Results tagged ‘ Bobby Valentine ’
Bobby Valentine’s first ejection as Red Sox manager is an instant classic
by D.J. Short @ Hardball Talk
Bobby Valentine was ejected for the 38th time in his managerial career last night and for the first time as Red Sox skipper. And it was super awkward.
Valentine came out to argue after Marlon Byrd hit a grounder up the middle and Phillies shortstop Jimmy Rollins threw him out in a close play at first for the second out in the top of the ninth inning.
Bobby V tried to state his case to first base umpire Gary Darling that Ty Wigginton came off the first base bag before catching the throw from Rollins. After Valentine made multiple hops into the air to emphasize his point, this happened:
A true gift from the GIF gods.
Yes, Darling’s gum fell out of his mouth and hit Valentine in the chest. You can watch the full video of the ejection here. Bobby V deserves a lot of credit for keeping his composure long enough to wish a pox upon Darling’s house while walking back to the dugout.
Youk & Dustin Pedroia respond to Bobby Valentine’s criticism of Youkilis
Even after winning the first three games of their four game series versus division rival the Tampa Bay Rays, the Red Sox are finding ways to create controversy.
In an interview with WHDH before Sunday’s game, Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine said of Youkilis:
“I don’t think he’s as physically or emotionally into the game as he has been in the past for some reason. But [on Saturday] it seemed, you know, he’s seeing the ball well, got those two walks, got his on-base percentage up higher than his batting average, which is always a good thing, and he’ll move on from there.”
WEEI’s Rob Bradford reports that Youkilis arrived early to the stadium, where he met in private with Valentine.
The criticism comes as Youkilis showed signs of recovering from a slow start to the season.
Not surprisingly, Kevin Youkilis was asked about Bobby Valentine’s comment that Youk was not “physically or emotionally into the game.” Rob Bradford of WEEI has his comments:
“That’s not what I see. I go out every day and play as hard as I can. I take every ground ball in the morning, take every at-bat like it’s my last. I don’t think my game has changed at all … I’m more confused than anything, because I think everyone knows I go out and play the game as hard as I can.”
Meanwhile on Monday, Dustin Pedroia came to his teammate’s defense in comments to the media. NESN’s Tom Caron tweeted Pedroia as saying:
”I don’t really understand what Bobby’s trying to do. But that’s really not the way we go about our stuff here. I’m sure he’ll figure that out soon. We’ve got Youk’s back. He’s played his [butt] off for us for a long time …”
Asked if he thought Valentine’s comments could have been meant as a motivational tool, Pedroia didn’t sound impressed.
“Maybe in Japan or something,” he said, referring to Valentine’s stint as a manager there. “Over here in the U.S., we’re on a three-game winning streak, we want to feel good and keep it rolling. We feel we have a good team and we’ve just got to get each other’s backs and play together. Because if you don’t do that, I don’t care what sport you’re playing, you’re not going to win.”
The comments from Pedroia undoubtedly will revive Curt Schilling’s take on Valentine, where he suggested that the manager was not a good fit for the Red Sox.
Even as a Yankees fan I have quite a few fans of the Red Sox for friends and I can say the news that this assclown was hired as their new manager this off-season was almost universally regarded as a “dumpster fire waiting to happen”.
After witnessing all of this it’s not hard to understand why.
Curt Schilling gets pwn3d by Josh Beckett
Lol, from Craig Calcaterra @ Hardball Talk comes this follow-up to today’s “Curt Schilling “Red Sox are growing tired of Valentine already” headlines:
Curt Schilling said that the Red Sox players hate Bobby Valentine. Josh Beckett then turned around with this:
Josh Beckett on WEEI responding to Curt Schilling’s comments on Bobby V:
“I haven’t seen him around this year. Is he one of our pitchers?”
No, Josh. He’s not. He’s just that sad old guy who keeps hanging around his old high school, telling everyone about how it used to be. Go ahead, ask him: he’ll tell you how he scored four touchdowns in a single game that one time.
Sounds about right, except as big a mouth as Schilling has (and it’s quite friggin large) he doesn’t tend to make shit up. He is just more than willing to offer up his opinion on things going on around him (and others), regardless of whether or not you want to hear them.
There is quite a distinct difference between those two things.
Look, at face value I don’t doubt much of anything Schilling said.
There are eight guys on that roster who played with him (Bucholz, Papi, Youk, Pedroia, Jacoby, Lester, Dice K and Beckett).
While it’s probably safe to say Beckett isn’t his “source”, it is quite plausible that Schilling has talked to people about this (there are things that make it possible to communicate without being around the guys Josh, you know, like phones).
Add to that little factoid the stark reality that it’s been a controversial spring for Valentine.
One of his first mantras as Sox manager was banning alcohol from the clubhouse after reports surfaced last season of pitchers eating fried chicken and drinking in the clubhouse while the team went through an epic meltdown in September, losing 20 of 27 games and getting eliminated from playoff contention on the season’s final day.
Early in spring training, he ripped Derek Jeter’s famous flip play against the A’s in the 2001 playoffs (he later apologized), and credited retiring catcher Jason Varitek for punching out Alex Rodriguez in a 2004 fight.
Just last week, he raised a stink after a game against the Yankees ended in a tie bla bla bla, and it it isn’t hard to envision his “Bobby Me!” act could start to wear thin on some people.
It is conceivable that Schilling is hitting the nail on the head with this one, but the only that is for certain is this:
Gonna be one damn interesting year in Bean Town.
