Dan Shaughnessy had this opener to a notes column Saturday:

Picked-up pieces while reminding all of you that John Henry’s greatness has been vastly underappreciated.

Ah yes, it is a new day for Shaughnessy and the Boston Globe sports staff upon the news that Red Sox owner John Henry is buying the paper. And think about this: Henry spent more on signing on one player, Dustin Pedroia ($100 million), than he did to purchase one of the top publications in the country ($70 million). And unlike Pedroia’s contract, the Globe deal doesn’t expire in seven years.

If that isn’t a sobering statement about the state of newspapers, nothing is.

Naturally, Globe sports staffers aren’t thrilled about the situation. The New York Times’ Peter May got their reaction over the weekend.

“This was the last circumstance anyone would want,” Ryan said Saturday of Henry’s purchase of The Globe and other media properties from The New York Times Company for $70 million. “It’s nothing anyone would wish. It’s scary, to say the least, for all involved.”

This is what scares Ryan:

The team’s stunning collapse in September 2011 was followed by a Globe investigative piece by Bob Hohler, revealing that pitchers John Lackey, Josh Beckett and Jon Lester had been eating fried chicken and drinking beer in the clubhouse during games. Hohler also wrote that management had concerns that Francona’s deteriorating marriage and his use of painkillers may have affected his performance.

In a radio interview at the time, Henry said of the article, “It’s reprehensible that it was written about in the first place.”

Henry would now be in a position to kill such an article, which concerns Ryan, who retired from The Globe in 2012 but who has a verbal agreement to write up to 40 columns in 2013.

“Anyone in this situation has to look at it with a great deal of trepidation,” Ryan said. “It’s uncomfortable and it puts the Globe sports department, especially the Red Sox writers, in a potentially uncompromising position.”

Then there was this from Shaughnessy:

Dan Shaughnessy, The Globe’s lead sports columnist, has written critically about Henry since he became the principal owner of the Red Sox in 2002.

“There’s an inherent conflict of interest which no one can do anything about,” Shaughnessy said. “All we can hope for is that everyone is allowed to do his job professionally and that we are able to keep our independence.”

Shaughnessy and the former Red Sox manager Terry Francona wrote a book, “Francona: The Red Sox Years,” which detailed Francona’s ugly exit from the team after its collapse in September 2011. The book was highly critical of the Red Sox ownership group, and Shaughnessy said it was “not exactly a party-starter” for Henry.

Globe sports editor Joe Sullivan hopes it will be business as usual with the new owner:

“We don’t know what the new situation is going to be in terms of hierarchy, but I would hope to be able to continue to cover the Red Sox the way we always have, “ the sports editor, Joe Sullivan, said.

Good luck, Joe, Bob and Dan.

Check back for more of my views on this development. After all, I used to work at the Chicago Tribune, which to own majority interest in a certain baseball team.