by Larry Shiman, FN Board MemberWhen I first heard that the Sox were thinking about Bobby Valentine, I was surprised. I think of his personality as the opposite of the managers we have seen around here for a long time. Jimy Williams, Terry Francona, and the other guy I don’t like to think about were all pretty low key guys. They were calming presences, and didn’t stir up controversy. Even in other sports, the guys who seem to thrive here are the guys who don’t go out of their way to create controversy (Belichick has attracted his share of controversy, but it wasn’t his outgoing personality that led to it). Bobby V, on the other hand, loves to talk, and becomes part of the story. I think of him more like Rick Pitino and Bill Parcells, neither of whom lasted long in this town. Given the collapse at the end of last year, however, maybe it’s what they need right now.
Looking at Valentine’s record, the first thing you notice is that he doesn’t wear out his welcome too fast. He’s only had two managing gigs, and they lasted a long time. He may be emotional, but I don’t remember too many battles between him and his players – he’s no Billy Martin (or Rick Pitino, or Bill Parcells) in that regard. In New York, his tenure precisely overlapped with the years that the Yankees were most dominant, and the Mets were kicked off the back pages of the tabloids, so he didn’t get as much exposure as you might think. In Boston, he’ll get all the attention he wants.
His first gig was with the Rangers, from ’85 to ’92. He took over a team that was terrible – the Rangers finished last in ’84, and were 9-23 in ’85 when he took over. The only guys with any real talent were over 30. It didn’t take long for them to improve, in a big way. While they continued to struggle in the rest of ’85, they took a major step forward in ’86, finishing 87-75, in second place. He immediately put in a bunch of young players, got rid of the dead wood, and it paid off. Among his regular players that year were Pete Incaviglia (age 22), Oddibe McDowell (age 23), Ruben Sierra (age 20), Ed Correa (age 20), Bobby Witt (age 22), Jose Guzman (age 23), Mitch Williams (age 21), and Steve Buechele (age 24). The Rangers had a lot of young talent, and by God, he was going to give them a chance. However, they weren’t the real reason the Rangers improved so much. They improved because the veterans that were left all had terrific years – Pete O’Brien, Scott Fletcher, Larry Parrish, and Charlie Hough in particular.
After the glorious first full year, the Rangers were considered one of the hot young teams in baseball. And then they collapsed. 87 losses in ’87. 91 losses the next year. By ’89, they finally found their footing, and were pretty good for a few years, before management got tired of being pretty good, and Bobby V. was gone by midseason of ’92. Looking at those teams, they scored runs – a lot of them, but their pitching was never very good. Most of the young pitchers didn’t develop under Valentine, and they were carried along by Kevin Brown and an ancient Nolan Ryan for a few years. But still, he never stopped giving a chance to the young guys, including starting Juan Gonzalez at age 20, and a 19 year old catcher name Ivan Rodriguez, and it paid off more than it didn’t.
His second chance came in New York. Once again, he took over a team that was pretty bad, but then again Dallas Green was the manager, who I distinctly remember had no business running a major league baseball team. And once again, they almost immediately improved—from 71 to 88 wins in his first full season. And it should be noted that he won 88 games that year with a starting rotation of Rick Reed, Dave Mlicki, Bobby Jones, Mark Clark, and Armando Reynoso. This time they consolidated, winning 88 games the next year, 97 the year after that, and made it to the World Series the year after that.
To be fair, they did get Mike Piazza, along with Al Leiter for the pitching staff, but the talent on those clubs was not overwhelming. In one way, he did the opposite in New York as he did with Texas, tending to play the veterans, rather than young guys, but then again, he had more old talent and less young than he did in Texas. Eventually, the strategy stopped working – our old friend Mo Vaughn, along with Roberto Alomar, were pretty bad, and the team collapsed, but for a few years, he did a hell of a job.
So what does this all add up to? First, he seems to have a pretty positive impact at the beginning. Although he played a lot of youngsters in Texas, it’s interesting that he got some terrific performances out of veterans that just weren’t that good during the rest of their careers. I don’t think his teams were overwhelmingly talented, but they still won, at least for a while. Several veterans who were good performed even better under Valentine than they had in the past. Second, he’ll go with young guys when they look real promising, even at a very young age, but if not, he’s happy playing veterans as well.
Finally, I think the extent to which he’s an emotional manager is a bit overblown. Emotional managers don’t tend to last for several years at each stop. Nor do guys who have problems with their General Managers or ownership.
It’s a good record. In my opinion, he’s never really had the horses, even in New York, especially when it comes to pitching. The more I look at his record, the more I think they made the right choice.