There are some players whose signings with the Red Sox lead to skepticism about whether they can handle the unique challenges of playing in Boston. John Lackey is not such a player.

The new Sox starter, after all, has never been one to shy from a challenge. That has been apparent since his first days as a professional.

In 1999, Lackey — after the Angels selected him in the second round of that draft out of the University of Texas at Arlington — made his pro debut with Boise of the Short Season Northwest League. His manager there was Tom Kotchman.

Kotchman (the father of Red Sox first baseman Casey Kotchman) was in his 17th year as a manager. Though Lackey was not a one-of-a-kind phenomenon, he came close. In demeanor, the 20-year-old Lackey gave Kotchman his first reminder of a pitcher whom he’d worked with in his first year as a minor league skipper for the Red Sox’ Single-A affiliate in Winter Haven as a 26-year-old in 1983.

That is because Lackey became the second pitcher ever to refuse to give the ball to Kotchman when he came to take it from him. The first was a young Roger Clemens, who had his pro unveiling with Kotchman’s Winter Haven club in 1983, after the Sox drafted him with their first-round pick.

“These two guys both told me they weren’t coming out of the game,” Kotchman said. “So, you sort of do a Chevy Chase, where you take a quick look at the Grand Canyon, and you turn around and go back to the dugout. You go, ‘OK — sounds good to me.’ Still, to this day, those are the only two guys who told me that. It wasn’t fluff. They meant it. ‘I ain’t coming out.’ ”

Kotchman suggests that Lackey’s craving to compete was as great as that of anyone else he’s ever managed, including Clemens. Kotchman received further evidence of that notion when, toward the end of the year, at a time when first-year players run on fumes and see their velocity diminish, Lackey was entrusted with a game in the Northwest League pennant race.

“All of a sudden,” recalled the manager, “here comes a few more bolts in his fastball.”

Lackey’s velocity ticked up in key games at the end of the season, giving Kotchman the sense that he had a pitcher who could respond to the magnitude of his challenge. That, in turn, led to a sense of comfort from Kotchman and the Angels organization three years later.

Lackey was a 23-year-old rookie who debuted at the end of June 2002. He immediately became a key member of the rotation for the Halos in their pennant race, and he continued to take the ball into the postseason.

As much as that playoff run served as a coming out party for Francisco Rodriguez, Lackey was no less impressive. He started his postseason career with 10 straight scoreless innings, forged a 2.42 ERA that October, and had no fear when presented with the assignment of starting Game 7 of the World Series for the Angels.

“I remember it like it was yesterday, being in the Angels’ player parking lot, waiting for John after Game 6, with some of his childhood friends from Texas,” recalled Steve Hilliard, Lackey’s agent. “He came out of the clubhouse in the player’s parking lot. He looked at us and said, ‘Scioscia’s giving me the ball for Game 7.’

“When John said it, he was so fired up about that opportunity. He’s fearless. He’s absolutely fearless. There wasn’t any doubt in his mind that he was going to go out there the next day and get it done.”

For a different player, an organization might have had considerable pause about giving such an assignment to a rookie, for whom a struggle could jeopardize his development. But the Angels, based on the makeup reports that started with Kotchman in Boise about Lackey throughout his minor league career, had no such reservations.

The Halos were duly rewarded for their bold trust in the rookie. Lackey allowed one run on four hits in five innings the next day, becoming the second rookie in big league history (and first since Babe Adams in 1909) to start and win a Game 7.

Since then, despite a modest postseason record (1-4 since 2005, albeit with a solid 3.40 ERA), Lackey has made a regular show of his ferocious intensity in Octobers for the Angels. Most recently, there were the images of him during this year's playoffs. He dominated the Red Sox in Game 1 of the ALDS, and then, in Game 5 of the ALCS against the Yankees, he nearly refused to leave a game when Los Angeles skipper Mike Scioscia pulled him amidst a shutout with two outs in the seventh.

Lackey repeatedly informed his manager, “This is mine; this is mine,” trying his best not to relinquish the ball. The outburst was, of course, familiar to Kotchman, and suggested that more than 10 years after his pro debut, Lackey’s competitive spirit remains undiminished. Hilliard agreed.

“This year in the playoffs in the game against the Yankees when he did not want to give the ball up, for a lot of people who hadn’t seen John, that was their glimpse at how fierce a competitor he is,” said Hilliard. “He wants to finish what he starts. He’s old school. He’s a tough, hard-nosed, fierce competitor. He’s all about winning. That is what matters most to John. … That’s how John is every time he takes the ball.”

That personality is part of what drew Lackey to Boston. In Fenway Park, the pitcher saw a chance to stoke his competitive flames.

“I enjoy pitching in big games,” Lackey said at his press conference. “It’s going to be like a playoff game pretty much every night here. … That’s going to be a fun environment to be in.”

The Sox, in the words of general manager Theo Epstein, consider Lackey a “big-game pitcher, a top-of-the-rotation guy and a really tough competitor.” They were initially surprised by and skeptical of the pitcher’s interest in Boston, but the more Hilliard made his case, the more convincing the notion of a fit became. Ultimately, Epstein said, Lackey’s pronounced desire to experience the intensity of Boston “got our attention in a hurry.”

Granted, it is talent — rather than a big-game history — that serves as the primary decision-making factor when the Sox pursue players. After all, Jason Bay’s excellent performance as a member of the Red Sox came without any prior exposure to the environment that he encountered in Boston.

Nonetheless, the fact that Lackey had a demonstrated ability to compete in the most scrutinized circumstances, and that he had shown the sort of competitive chops to step up to a new challenge, only enhanced his potential fit with the Sox.

There are plenty of elements for a club to be concerned about when signing a pitcher to an $82.5 million deal. For the Sox and Lackey, the idea that the pitcher might wilt in Boston is not one of them.