Within 10 minutes of meeting John Henry for the first time, alarm bells started ringing. We’d exchanged pleasantries and were sitting alone in his suite at Fenway Park, home of the Red Sox baseball team he owns, on a colourless November afternoon in Boston. Settled into our plush leather chairs overlooking home plate, we were enveloped by walls displaying a gallery of rich memories: trophy celebrations for the Sox and the English Premier League football club Liverpool, also owned by Henry’s Fenway Sports Group (FSG); a joyous snap at a World Series parade with his wife Linda and Boston icon David “Big Papi” Ortiz; Henry’s two youngest children grinning along the first-base line, just yards away.
第一次见到约翰•亨利(John Henry)不到10分钟，警钟就开始敲响。我们互相寒暄后，坐在他在波士顿的芬威球场(Fenway Park)套房里，这是他拥有的红袜队(Red Sox)的主场，一个色彩单调的11月下午。我们坐在豪华的皮椅上，俯瞰着本垒板，四周的墙上展示着丰富的回忆：红袜队和英超联赛(Premier League)的利物浦(Liverpool)俱乐部的奖杯庆祝活动，这两支球队都是亨利的芬威体育集团(FSG)所拥有的；与妻子琳达和波士顿的象征性人物大卫“大波帕”奥尔蒂斯一起参加世界大赛游行的快乐合影；亨利的两个最小的孩子在一垒线上笑得合不拢嘴，就在几码之外。