Manager Number 45

For all of you that didn't get a chance to listen to the press conference you absolutely missed a doozie. It can only be dissected in one fashion, positives and negatives.

Overall I was underwhelmed. Bobby Valentine clearly was the watered-down version of himself. It was clear that the Red Sox tried to spin the whole Cherington/Lucchino manager debacle. The amount of time didn't matter to me as long as the right candidate was selected. I personally don't believe that he is the right candidate, but time will tell.

Let's get to the interview.

Positives

• First and foremost, the emotion that he showed, is genuine. If it were me I'd probably openly weep. It's that moment when you realize all of your hopes and dreams have come true in your life, that's the pinnacle of emotion. That was refreshing.


• Ben Cherington is a wise-ass and I love every second of it. When Bobby Valentine stands up and attempts to put on his jersey Cherington snidely deadpans, "Try it on, see if it works". Then when Valentine was asked a question about roster composition and looks over his shoulder at Cherington, he retorted, "Deferring to me that's smart, good first decision as manager." Bravo, backwoods New Hampshire-boy, Bravo.


• I like the fact that he intends to address players individually and is excited to talk to players face to face.


• You could tell Bobby Valentine was nervous, and that I like, he didn't come in guns blazin' with his rhetoric during his first interview.


• Leave it to Dan Shaughnessey to ask the right questions. He asked the 5000 pound elephant in the room, "Ben, what do you say to the notion that this was not your pick, that you were overruled by ownership." This should probably be a negative because Ben slipped up and said, "We made, I mean, I made the decision to offer the Bobby the job." Larry Lucchino also made it clear that it was a "collaborative" effort.


• I like that he says he intends to use all the numbers the sabermetricians plan on giving him. Baseball is a game of numbers and the more numbers you can put into your analysis the more complete a manager you will be. I'm sure he will be judicious with how he uses the numbers, and if it says a month into the season that Dustin Pedroia struggles in Day games on Tuesdays, during innings 8 or 9 that he'll probably not pinch hit for him.


• He did the right thing in giving Francona credit, because unless he wins the World Series in both of the years that he is under contract for, he will not come close to matching what Francona did here.


• According to former pitcher, David Cone, he was asked to come aboard as the pitching coach. He declined, but I certainly hope Bobby Valentine gets these kinds of additions to his staff. Red Sox fans didn't get to experience the real David Cone. They got the end of the road, 87 mph David Cone. But Bobby Valentine knows and saw the bulldog David Cone. Would have been a great selection. (Side note: I have a lot of respect for David Cone and came to have more for him after I read Joe Torre's The Yankee Years. Read it and you'll see why.)


• According to all reports, Valentine accepted the first offer, he didn't negotiate, which means money wasn't the issue, which is admirable in this day and age.

Negatives

• Call me a nit-picker, but I found him anointing himself number twenty-five (not after Mike Lowell, but Tony Conigliaro) to be a bit contrived.


• What some people are finding as genuine passion, the way he started his own introduction with, "I understand" *long dramatic pause* probably could have thought that one out a little better.


• He was trying to be funny and I agreed with his point about Beckett (taking 20 seconds in between pitches), but if he tries to change Carl Crawford's stance he's more of an imbecile than I thought. Carl Crawford, atrocious first season aside, is an established Major League ballplayer that is essentially a career .300 hitter with that open stance. If you don't see that all he needs is confidence when going up to the plate, you're not the baseball savant you think you are.


• Gordon Edes (ESPNBoston) asked a simple question, "What would you have done differently in your time with the Mets and with Steve Phillips." He went with the Mark McGwire defense, "I'm not here to talk about the past." C'mon man, that's a really weak answer and it was a perfectly reasonable question especially with the way his tenure's ended in Texas, Japan and New York.


• When asked the predictable Yankees question his answer was somewhat non-committal. "I think we're going to be able to match them. It's not the best team that's going to win, but the one that plays the best."


• I'm not entirely sure if this is a positive or a negative, but it certainly reeks of douchebagery. When asked what motivates him, he said this, "the desire to be excellent". First things first, I'm totally stealing that. Whenever someone asks me a question at work that will be my response. "Hey, why did you do that report this way?" The desire to be excellent. Bang.

I can't do much at this point until the games start at which point I'll probably eviscerate Valentine for outing his players, making ridiculous pitching changes, and openly saying how he created time, chewing tobacco and the Sham-Wow; but he's here and I hope the Red Sox win. You may say, "You just said, in your last piece, you hope it blows up spectacularly. How can you have both?"

The Desire to be Excellent.

Stay Tuned

Norton