One thing’s for sure – wherever Bobby Valentine goes, noise is sure to follow.
After all, Valentine is a complex guy.
He’s known as an incredible in-game strategist who isn’t afraid to stray from the status quo. He’s generally as good at handling certain players as he is at losing others. He can be as engaging with the media as he is controversial. Above all – he loves a good challenge.
Truth be told – there is no certainty with a person like Bobby V. The chances of him succeeding are as high as they are of him getting vaporized in a high-pressure environment like Boston – a place where he’ll be expected to be a cog in the machine, and not the machine itself.
No matter who you talk to – the opinions tend to err on the double-edged sword side. Valentine is the smartest guy in just about any baseball room, but that can be the problem sometimes.
Everyone’s got an opinion of Valentine. They love him. They hate him. Some possess a little of both. But regardless of where you come down in the debate, there’s one thing that might be agreed upon by all – this is Valentine’s last chance. And it’s that very thing that – I think – leaves room for a lot of cautious optimism about his future as manager of the Boston Red Sox.
Earl Weaver used to say – “it’s what you learn after you know it all that counts.” I think that Valentine is a guy who’s reinvented himself during his time away from Major League Baseball. He left and managed in Japan. He became a Public Safety Director in his own town. He became an analyst on ESPN. Valentine is older, wiser and I think he’ll approach the job with more care this time around.
Bobby Valentine, the guy who knows it all, suddenly is willing to learn. He even said so. “I view this as a growth experience.”
Don’t think he won’t be outspoken. Don’t think he won’t still be the enigmatic personality he’s always been. But do think that you’ll see a wiser, more polished Bobby V that has likely learned from his mistakes; A man who is more comfortable sharing and stepping back from the spotlight if it means winning games and adding to his resume.
After all – it should be a lot easier to do that considering the kind of talent he has to work with. Not that he’s ever needed super talented teams in order to win baseball games in the past. In 15 years as a Major League manager, his teams have only performed worse than expected twice. He has an extensive history of turning under-achievers into good teams. The fact that this team is already very good should make that a lot easier.
This is the guy who took the Mets to a World Series with an outfield of Benny Agbayani, Jay Payton and Derek Bell, after all.
Managers and coaches don’t often enjoy success in multiple places and you’d think that here in Boston, we’d have learned that past performance isn’t always an indicator of future performance. Right?
- When Joe Torre was hired by the Yankees, he was seen as a retread puppet who was nothing more than a middling manager. Today, he’s Yoda to baseball fans in New York and is seen as an ambassador to his former team and the game as a whole – all in spite of writing a scathing book about the organization.
- Phillies fans laughed when they heard a guy named Terry Francona was picked to manage the Red Sox. Even in the face of helping contribute to the worst collapse in the history of baseball, Francona is still seen as untouchable and the greatest manager in the franchise’s history among names like Dick Williams, Ed Barrow and Jimmy Collins.
- When Bill Belichick became the head coach of the New England Patriots, he was seen as a failure in Cleveland that seemed like a last-ditch grab for a flailing franchise. Today, he’s a sure-fire Hall of Famer and is considered one of the greatest coaches in the history of the game.
- Claude Julien. Enough said.
These guys all sucked in other places. They were under-estimated by their peers. But they were most alike in the most important category of all: They were the right guys at the right time.
Is Bobby Valentine that guy? I think he might be. But what I do know is that this is a good situation for someone like Valentine to thrive: high exposure, high reward, little margin for error and motivation to get it right this time. That in and of itself is reason for optimism.
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