NFL Tickets
Bobby Valentine can’t stop being Bobby Valentine.
Instead of putting his train wreck 2012 season at the helm of the Boston Red Sox in his rear-view mirror, he has decided to once again paint the portrait of a noble leader falling on his sword to protect a kingdom.
Recently, after accepting the position of Athletic Director of Sacred Heart University, he has made comments that “…as far as I’m concerned and I thought I did a (good) job in Boston.”
Okay, fair enough, he thought he did a good job with a team that had a payroll north of $160 million and lost 93 games. However, Bobby V. would have received far more sympathy if he took any accountability for his part in the Red Sox mess.
It was a bad fit from the start, and Valentine showed an inability to adjust to his Red Sox roster.
Later, Valentine had this to say to Chris Russo on satellite radio: “Yeah, we were 52-50 after 102 games. We were holding it together with duct tape and super glue and then we made the trade and we decided we weren’t going to play anymore so, you know. We developed. We did what we had to do. Weeded out the weak, that’s for sure.”
Was Valentine at fault for everything that occurred with the Red Sox last season? Of course not, and almost any reasonable person would realize that. Valentine would be far better served to move on from last season and let other people dissect the 2012 Red Sox and simply take the high road.
Once the Red Sox made the mega-trade with the Los Angeles Dodgers, trading away Adrian Gonzalez, Carl Crawford and Josh Beckett, it was obvious that Boston would struggle for the remainder of the season.
The last two months of last season were embarrassing to watch, but it was something that absolutely needed to happen. The Red Sox needed to hit rock bottom. It was no longer Theo Epstein’s fault. It was no longer Terry Francona’s fault.
2012 was a black mark for the entire Red Sox organization, and it reflected poorly on everyone. But, the downward spiral started down the stretch of the 2011 Red Sox finish, something that Boston’s ownership seemed willing to overlook at the time.
With every passing comment, the 62-year old Valentine moves that much farther away from every entering back into baseball in anything other than a consultant’s role.
Bobby V. can still identify players that can play and pitchers who can pitch, even last season. He just didn’t have as much to work with and he didn’t help himself in the process. At times last season, Valentine seemed to be his own worst enemy, and that trend has seemed to continue this winter.
For Bobby V. and the Red Sox, it is time to move on.
Jon can be reached:
Twitter: jcullen71
Rant Sports: Jonathan Cullen
Share 
