Bobby V.: Sox Atmosphere Needs 'Fine-Tuning'

AP Photo/LM Otero

Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine appeared on WEEI's Big Show this afternoon and conceded that the 'atmosphere' around the Red Sox might need 'fine tuning'. And, he implied, one of the reasons he thought he was hired was to do just that. In his own words, to "adjust some of the culture".

Valentine's mood seemed almost resigned to the new reality he is now facing with this team. When asked about the fact that he could not pick his own coaching staff, he waded into a tortured metaphor. Coaches, he said, "are the telephone poles that hold up the wires of communication" on a team. "Was that a problem here?", he was asked. His non-committal answer was, "I don't think so. I'm still evaluating". [EMPHASIS ADDED] He also alluded to the politically-correct notion that people—and ballplayers—need to be handled with kid gloves. Again, he gave a "half-way" answer: "... we have a bunch of professional guys."

This interview might mark the beginning of the end of Bobby Valentine in Boston—it was (finally) a window into his real view of the situation.