Fourteen hours, 14 minutes. That’s all it took for the Red Sox to fire Bobby Valentine following their worst season since 1965. It was a forgone conclusion Valentine would not return, just a matter of when the firing would take place. The search is now on to find a replacement with Blue Jays manager John Farrell reportedly the early favorite.
Here are a few of the events, which certainly played a role in Valentine’s firing:
April 15, 2012
Appearing on WHDH’s “Sports Xtra”, Valentine made a comment directed at third baseman Kevin Youkilis.
“I don’t think he’s as physically or emotionally into the game as he has been in the past for some reason,” said Valentine.
The comment drew a great deal of media attention and Dustin Pedroia commented, “I don’t know what Bobby’s trying to do, but that’s not the way we do things here. Maybe that stuff works in Japan.”
This incident was the first big red flag that maybe Valentine might not work out in Boston.
August 1, 2012
Later in the summer during his weekly appearance on WEEI Valentine,without being provoked, offered a story of a game earlier in the season where he made a comment to rookie third baseman Will Middlebrooks when he committed two errors, which then got ownership involved.
“Ownership did come and say that they heard that a game when — or someone, actually ownership — that they heard when Will Middlebrooks made two errors in a game and he came off of the field and got into the dugout, I said, ‘Nice inning, Will,’ and that maybe that upset him,” said Valentine.
This wasn’t the only time Valentine revealed something unprovoked, which is unusual for a manager in the Boston market to do.
September 5, 2012
When the Red Sox were in the midst of a West Coast trip in which they lost eight of nine games, Valentine threatened to punch WEEI’s Big Show co-host Glenn Ordway in the face during his weekly interview.
Ordway suggested Valentine had possibly “checked out,” which prompted Valentine to go off.
“What an embarrassing thing to say. If I were there right now, I’d punch you right in the mouth. Ha, ha. How’s that sound? Is that like I checked out? What an embarrassing thing,” he said.
September 14, 2012
Before a game in Toronto, Valentine was asked where the roster needed improvement. Valentine responded with, “Are you kidding? This is the weakest roster we’ve ever had in September in the history of baseball. It could use help everywhere.”
The response apparently didn’t go over well with upper management as the next day Valentine tried to explain what he meant by spinning what he said the day before.
