It took him 27 years of service in Major League Baseball and a roundabout journey from Maine almost all the way down the Atlantic Coast, over to Texas and back to New England, but John Blake feels like he’s finally where he’s supposed to be.

Back in 1967, Blake was a 12-year-old Red Sox fan enthralled by Boston’s improbable turnaround from worst to first and pennant-winning season. Forty years later, he’s entering his second season as the Red Sox vice-president of media relations.

Not bad for someone with Maine connections.

“I grew up in Wenham, Mass., but I was born in Augusta and we spent almost every summer in Maine all through my childhood, either in Machias or in Readfield at Echo Lake,” Blake recalled while watching Red Sox batting practice at City of Palms Park Thursday. “We also spent some summers on Bailey Island.”

Blake hasn’t been in his native state in quite some time, but promises he will soon be making a return.

“I’m ashamed to say I haven’t been up there in 10 or 12 years,” said the 51-year-old Blake. “My intentions were good when I came back up here, but I just got so busy it never happened.”

That’s understandable, given the fact that Blake routinely has 15-hour work days during spring training and much of the regular season.

The son of Cony High School alumni Sherwood and Eleanor Blake attended Georgetown University and got a media/public relations internship before being hired as the school’s sports information director right after graduation.

“That was just before their basketball team really took off in John Thompson’s early years,” he said.

Two years later, Blake took the job as assistant P.R. director with the Baltimore Orioles. After six years with Baltimore, Blake moved to Texas to become head P.R. man for the Rangers and remained there for the next 21 seasons.

“I knew (Red Sox executive vice-president for public affairs) Charles Steinberg, who was an intern for us in Baltimore, and ever since he came to Boston, we’ve talked about me coming there someday off and on,” Blake recalled. “Last March, he called me and I interviewed for this job right after I finished working the World Baseball Classic.”

It was on opening day, 2006, that Blake started his dream job.

“I grew up a Red Sox fan so it’s nice working for my favorite team and this is the 40th anniversary of the Impossible Dream Red Sox, which I followed so closely, so it makes this all pretty special for me,” he said.

Blake is living in Boston, but wife Harriet, son Christopher and daughter Rebecca are still back in Texas so Christopher can finish his senior year of high school. They’ll join John later this summer.

“The family situation is tough, but I very easily got back into the New England mindset because it never felt like I really left,” he said. “I always wanted to come back to the Northeast.”

And what about his home state?

“I plan to come back to Maine. I promise,” he said. “I love to go along the coast, especially up Route 1.”

Catching on as a coach

Longtime Red Sox fans will remember the name Gary Allenson, a part-time starter and former backup catcher to Rich Gedman.

Allenson, now 52, extremely tanned, and a resident of Cape Coral, Fla., is still in the game, but instead of watching from the bench as a backup, he’s now the manager.

“When you’re a part-time/platoon/backup player, you’re sitting out in the bullpen a lot as a catcher and you’re always thinking about moves and stuff,” Allenson said. “So I guess I was actually managing in my head before I actually started managing for real.”

Allenson is now managing for real the Norfolk Tides, the Triple-A affiliate for the Baltimore Orioles. He is back in familiar territory, on a field with a bunch of players wearing Red Sox uniforms, twice this week as the Sox hosted the Orioles in two spring training games in eight days.

Allenson is helping out as a batting practice coach and roving instructor before the actual minor league spring training games start this weekend. This is his fourth season as a Triple-A manager, but it’s his first for Baltimore after he left the Orioles since 2003. He coached Rookie League ball last year.

Like most players, Allenson never gave managing much thought during his career.

“That’s something that when you play, you never think about it,” he said. “But I remember one day, one of the beat writers – it might have been (Peter) Gammons – asked (former Red Sox manager) Ralph Houk who among his players he thought would make a great manager and right away he said my name.

“Well, I was done playing after 1985 and missed it a lot, so I got back in the next year and started managing with the Red Sox.”

A player for seven major league seasons and coach or manager for six, Allenson has seen a lot of change in the game the last 20 years.

“It used to be you needed 5,000 at-bats back in the old days before you made it to the big leagues and now guys are making it without even 1,000,” he said. “The other thing I’ve noticed is too many of the players don’t have the instincts that I had, or other guys had, or players before me had and I relate that to video games, computers, and cable TV.

“When I was a kid, I came home and changed into my play clothes and went to a park a mile away to play football, basketball and baseball, depending on what time of year it was.”

Allenson thinks the passion is lost on many modern players.

“I just don’t think the players nowadays have the fun we used to have,” he explained. “There’s a lot more pressure on them with the money and I think they listen too much to their agents nowadays as well.”

That hasn’t altered Allenson’s coaching style.

“I try and manage the same way I played, and that’s the way I like to see my players play,” he said. “It’s all about hustle and I think fans seeing some guy who’s making a lot more than [they’re] making not hustle down to first base are disgusted, and they should be.”