This ring is for you, Bobby. The Boston Red Sox have won the World Series three times in the last 10 years, and the third time this week they owe to Bobby Valentine.

You doubt that? You doubt that I am sincere about that? Get serious.

Without equivocation, without fear of contradiction, I say flatly that the Red Sox of 2013 would not be baseball’s major league champions were it not for the Red Sox of 2012.

If you don’t get my point, I am telling you had the Valentine-managed Red Sox not played so dreadfully in losing 93 games and finishing last in the American League East, behind the Yankees, behind the Rays, behind the Orioles and even the Blue Jays, the Red Sox might have concluded that Valentine deserved a chance to manage the second year of his two-year contract.

Larry Lucchino, the Red Sox president and chief executive officer, might have thought his decision to hire Valentine to replace Terry Francona wasn’t as bad as some people warned him it would be and stubbornly stayed with him for a second season.

But Valentine managed the Red Sox so poorly and they played so badly Lucchno couldn’t ignore reality. I don’t know if Lucchino has acknowledged his mistake publicly, but his decisions beginning with Valentine speak volumes for him.

Not everyone who makes mistakes in front of millions of people can acknowledge the errors of his ways, but Lucchino did and he deserves credit for that.

Lucchino also deserves credit with general manager Ben Cherington for the roster makeover that fueled the Series triumph. Only two years after succeeding Theo Epstein, Cherington has a World Series title to his credit while Epstein struggles with the last-place Chicago Cubs.

Cherington didn’t have to build an entire team, but he had a lot of work to do after the last-place finish. As you read this list of players who were new to the Red Sox this year, think of how much and in what contest you heard their names this post-season:

Shane Victorino, Koji Uehara, Jonny Gomes, Mike Napoli, Stephen Drew, David Ross.

Victorino, Gomes and Napoli contributed significant hits. Drew dazzled at short. Uehara, third in line to be the Red Sox closer this season, was a perfect copy of Mariana Rivers and helped substantiate my belief that if Rivera had been the Atlanta closer in the years he served in that role for the Yankees, the Braves could have won the number of World Series championships that wound up on the Yankees’ page in the post-season ledger.

Uehara, whom the Red Sox signed as a free agent last December, will need to demonstrate his year-after-year consistency to inherit the Rivera image, but if the Red Sox give him the opportunity by winning consistently, he just may be the next Mariano.

Not to be overlooked in the Red Sox meteoric rise from worst to first is their manager, John Farrell. The team’s former pitching coach, Farrell had to come in and clean up Valentine’s mess. He did it in a professional and talented way.

Lucchino told me several weeks ago that Farrell had been Boston’s No. 1 choice when Valentine was hired, but he was Toronto’s manager and the Red Sox couldn’t work out a deal to get him. A year later the Blue Jays accepted shortstop Mike Aviles for him.

The Red Sox don’t owe the Blue Jays anyone else, but if Lucchino wanted to commit a class act, he would offer to send the Blue Jays another player in the form of a thank you note.

Farrell’s role in the Red Sox ride – and rise – from worst to first should not be underestimated. I mentioned here a few weeks ago that he was my choice for major league manager of the year in a vote I cast for an award given by the Rotary Club of Pittsburgh in honor of Chuck Tanner.

I said at the time there were several good candidates for the award, including Clint Hurdle of Pittsburgh, who I thought might win the award on geographical grounds.

Hurdle, for whatever reasons did win the award, but even though post-season events don’t affect the awards, Farrell nevertheless justified my belief in his being the best manager of 2013 by guiding the Red Sox to the World Series championship.

One final World Series note:

FOX, Bud Selig’s co-conspirator in the creation of the absurd link of the outcome of the All-Star game to homefield advantage in the World Series (sorry, but I can’t say it enough), couldn’t emphasize enough another element of this World Series.

FOX announcers especially made it clear in the final minutes of the final game: When the Red Sox won, it would be first time in 95 years that they won the Series at home. That fact apparently was more important for FOX viewers to know than it was the Red Sox third World Series triumph in 10 years.

The instant the game ended, Joe Buck roared just so viewers wouldn’t miss it: “It hasn’t happened at Fenway Park for 95 years. The Red Sox are world champions.”

Ken Rosenthal a well-respected newspaper reporter, who serves as the male half of FOX’s two in-game reporters, began his post-game interview with Victorino, who drove in four of Boston’s six runs, with that stunning disclosure, but the Red Sox outfielder ignored the question and made a comment totally unrelated to FOX’s forced theme.

“Shane,” Rosenthal began, “this is the first Red Sox team to win a World Series at Fenway Park since 1918. How much did you guys talk about that, the idea of making history?”

Replied Victorino: “Our goal from day one was to be the best team we could possibly be. That was our goal. We worked hard every single day. Hey, we’re world champs. I can’t believe it.”

Erin Andrews, FOX’s equal opportunity in-game female reporter, began her post-game questioning of John Henry, the Red Sox principal owner, by asking about the first World Series won at home since 1918. Like Victorino, he ignored the question.