As I'm writing this rather late, I doubt that I'll be among the first to hear the news I'm hoping for. Rumors started swirling last Sunday evening that Bobby Valentine would be relieved of his managerial duties on Monday. How true are these rumors? It's impossible for me to know. How true to I want these rumors to be? It's impossible for me to explain just how badly.
Valentine and Boston weren't cut out for each other from the get go. He's a guy better suited for managing a team like the Royals, Padres, or Astros. Teams that have a fanbase, but nowhere near the size of a team like the Red Sox. In Boston, everything you do as a member of the Red Sox is scrutinized by the media (who has been about as bad as they possibly could be this season) and the fans. As much as the folks of Boston love the Bruins and Patriots, it will always be a baseball town. So when ownership went out and hired Bobby V, we all groaned. We knew it wasn't a good idea. We knew it wouldn't work out. We just had no clue it would be as bad as it has been.
Valentine warred with Youkilis. Valentine warred with Pedroia. Valentine warred with just about anyone he could it seemed. Instead of taking responsibility for mishaps, which there have been numerous, he's just tried to laugh things off. That doesn't work in Red Sox Nation. The expectations may be unfairly high, but it is what it is. Red Sox baseball is a lion's den. Valentine either thought he could change that culture, I doubt it though he's not that dumb (well maybe), or figured he had a good enough team to coast to a playoff berth. Obviously that wasn't the case.
Honestly, from a baseball standpoint, there is no reason Valentine should have a job right now. The Sox are 62-73 at this point, and I'll be shocked if they make it past 70 wins. Granted, they traded away a TON of talent, and the pitching has been, to put it bluntly, atrocious all season. Did Beckett need to go? Probably. Gonzalez I don't understand, Crawford obviously makes sense, and as for Youkilis, I just don't know. They thought they had their 3rd baseman of the future in Will Middlebrooks, but then he got hurt. But it's not like he was blowing the doors off Fenway before that. He was hitting a respectable .288 when he went down but his defense wasn't all that great. Maybe I'm biased because I loved watching Youk day in and day out. But I think letting him go for what amounts to NOTHING was the second biggest mistake the Red Sox made this year. The first of course was hiring Valentine to begin with.
So will Bobby V have a job when I wake up? No idea. I find it odd, and kind of disturbing, that I'm rooting for someone to be unemployed, but he's really given me and Red Sox fans everywhere no other choice. Bobby Valentine doesn't belong in the Red Sox dugout. If that was ever more apparent then right now, please fill me in as to when that was. I'll update this as soon as news breaks one way or the other.
UPDATE-So it appears that the dreams of Red Sox Nation will be unfulfilled. While owner John Henry is in Seattle today, which we all thought surely meant Valentine was on his way out, that just doesn't look like it's going to happen. Henry said Valentine will finish the season and he's there to evaluate the pitching. To be perfectly honest, keeping Valentine doesn't mean anything in terms of baseball. But it does show the ownership couldn't be less connected with the fans. I know the fans don't run the team, nor should they. But the owners have a responsibility to them. By keeping Valentine it shows that they really have given up on this season and they don't care who knows it.
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