You're Hired

[metirish]

Bobby Valentine close to making return to TV, nears deal with ESPN

It appears that BOBBY Valentine won't be unemployed for long. Television industry and baseball sources say Valentine, completing his final season as manager of the Chiba Lotte Marines of Japan's Pacific League, is on the verge of signing a lucrative multi-year deal with ESPN. Valentine, no doubt carrying his bag of disguises, will likely make his debut at the network working in its "Baseball Tonight" studio during next month's playoffs. "It's a done deal," one source said. "And it should be announced soon." This would mark Valentine's second tour of duty in Bristol. In 2003, he replaced Buck Showalter in ESPN's "Baseball Tonight" studio. Valentine, who took over the Mets during the 1996 season and managed them through 2002, also once worked as an analyst on NBC's Saturday afternoon "Game of the Week." Valentine, who pulled no punches in front of the camera, has already proven he has TV chops (sources said "The Baseball Network" also showed interest in him), but still wants to manage. If he comes to ESPN, it may be under circumstances similar to those in 2003. That's when ESPN put a "protection" clause in Bobby V.'s contact. Back then, ESPN suits set a precedent for hiring a manager-in-waiting. As part of the three-year offer negotiated with Valentine, network executives insisted that Valentine pay a monetary penalty if he bolted for a manager's job. Valentine, 59, stayed at ESPN for one season before heading to Japan. He managed the Marines (this was his second stint with the club) for six seasons, guiding them to a championship in 2005, their first title since 1974. Ownership said it could not afford to re-sign him at the end of this season, which sparked fan protests and a petition signed by 120,000 loyalists who wanted to the Marines to keep Valentine as manager. Valentine has one other ESPN connection. In 2008, he was featured in an ESPN documentary titled "The Zen of Bobby V."

I'll tune in for that...can't remember the last time I tuned in to Baseball Tonight

[ashie62]

Can he manage the Mets and do Baseball tonight from the dugout?

[Guest Edgy DC]

What I'd tune in for is a co-hosted opinion show called "Valentine and Phillips."

[Guest The Second Spitter]

Why not also throw Tim McCarver into the mix just for shits and giggles?

[Ceetar]

This is a little weird to me. For one, I'd be surprised if the MLB Network wouldn't want him, and I don't know why he'd rather be at ESPN. Money explains that, however..

I'd think he'd want to at least consider managing first. It's not even the offseason, and I'm sure there will be managers fired (Manuel hopefully..). Why not hold out until November?

[Benjamin Grimm]

He can always leave ESPN if he gets a managing job. (I'm feeling deja vu here... did he do that once before?)

[Ceetar]

He can always leave ESPN if he gets a managing job. (I'm feeling deja vu here... did he do that once before?)[/quote:130q4jyn]

True. Just seems somewhat silly. I imagine he may have had a contract when he went to Japan this last time. He worked for them in 2003 and then went to Japan in '04.

On the other hand, I wonder if he's trying to set a value on his services. If ESPN is paying him X, he can tell teams..well, I'm more valuable as a manager than an analyst, so you should probably pay me...X++

[Guest The Second Spitter]

Given that salaries for Major League managers are a matter of public record, I can't see how getting a job as analyst puts him in a stronger bargaining position.

[Ceetar]

Given that salaries for Major League managers are a matter of public record, I can't see how getting a job as analyst puts him in a stronger bargaining position.[/quote:z0f7g0i5]

I'm talking strictly ego. If he feels he's "in demand" as a manager, he can point to his current contract with ESPN and say, "I'm making 3 million a year with these guys. Why should I leave to get paid half that?"

[metirish]

Maybe he wants to be near home for a while and Bristol CT would fit that bill.

[Guest Edgy DC]

I don't know Connecticut geography as well as I should, but his stateside home is an hour or so from ESPN's studios, isn't it?

[Benjamin Grimm]

It's probably also better to be out there in the public eye than to be in some quiet semi-retirement.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

I don't know Connecticut geography as well as I should, but his stateside home is an hour or so from ESPN's studios, isn't it?[/quote:1xtx16a8]

If he's still in Stamford, then, yes. He's roughly equidistant from both Secaucus and Bristol.

[metirish]

IIRC his wife never did move to Japan , stills lives in Stamford and would commute once a month to see Bobby ...I think that was int he Bobby V documentry .

[seawolf17]

I don't know Connecticut geography as well as I should, but his stateside home is an hour or so from ESPN's studios, isn't it?[/quote:2sygm49m]

If he's still in Stamford, then, yes. He's roughly equidistant from both Secaucus and Bristol.[/quote:2sygm49m]
Yes, but one involves driving around NYC, the other involves driving around... I don't know, Waterbury. Not exactly an equal commute.

Either way, he's much closer when Fred & Jeff call now.

[metirish]

Bobby Valentine hasn't followed the 2009 Mets as closely as he would have if he were not in another hemisphere. But the team's former manager said Tuesday that he has seen enough to consider the season "a tragedy." "I have some friends there that I've shared tears with because I think it's been a tragedy," he said from Japan, where he is concluding a six-year run with the Chiba Lotte Marines and preparing to join ESPN as an analyst in time for the League Championship Series. "It's been disappointment after disappointment, and I don't think anybody could've fixed it as the season was going on. As soon as it seemed like things were getting better, they seemed to get worse. I was kind of a fan that was really disappointed and upset by the outcome." Naturally, Valentine's name will come up if the Mets eventually replace manager Jerry Manuel - not to mention for other teams with openings - but for now he said he is "committed" to doing the best job he can for ESPN. In 2010, that will include regular work on "Baseball Tonight" as well as contributing to 1050 ESPN radio and ESPNNewYork.com, a Web site launching early next year. Valentine has provisions in his contract that would allow him to leave for a managerial job, but ESPN executive VP Norby Williamson said he assumes the network will have Valentine at least through 2010. After the Mets fired Valentine, he spent 2003 at ESPN. He said rejoining the network was an easy decision. (Even if it does mean also rejoining former Mets general manager Steve Phillips, with whom he had a frosty relationship.) "This is a situation that only a fool would refuse," he said.

[ashie62]

I'm going to fool myself into thinking Bobby V is campaigning for the job

[Guest The Second Spitter]

Bobby Valentine hasn't followed the 2009 Mets as closely as he would have if he were not in another hemisphere. But the team's former manager said Tuesday that he has seen enough to consider the season "a tragedy." "I have some friends there that I've shared tears with because I think it's been a tragedy," he said

This has go down as the biggest crock of shit I've read in ages. Even by his standards, it's pitiful.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Why?

[Guest The Second Spitter]

First, he admits he hasn�t followed them closely but apparently he�s invested sufficient emotional capital to actually cry over them. Really? With "friends" within the organization? I�m sorry but I�m having a real tough time forming a mental portrait of this, especially coming from the same man who was willing to share inside information about the same organization to a bunch of students.

He equates the 2009 Mets to a "tragedy" � they�re a sporting organization; there�s nothing tragic about them.

Unlucky? Most definitely.

A disaster? In sporting terms, perhaps that�s a good summary of their season.

Not to get all Tom Glavine on you, but tragedy is the not the word to use here. A tragedy implies undue and unmitigated suffering.

He�s being melodramatic for no apparent reason, but his repeated restatement of the obvious through a series of hyperbole suggests to me he is being disingenuous.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Sure, I imagine he means "tragedy" hyperbolically, but it's not as if fans aren't hyperbolic every day. He should know better, but you've seen where trying to speak literally and with a reasonable sense of perspective got Glavine.

My guess (and it's only that), is that if there's any truth to the weeping, his bawling partner was Reyes, a known weepyface, if you believe reports from the last year Reyes lost to injury. Valentine, who lost his legs (and, with them, his potential for stardom) early in his career* might relate.

If all he's doing is getting in good with managment by letting him know his heart is with them, well, that's double plus good.

* I don't literally mean that he lost his legs.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

The "sharing tears with other men" line is great though.

Can't take credit for this idea, but how awesome would it be were the Mets to announce that Razor Shines has been fired and Bobby Vee is the new 3rd base coach?

Ridonkulously awesome.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Being manager with Bobby Vee as your third base coach would be like sleeping every night with a gun to your head. It'd be like the dugout was full of bear traps. You'd technically be managing, but you'd be afraid to do anything, knowing that anything you screw up would doom you. You'd agonize over even filling out the lineup card. You'd be emotionally exausted by four o'clock.

[Benjamin Grimm]

I think that's exactly why it would be fun. (And also one reason why it won't happen.)

I do hope that the Mets have reevaluated their earlier position, and that we read of a Jerry Manuel firing early next week. There's really only one reason to keep him: the fact that he's signed, and is owed money, for 2010.

Other than that, he's done everything a fired manager ought to have done.

[Guest Edgy DC]

He'd even get more camera time than Manuel. It'd be murdering the poor guy in tiny doses.

[Guest The Second Spitter]

I can;t imagine money will be the issue (although with the Wilpons you never know). He's owed less than the sum of two minimum wage Major Leaguers.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

I truly think the reason they won't fire Jerry is that they can't do that without also whacking Omar, and they're not prepared to do that. Yet.

Omar's already had 3 whacks at naming a manager, considering Jerry's re-hiring at the end of last season. How many more chances should he get?

[Benjamin Grimm]

None. But I suspect the Wilpons don't see it that way yet.

There seems to be some buzz that Omar's leash is shorter, that he's in trouble, etc. But I don't think a firing is imminent, and if you don't fire your GM in early October, I would think that means he survives the offseason. (Unless he takes off his shirt and starts shouting.)

[Frayed Knot]

I do hope that the Mets have reevaluated their earlier position, and that we read of a Jerry Manuel firing early next week. There's really only one reason to keep him: the fact that he's signed, and is owed money, for 2010.[/quote:3bcyvx39]

I don't think it's money when it comes to Jerry. There's also the conundrum of allowing Minaya to outlast the second of his own hires so they'd need to get rid of both (and be on the hook for a helluva lotta money) or have to answer for why their willing to see Manual axed but not the guy who constructed the team AND hired the last two fired managers. And, as we know, the specter of how a move will look is often as important to them as how it works.

They seem willing to call this season an imperfect storm of events and give these two one more year to turn things around although with orders to make changes NOW!!!! where things aren't working: Shines, Int'l scouting directors, minor league officials, etc. I honestly don't think they're unwilling to eat the money - hell, they've done it with virtually every manager they've ever hired - but rather are ready to make both Jerry & Omar sing for their future suppers while probably going into next season with an eye towards (perhaps for the first time) looking [u:3bcyvx39]outside the organization[/u:3bcyvx39] for who could/will replace both guys if things don't turn around.



oe: cross posted with several of the above

[Guest Edgy DC]

I like to think it's perfectly rational to continue with Minaya but not Manuel.