Baseball Abstract and applied it to the stock market, helping him become one of the world?s foremost commodities traders .

With the billions he made, he bought the Red Sox and turned them into a sabermetric organization, an organization relying heavily on objective statistical analysis much more than conventional baseball wisdom handed down by scouts and former players.

In November of 2002, the Red Sox hired the father of sabermetrics, Bill James himself. Earlier that summer, Henry and then assistant GM Theo Epstein discussed assembling a front office of saberites, and Epstein jokingly suggested James himself, who had advised a few other teams. Henry sent him an e-mail anyway and before you knew it, Bill James was working for the Boston Red Sox.

The next goal for a restructured front office, after the 2002season, was a general manager who understood the Jamesian philosophy of baseball. Henry?s first choice was Oakland?s Billy Beane, a former player who, as a teenager, stayed at home on Friday nights playing tabletop baseball games.

Beane had led Oakland to three consecutive division titles despite having one of the lowest payrolls in the game, thanks to his sabermetric philosophy. Beane accepted, but then changes his mind.

So Boston made history, promoting the 28-year-old Epstein to the top on November25, 2002, making him the youngest GM in the history of the game.

The Brookline, Massachusetts native played computer simulated baseball games, not the old-fashion tabletop games that Henry and Beane had played. He never played pro ball, but he did get his undergraduate degree from Yale before earning a law degree from the University of San Diego.

Epstein interned with the Baltimore Orioles and got a job with the San Diego Padres? baseball operations department, before getting on with his hometown team. In 2002 his dream came true.

With James, Epstein and "stat geeks" like Voros McCracken, who made a name for himself on the internet by showing that besides home runs and strikeouts, a pitcher can?t really control what a hitter does off him, the Red Sox had assembled the smartest front office in baseball history.

Epstein immediately started making his mark on the Red Sox, signing players other teams passed on, but whom he knew would get on base and hit for power.

He acquired Todd Walker, a sub par defensive second baseman coming off five consecutive seasons in which he posted an on-base percentage of at least .340.

He acquired Bill Mueller, a relatively cheap third baseman who posted an on-base percentage over .350 in six of his first seven big league seasons.

He signed Kevin Millar, who was supposed to play in Japan during the 2003 season, but signed with the Sox. Millar never posted an on-base percentage under .362 in any full season in the majors with the Florida Marlins.

He signed Jeremy Giambi, coming off a .414 season in the on-base category, a move that backfired due largely to injuries.

However, his most important acquisition of that season, and perhaps his now almost two seasons as Red Sox GM, was that of David Ortiz. Ortiz was eligible for arbitration, but his team, the Minnesota Twins, non-tendered him and he became a free agent.

Ortiz had some up-and-down seasons in Minnesota, but also showed the ability to get on-base and hit for power.

Epstein and his staff knew what others probably didn?t -- Ortiz would be 27 in 2003; hitters peak in their late20s. Epstein knew if they could grab Ortiz before anyone else, they would have a solid player for a few more years.

They got him and Ortiz is now one of the top offensive players in the game.

After the 2003 season and before the 2004 season, Epstein continued to tweak his club. The Sox had been beaten in a seven-game heartbreaker by their rivals the New York Yankees and he had to get them over that hump that had haunted them since1918.

Throughout the 2003 season, Boston had gone with a bullpen by committee. They thought they could save money by not signing a big time closer to get three outs when most games are already won. But, they didn?t have the right arms in the bullpen for the experiment to succeed and Epstein had to do something about it.

So he signed Keith Foulke, one of the premier closers in the league and guy with a high strikeout-to-walk ratio, which saberites like Epstein love.

He also knew he needed a dominant starter who could eat innings, throw strikes and strikes out a lot of hitters if he wanted to beat the Yankees and win the World Series. Pedro Martinez could no longer go deep into ballgames, Derek Lowe wasn?t a strikeout guy and Tim Wakefield was always a risk with the knuckleball.

The Arizona Diamonbacks made free-agent-to-be Curt Schilling available and the Red Sox got permission to speak with him and try and work out a new contract with him. Epstein had Thanksgiving dinner with the Schilling?s and eventually convinced him to come to Boston.

Epstein made some other minor additions, adding Gold Glove second baseman Pokey Reese to help sinkerballer Derek Lowe out, and adding an on-base and power second baseman in Mark Bellhorn to replace free agent Todd Walker who signed with the Cubs.

Epstein and company thought they finally had a team that could beat the Yankees and end the 86-year-old curse.

Things started well for Boston, but then the Yankees got hot and the Red Sox struggled. They lost a lot of close games and gave up a lot of unearned runs, which Theo and the boys attributed to poor defense.

At the July 31 trade deadline, Epstein made his boldest move as a general manager, trading away disgruntled shortstop Nomar Garciaparra to the Chicago Cubs and acquiring Gold Glove first baseman Doug Mientkiewicz from the Minnesota Twins and Gold Glove shortstop Orlando Cabrera from the Montreal Expos to replace Nomar.

The move once again paid off as the Red Sox caught fire in August and September, easily winning the American League Wild Card and almost catching the Yankees. But, the Sox finished in second despite scoring more runs and allowing fewer than the Yankees.

According to Bill James?s Pythagorean theorem of baseball (which predicts a team?s record based on runs scored and runs allowed), the Red Sox were the best team in the American League.

The Sox easily won the Division Series against the Anaheim Angels, but got off to a 0-games-to-3 start against the Yankees. Then, Boston finally exploited the Yankees? pitching weakness and became the first team in baseball history to come back from a 0-3 deficit in a seven-game series.

Then they rattled off four straight in the World Series against the St. Louis Cardinals, who had won the most games in baseball during the regular season and who Henry rooted for as a boy.

The Red Sox were able to exploit the Cardinals? pitching weaknesses also, and you can bet Henry?s front office knew they could.