Bobby V Predicts Special Things for 2012 Red Sox
We all know Bobby Valentine can be brash and eccentric when in front of the camera. Part of the reason he’s loved so much across the baseball world is because of his colorful personality that quite often leads to a proverbial outbreak of a sports writers dream. Sometimes he crosses the line, example Josh Beckett and Carl Crawford.
But when Bobby V took over the Red Sox managerial job this winter, Red Sox fans knew he was going to be wildly entertaining with nightly captions making headline news. Well, it’s not even February and already Bobby V is making headlines. And he’s instilling a quiet confidence in Red Sox fans including this one.
Last week Bobby was in Connecticut speaking to the UConn Huskies men’s baseball team. His advice was typical Bobby V stuff in his charismatic way. He preached the importance of practice and how to savor every moment of today, because it goes by quickly and tomorrow you may be left without it.
And then he addressed his new challenge; resurrecting a ball club from the ashes of embarrassment and shame that re-wrote the history books last season for all the wrong reasons. While he didn’t guarantee anything, he did say that he feels something special is going to happen this year with his new club. Pete Abraham of the Globe re-captured the quote:
“How September happened in Boston, I’ll never know. But when it happened I knew I was going to get a chance to do something special. And we’re going to do something special next year. Fans feel disrespected. I think the guys get it. … They went home with a bad taste in their mouth and are going to do everything they can to get that taste out.”
So while it isn’t guaranteeing a World Series birth or even an AL East division crown, Bobby knows he has an opportunity to motivate a group of grown men who are now known more for their lack of motivation than their desire to win.
This club needed someone to come in and draw a line in the sand; you want to cross it, you won’t be playing for the Boston Red Sox. Buy in to the system or get out. Play the game the way it’s meant to played or don’t play at all. It may not be pretty, but this Red Sox team will indeed be special and can most definetly win.
Of course it certainly helps to renew faith when others are predicting special things as well. For example, take this prediction that was found on Joy of Sox. Clay Davenport (formerly of Baseball Prospectus) predicts the Red Sox will come damn close to winning 100 games this year, en route to the AL East division.
Ohters, have the Red Sox winning 94 games and the division by a single game (CAIRO). While ZiPS thinks that Boston will win 89 games and fight for the wild card with the Angels (all three predictions were found at Joy of Sox).
So there you have it. Bobby predicts special things while others predict division titles. If we read between the lines in Bobby’s statement you can probably see that he’s thinking a lot of the same things. He just has an elaborate way of saying it.
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