YOU’RE BEN CHERINGTON and you thought you were hired to be the General Manager of the Boston Red Sox; you thought that, like almost every other GM, it would be your task to hire a new manager.
After performing professional due diligence, you were prepared to offer the job to Dale Sveum, but, while team President Larry “I’m Feelin’ Lucky” Lucchino stalled the process, your former boss, now the new GM for the Cubs stole him.
So, now you are stuck with this “funny” Valentine and your career is now reliant on how he performs; Lucchino has entered you in a three-legged race; he tied your left leg to Bobby’s right leg and covered the married limbs with a Red Sox tote bag; the rope could get you hung, the bag could get you sacked; you did not get to pick your partner for a race that will directly impact your reputation and career.
Now Brash Bobby enters the room for the press conference and his pal President Larry Lucchino expects you to shake Bobby’s hand and paste on a smile. Does Valentine assume that, with the imprimatur of President Lucchino, he can feel free to challenge your judgment, even feud publicly in the media, as he did in 1997 with the Mets’ first-year GM Steve Phillips?
You listen as Lucchino’s new hire says: “I hope I’ll change for the better…I’ve had bad experiences that I hope I’ve learned from…”
“Bad experiences”? You know the rap sheet on Valentine includes: feuding with two previous GMs [American and Japanese], criticizing his own players in the media, and, even ragging on the fans. But your take on this guy is that the underlying problem is his ego, which may cause him to co-opt the 2012 Red Sox season by making it “all about Bobby.”
"You’re Ben Cherington and you wonder:How long before the wags who write the headlines at the Globe or the Herald start referring to the Boston baseball team as the “Bobby Sox”?How long will it take some clever fan at Fenway to hold up a sign:HEY BOBBY: — S T F U !"
You hear that some people speculate that team president Larry Lucchino hired Valentine to “clean up” the clubhouse culture and make the players and fans forget the 2011 September Swoon?
But you read that 1999 Sports Illustrated article that quoted Valentine criticizing his Mets’ players for their September play, which took them from one game out of first to eight games out.
Yeah, Lucchino’s boy handled that with great grace and terrific tact…
"“You’re not dealing with real professionals in the clubhouse,” Bobby said. “You’re not dealing with real intelligent guys for the most part. A lot can swim, but most of them just float along, looking for something to hold on to. That’s why, I’m sure, they’re having a players-only meeting. Because there’s about five guys in there right now who basically are losers, who are seeing if they can recruit.”"
You read he was encouraged by ESPN to freely criticize any player during the Baseball Tonight telecasts, but he also publicly criticized his own players, and fans, while managing the Mets; that recent article this month in the New Yorker said:
“Tim Kurkjian (a former ESPN colleague) used the adjectives “smug” and “arrogant” in two different places. Francona, in his press-secretary role during daily talks with reporters, employed a gentle affability that protected his players from criticism, and projected a steadiness that helped stave off mania and depression among fans. Valentine will never be gentle or bland, which means that fans’ psychological spikes and drops will be more frequent and more steep.” [From: “Tough Love: Bobby Valentine Joins the Red Sox,” Ian Crouch, the New Yorker, December 1, 2011.]
Fox Sports’ Ken Rosenthal said: “I don’t know if the hiring of Bobby Valentine as manager will be good for the Red Sox, but I do know that it will be good for the media. Valentine comes with controversy wherever he goes. He stirs it up, he makes things interesting… it will be fun to watch.”
Sure, you think, “fun to watch,” Bobby become the darling of the media, as he holds court in his office, providing snappy, controversial sound bites, where he criticizes me, the players and the fans, while making himself out to be, what did Rosenthal call him?
“One of the game’s more brilliant minds.” [Fox Sports’ Ken Rosenthal]
You’re Ben Cherington and you privately wonder how your “Funny Valentine” will go over with the citizens of Red Sox Nation, who are some of the most baseball savvy fans in the country. The Red Sox fans who disliked Earl Weaver’s “no sacrifice bunts” rule will find Bobby annoying, as he tends to also be unwilling to voluntarily “give up an out.”
What happens when Valentine reads the Sabermetrics columns of stats and decides to go with OBA for his leadoff hitter and puts Yook in that #1 slot, or even, wait…Papi…lead-off hitter…
And the Red Sox fans who disliked Sparky Anderson, the famous “Captain Hook,” for yanking pitchers prematurely, won’t be pleased as “Hook, Jr.”—Bobby Valentine– will not hesitate to remove a starter, before the pitcher is “ready,” or run in a series of relievers to face a single batter.
You wonder how will Brash Bobby will play with the fans, who are more accustomed to the Red Sox tradition of hiring polite and self-effacing managers like Cy Young, Frank Chance, Billy Herman, Lou Boudreau, or Hugh Duffy.
You’re Ben Cherington and you look at this loud mouth Narcissist, who is succeeding a man who was arguably the most successful Red Sox manager ever, Terry Francona, who leads them all in games over .500, winning 192 more games than he lost. He is second only to the immortal Joe Cronin in total games managed with 1,296. (Cronin had 2,007 from 1935 to 1947.) Francona is ninth in winning percentage (.574), and then, of course, there are those two World Series victories.
And you smile…
And you remember Hall of Fame member, the late Dick Williams, (1967-1969) 260-217, one of the most outspoken managers in Boston’s history, who led Yaz, Dwight, Pudge, The Boomer and Jim Lonborg to the “Impossible Dream” pennant in 1967.
You remember that, a few years later, Williams stood up to “Charlie The Mule,” Charles O. Finley, the jackass President of the Oakland A’s, on behalf of one of his former Red Sox players, Mike Andrews:
"“In the second game of the 1973 World Series between the Oakland A’s and the New York Mets, Andrews committed two errors in a four-run twelfth inning, leading to a Mets’ victory. Oakland owner Charlie Finley forced him to sign a false affidavit saying he was disabled, thus making him ineligible to play for the rest of the series. Andrews’ teammates, manager Dick Williams and virtually the entire viewing public rallied to Andrews’s defense. Finally, commissioner Bowie Kuhn forced Finley to reinstate Andrews for Game 4. He entered Game 4 in the eighth inning as a pinch-hitter to a standing ovation from sympathetic Mets fans.” [Wiki]"
You think, yeah, Dick Williams had the guts to stand up for his players, to stand up to the President of the Oakland Athletics, but it was out of a sense of justice and fairness, not simply a reflection of that great manager’s ego, or sense of self importance. Williams never made it “all about him.” Dick was a manager with guts and class.
You’re Ben Cherington and you read in Wiki-pedia that: “In 1995, Valentine began his first stint as manager of the Chiba Lotte Marines in the Japanese Pacific League.”
And how Bobby made a big deal of his success, because his Marines “surprised most Japanese baseball fans by finishing in second place (69–58–3), a remarkable feat for the Marines who had not won the Japanese Pacific league pennant since 1974.” [Wiki]
But you also remember that it said he was “fired abruptly due to the personal conflict with general manager Tatsuro Hirooka despite having a two-year contract.” [Wiki]
But, you wonder: What will the Boston fans think it such a big deal, or a “remarkable feat,” if the Red Sox finish SECOND in 2012? And, you smile..
You’re Ben Cherington in your first year as GM of the Boston Red Sox and President Larry Lucchino appoints your sidekick, Bobby Valentine, a guy, who thinks he is “The Wizard of OURS” and maybe you’d like to say to Bobby:
"“You’re not in Lotte anymore, Tonto.”"
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