Valentine's Way Is Not Our Way

Mark At Fenway

by Mark Lawrence, FN Down-Under Editor

Sydney, Australia. Lately, there’s been quite a strident reaction to the parlous state of your 2012 Boston Red Sox and understandably so.  To most fans, this is a team without pitching, hastily cobbled together around those few remaining elements of past successes, and yet still expected to perform as a World Series contender.  This is a team handcuffed by an apparent lack of confidence and a crisis of leadership.  This is Bobby Valentine’s team.

Sniping at one’s own players is a strategy whose benefits have continued to elude me- what in the world was to be gained from publicly embarrassing Youkilis like that?  If Valentine believes that he in some way motivated Youkilis by those remarks, then his suitability as Manager, not to mention his credibility as a man, must be called into question.

After last September, the NOG realized that some serious problems needed to be addressed within the clubhouse.  They also realized that a Dale Sveum or a Gene Lamont possessed neither the toughness or the hard-heartedness needed to clean things up.  They needed a tough guy to step up and right the ship and Valentine – all mouth and ego – was their only choice.  Valentine likely grasped the offer with both hands, seduced by imagined sports page headlines and limitless opportunities for self-aggrandizement.  The only problem in all of this was that the undisciplined clubhouse was not the cause of the Grand Collapse.  The clubhouse shenanigans had likely been going on for years and - as long as the team played well – they would remain unreported.  After all, who in the world would care if the bullpen was sending out for fried chicken as long as they were winning?

After Valentine’s ill-advised remarks about Youkilis’ mental state, Dustin Pedroia was uncharacteristically mild in his assessment: “That’s not the way we do things around here,” he said and he’s right.  In any team environment, it is essential for the manager to have the respect of his subordinates for without that respect, they’ll never offer up their best efforts and the team will invariably suffer.  It’s becoming painfully obvious that Bobby Valentine does not have the respect and trust of those he commands.  And if the current losing trend continues, he may not have the trust of those who pay his salary, either.  In any case, this is one scribe who sees a change a-coming.  And the sooner, the better.   The reasons for hiring Valentine are becoming less and less justifiable with each loss.   Whichever way they’ve been running the clubhouse, whether Tito was ruling with an iron fist or a gentle hand, it has to be remembered that the Red Sox were a viable post-season contender in 2011 – right up until they tripped over their shoelaces in that tragic final stretch.  Hey, it’s baseball.  These things happen and I accept it.  But I can’t accept a manager who can’t control his tongue when questioned about his players.    That’s definitely not the way we do things around here.