The Red Sox are forcing me to confront my Bobby Valentine Thing. I have never really seen the club's new manager as the cat's meow in his field. Yet I can't tell you why. This is hardly a fair way to analyze a manager, let alone greet him as the man to lead the Red Sox out of Funkville....
ESPN analyst Bobby Valentine, right, was hired as Red Sox manager this week. He will work with general manager Ben Cherington (left).The Red Sox are forcing me to confront my Bobby Valentine Thing.
I have never really seen the club's new manager as the cat's meow in his field. Yet I can't tell you why.
This is hardly a fair way to analyze a manager, let alone greet him as the man to lead the Red Sox out of Funkville.
My own undefined trepidation separates me from other people, notably including Valentine himself, who consider him an elite manager.
Usually, I can pinpoint why someone makes me uncomfortable. Arrogance, incompetence or a sense of self-entitlement irk me in particular.
Having never met Valentine (a circumstance that will soon change), I cannot attach any such labels to him. Certainly not incompetence.
Others might identify his abrasive relationships as arrogance. But maybe he just gets frustrated in the workplace, like millions of Americans do.
My angst with Valentine is probably based on the fact he is often placed in the upper strata of managers, but he hasn't won anything.
In 15 years, he is 45 games above .500. That comes out to 82.5 wins a year, which would get him fired in Boston.
He brought the wild-card Mets to the 2000 World Series, but has never won a division title. He did win a Japan Series with the Lotte Chiba Marines, but I wasn't there for that.
But there are reasons to think this could work, at least for the short term until Valentine and his closest ally, Larry Lucchino, start fighting over the batting order.
Tommy Lasorda knows Valentine as well as anybody. He says the days of chicken and beer in the clubhouse are over.
That is a powerful endorsement, given this team's state. If the biggest knock on Valentine is that it's always all about him, maybe that's what this team needs.
"It's already a circus in there,'' a skeptical friend told me.
"Yes, but every circus needs a ringleader,'' I countered.
Valentine inherits a team at a crossroads, for reasons beyond discipline.
There are questions with pitching, right field, and if David Ortiz does not return, DH.
Carl Crawford and often-injured Kevin Youkilis tempt questions. Yet there is also talent galore.
Expectations will not run amok as they did last spring, but they will be playoff-level high.
For such a veteran manager, Valentine comes as the biggest question mark of all.
A friend of mine put it well, when asked if someone so different than Terry Francona matched Boston's need.
"I don't know what they need. I thought they had what they needed,'' he said.
It's Valentine's team now. He is entitled to a fair chance from all of us.
Good luck, Bobby. You da man.
But then, you don't need people like me to tell you something you already know.