SALON

Tuesday, Apr 17, 2012 12:16 AM UTC

Column: Bobby V. doesn’t do peace and quiet

By

Topics: From the Wires,

Nobody hires Bobby Valentine expecting peace and quiet.

That’s not the way he did business in the past, and as his latest run-in with struggling slugger Kevin Youkilis demonstrated, Bobby V. is not about to turn over a new leaf now.

Whether it meant needling opponents, umpires, his players or even his boss — Valentine rarely lets an opportunity pass without reminding everyone who is the smartest guy in the room. That explains why he was so welcome in TV studios and broadcast booths, but perhaps also why Valentine hadn’t managed in the big leagues for 10 years until the Red Sox gave him an office last winter. So if nothing else, a culture clash was inevitable.

Boston was coming off an historic collapse in the final month of last season, the last few days of which have been portrayed as a baseball production of “Animal House.” Terry Francona, who preceded Valentine in the job and won two World Series titles in his eight seasons there, conceded he’d left it to the players to police the clubhouse themselves and that by the end, a few devoted more time studying takeout menus than lineup cards. Even after leaving, Francona was reluctant to name names. That won’t happen with Valentine, who calls things as he sees ‘em the moment he sees ‘em.

So those who think he went hard after Youkilis just a few games into the season should remember when Valentine was managing the Mets and Todd Hundley, arguably his best bat, went into a slump in late August, 1997. Instead of extra batting practice for Hundley — or as in Youkilis’ case, a show of more emotion — Valentine prescribed an entire lifestyle makeover.

“Todd needs to change his ways,” Valentine said at the time. “He doesn’t sleep enough. He’s a nocturnal person and he needs to get more rest. He has a tough time getting to sleep after games.”

That dig — especially the part about Hundley being a “nocturnal person” — might be a little more personal than the usual motivational fare managers dole out. But what makes Valentine’s critiques even more unnerving is that unlike the diamond — where he was often several moves ahead of more-celebrated rivals like Tony LaRussa and Bobby Cox — even Valentine doesn’t always know where the endgame is off the field. He was fired abruptly after one very successful season with the Chiba Lotte Marines in Japan following a tiff with the general manager, then got fired during a second stint there in 2009 despite winning a pennant and a popularity contest against the club’s president.

Much of Valentine’s tenure with the Mets was no picnic, either, including a stunt in which then-GM Steve Phillips fired his coaching staff and practically dared Valentine to stay on. He did, but lost that job eventually, too.

So all those teammates who stood up for Youkilis, saying they’ve “got his back” and “that’s not the way we go about our stuff around here” would be wise to watch their own backs. Because that’s exactly the way Valentine goes about his “stuff.”

He might have singled out Youkilis to get his teammates rallying behind him, or planting the seeds for a trade. Either way, once his comment about Youkilis — “I don’t think he’s as physically or emotionally into the game as he has been in the past for some reason” — produced exactly the kind of manufactured controversy he specializes in, Valentine said he was simply answering a question. He then denied trying to motivate his third baseman, apologizing in one breath and then hinting he might not be done in the next.

“I’d be surprised if Kevin didn’t know I was totally behind him,” Valentine said. “We’re big boys. I think he’ll get it. If not, I’ll talk to him a lot more.”

No doubt. At this rate, unless Boston gets better in a hurry, Valentine will have talked to — or about — every one of Youkilis’ teammates by the All-Star break, apparently with the blessing of his higher-ups in the organization.

Not that it matters much. When he took the Red Sox deal, rather than focusing on why it took him so long to get back to the majors, Valentine said he was never “consumed with what I’m not doing. When I had a job, I wasn’t thinking about another job.”

What’s going to make this more interesting going forward is that the Red Sox, even coming off disappointing back-to-back seasons, are probably the most-talented team Valentine has ever been handed. They’ve made the playoffs six of the last nine seasons. If they fail to do so again, thinking about another job on a big-league bench is an option he won’t have to worry about.

___

Jim Litke is a national sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write to him at jlitke(at)ap.or and follow him at Twitter.com/JimLitke.

More Jim Litke.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments are not enabled for this story.

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: So long, Sookie Stackhouse

Recommendations