Former New York Mets manager Bobby Valentine succeeds Terry Francona at the Boston Red Sox and will bring a unique style to Fenway
Bobby Valentine 'honored, humbled and pretty damn excited' to be Red Sox manager
Bobby Valentine is the new manager of the Boston Red Sox, something you could have gotten some pretty healthy odds on back in early September. That was before the earth moved under Fenway Park, before the spectacular month-long collapse of the Old Towne Team led to their esteemed manager and General Manager moving on, and of course, before the barrage of sensational stories pertaining to the Sox player personnel flooded Beantown's relentless press. When you are coasting towards a playoff berth and a realistic shot of a third World Series title in seven seasons, and then, less than a 30 days later you are playing golf, there are repercussions, especially in baseball-obsessed Boston.
Now the Red Sox are trying to clean up the mess and have invested heavily in Valentine, a controversial, polarizing manager with 20 years experience leading the Texas Rangers, New York Mets and Japan's Chiba Lotte Marines. Was it the right move? That is the easiest question I will ever answer, even if it's rigged because I wrote it myself. Let's just say this?I love Bobby Valentine, I love everything about him, and I am insanely jealous that he is back in baseball up in Boston rather than in Queens.
Most fans grow up with a favorite player, and I had that as well. The Mets phenom pitcher Dwight Gooden was my guy, that is until "Dr. K" got hooked on drugs, became a Yankee, threw a no-hitter and won a World Series in the Bronx. That was too much to take, and so I don't have a favorite player anymore. However, I do have an all-time favorite, and somewhat bizarrely, it's a manager, not a player?Bobby Valentine. He joined the Mets in 1996 during a time when the team hadn't had a winning season in five years. In 1997 they won 88 games. In 1999 and 2000 they went to the playoffs with so-so teams Valentine squeezed the very last ounce of talent out of. They lost to the Yankees in the 2000 World Series four games to one, but played them tougher than any of their previous opponents during their run of championships.
But forget the winning, the fact that he's probably one of the most intelligent and prepared baseball people around, and all that, blah, blah, blah. What makes Bobby great is that in a baseball world that is extremely traditional, that is full of conformists falling in line, Valentine is an extremely bright, entertaining renaissance man, who is part of a minuscule counter-culture inside a game that does not particularly take to individualism. We're talking about a baseball manager who can ballroom dance, decided against playing college football at USC and replacing OJ Simpson at running back, took a job overseeing his hometown's police, fire, and health departments, invented the sandwich wrap, and famously came back into the dugout wearing a disguise after being ejected from a game in 1999. Most impressive were his two stints managing in Japan, where he built much more than a cult following with his comprehensive embracing of the culture and language, not to mention bringing a title to Chiba in 2005, while helping to create his own "Bobby Magic" burger.
These are not the kind of activities that your average baseball manager gets into, and that may be one reason why there are a lot of baseball people out there who don't like Bobby V, never-mind the shit-eating half-grin he wears in the dugout. You hear a lot of "He thinks he's the smartest guy in the room" kind of talk, that Valentine is regularly plotting, forming agendas, carrying out schemes with those he considers "his guys" in the clubhouse, the board room and in the press, burning bridges in the process. Some of that is true, and there is definitely a part of Bobby Valentine that is a huge pain in the ass, and yes, it can get ugly. �Like the time he had to deny trying to get fired during a 12-game losing streak in 2002, and his amusing, but questionable way of dealing with the rumors of rampant marijuana use around the team later that season, his final one with the Mets. All of this was fine with me of course, and as a friend pointed out, "He thrills you and on the other hand has actually punched you, and likely thinks you're a idiot.� He is a paradox."�That's true, Valentine did punch me, playfully, but very hard after I asked him for an interview in Japan back in 2000. "Come back tomorrow" Pow! Yes, it was a unique show during a golden era for Mets fans.
What does all of that mean for Boston? Well, they are getting a manager capable of changing a culture immediately, someone who is extremely positive during a time the franchise is recovering from one of its most negative seasons. They are also getting a manager who will take the attention away from their skeptical players, who is always ready to present his version of events to a populace thirsty for interaction with their team. Can Valentine handle the Boston fans and the local press? Well, considering his performance in Japan, a sink or swim environment for gaijin, I don't have any doubts on that front. Come April, Boston's fans will learn first hand that Valentine is a fearless, can-do manager who will entertain without stepping into the batters box while restoring the Red Sox to prominence. �
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Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2011/dec/01/bobby-valentine-boston-red-sox-mets
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