Red Sox to Hire Bobby Valentine
Bobby Valentine will manage the Boston Red Sox, according to multiple reports.
A formal announcement has not yet been made but sources close to the Red Sox say management had Valentine on the top of their list since firing former manager Terry Francona two months ago.
Valentine inherits a team with one of the highest payrolls in baseball but who suffered a massive collapse this September amidst reports that some players were drinking beer and playing video games in the clubhouse during games.
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Red Sox team president Larry Lucchino reportedly ignored the requests of first-year General Manager Ben Cherington, who was not keen on Valentine from the beginning of the hiring process.
Indeed other officials in the Red Sox front office weren’t interested in Valentine several weeks ago, according to sources.
A Red Sox player was informed by a team official that they "weren't going to hire Bobby Valentine or someone like that," a clubhouse source told ESPNBoston.com last week.
Valentine led the Mets to one National League pennant in 2000 before losing to the New York Yankees in five games in the World Series.
The Mets fired the 61-year-old coach in 2002. Since then, he’s coached abroad and provided analysis on a number of sports media programs.
Valentine’s managerial style makes his appointment as Red Sox manager an interesting choice given the club’s recent embarrassing headlines.
Valentine himself was at the front of a number of player insubordination cases in his tenure with the Mets. In Game 6 of the NLCS, star players Rickey Henderson and Bobby Bonilla were reportedly playing cards in the visitors’ locker room. Henderson claimed he was upset at being pulled for a defensive substitute.
According to a report from CSN New England’s Sean McAdam, some members on Valentine’s 2002 Mets team took limousines instead of the team bus to games so they could smoke marijuana.
Given the reports out of Boston earlier this year that three star pitchers were playing video games, eating fried chicken and drinking beer while their teammates were in the midst of an unprecedented collapse, analysts are wondering what the Red Sox clubhouse dynamic will be with Valentine.
An official announcement regarding the position will be made soon.
