By Dan Wanat
Being a Red Sox fan, I wish Bobby Valentine the best of luck. Not simply because I want to see him succeed and bring another World Series to Boston. I bid him the best of luck because he certainly will have his hands full with a diva-filled, egotistical locker room that is already grumbling about his hiring.
I wish Valentine good luck so that he doesn’t have a heart attack as David Ortiz dances around the locker room in his tightie-whities while blaring his salsa music.
I wish him luck in trying to pry away the children from the video games and beer they love so much.
I wish Valentine good luck to not succumb to the Boston scrutiny that will arise should things veer off the path.
I wish Valentine good luck in restoring order in a disheartened franchise coming off the worst playoff-race collapse in Major League Baseball history.
With all this luck being bestowed upon Valentine, let’s take a peek at who the man really is. Well, it’s not good that the first thing that pops into most of our heads is the time he was thrown out of a game as Mets manager. Valentine famously snuck his way back into the dugout wearing sunglasses, a hat and a fake mustache.
Aside from this snafu, which summoned negative publicity, Valentine has been a somewhat successful major league manager.
In his first year as a manager of the Texas Rangers, he transformed them from a 62-win team to an 87-win team under his regime. After the first year of success in Texas, he was never really able to establish supreme success as the Rangers were more average than great.
After his departure from the Rangers in 1992, Valentine became the manager of the Mets in 1996 where he finally found success. In New York, Valentine had a .543 winning percentage and led the Mets to the World Series.
Even with the success, the blood- thirsty, ravenous New York fans and media wanted more and he was fired after a sub-.500 season, just two years removed from taking the Mets to the Series. Since then, Valentine has dabbled in Japan, winning a Japanese Championship for the Chiba Lotte Marines and became an ESPN analyst before taking the Red Sox managerial position.
Managing in New York, Bobby V. has certainly faced his share of intense surveillance on his every move and decision made. Boston shouldn’t be too overwhelming for him in that sense.
The locker room is what worries me the most. Valentine being hired as manager is shaping this up to be a terrible episode of Wife Swap. Valentine and Terry Francona are polar opposites.
Francona is the laid-back father who drinks a 12-pack of Nattie Ice for breakfast and feeds the kids cookies for dinner. He has no control over his children and lets them run wild. The kids love the freedom as they go shoot squirrels with BB guns and refuse to bathe for days as he just sits back watching Dog the Bounty Hunter and admires the young’uns he’s raised.
On the other hand, Valentine is the uptight, white collar “wife” that makes sure all the children are up and ready for school at the same time every day. Every night they have a plethora of chores to do or else significant punishments are levied. Valentine loves the robotic children he has created as they eat strawberries without sugar for dessert and recite the Bill of Rights as a bedtime story.
Putting Valentine into a situation where they are shooting squirrels for leisurely activities and have as many teeth as they have fingers is a potentially volcanic eruption waiting to happen.
The Red Sox clubhouse is a group of men who have not had to live up to any rules or regulations for Francona’s entire reign as manager. Now, the team is being put into a situation where rules must be followed.
My hypothesis is that there will be some teenage-like back lash to the new clubhouse culture set in motion by Valentine. Under Francona, they drank beer and played video games in the dugout rather then watch their teammates play.
There was little-to-no team unity or sense of leadership. The athletes refused to work out on days they weren’t pitching and they faced the enormous consequences of failure because of it.
Valentine will try his best to rid the Red Sox of these flawed character traits and create a winning organization, potentially against the players’ wills. Red Sox players are already grumbling and sending petty text messages lamenting the idea of having to play in a stricter environment.
Fans should be rooting for him to succeed, even if their favorite players aren’t happy.
Good luck, Bobby Valentine, good luck.