Tagged: Bobby Valentine

MLB Opening Day

It’s 6:10 am EST and the Oakland Athletics are hosting the Seattle Mariners for the first game of the year…in Japan. I wonder if the first pitch was a strike or a ball…Now, as much as I love opening day baseball, and watching the first game of the season, I simply can’t watch this game because I’ll be driving to my job (teaching students). Well, I am driving to my job now, anyways.

I also can’t watch this game because even though the games count, I still find it ridiculous that players go from regular season games back to exhibition games. Playing games that count to then go back to playing games that don’t count…back to spring training. It’s a tease, like being shown your Birthday presents, and then having them taken away and being told you can have them in 3 to 5 days.

Ok, so Ichiro is playing back in Japan for the Mariners, which might be cool to watch if he hadn’t already returned to play in Japan, for Japan, in the World Baseball classic.

That’s right, both Seattle and Oakland return stateside to play more spring training games (Seattle has 5 in Arizona, Oakland plays 3 against the Giants in San Fransisco) before “resuming” their series with 2 games in Oakland.

We’ve been through this 3 times before (Red Sox and Athletics in 2008; Yankees and Rays in 2004; Mets-Cubs in 2000) before, and what astonishes me is that every year there are comments from pundits about how the trip will take its toll on the players – and yet in each year at least one of those teams involved has advanced to the League Championship Series. The only time a team made it to the World Series was the one year where the team didn’t have spring training games after the trip to Japan (the 2000 Mets, which was managed by new Red Sox skipper, Bobby Valentine).

MLB baseball in Japan. Every 4 years. Like the Olympics. Only with less anticipation. And less people viewing at home on TV.

The downside, besides losing 2 home games for the Athletics fan base, is now the “American” opening day (April 4th with the St. Louis Cardinals at the Miami Marlins) now means less to the casual fan. Why? Even though that game will be televised Nationally, it now isn’t the first game of the season. All that this game means for the casual fan is the first game in Miami’s new stadium, against the reigning World Series Champions.

So while I will notice the change in the Standings when I get home from work tomorrow – I, like most baseball fans (I suspect), will not be watching.

At least for the Fenway Faithful, this means that April 5th and the Detroit Tigers are just that much closer…

The Best Red Sox Manager Ever; The New Manager

I remember it vividly: I was walking back to my truck from work wearing my Sox hat and my work sweatshirt; on the harborwalk, right between the waters of Boston Harbor and near the edge of Rowes Wharf by the Coast Guard building at the corner of Atlantic Ave and Northern Ave, with my radio and headphones on; listening to a game that should have been over and won. I heard the call of the pitch, and I came to a complete stop. I dropped my head. I cried.

A phrase re-played in my mind, heard inside my head as clearly as the moment my mother said it. “They always find a way to lose.” That was in my parent’s living room, 16 years 357 days earlier, after the top of the 9th; 3 outs from being the 1986 World Series Champions. I heard this phrase and relived this moment each time the Red Sox lost in the postseason, or lost a late season division lead.

As I started to continue my long, and now depressing, trip home, I had no way of knowing that this would be my last October  as a fan who had never seen their team win a World Series; that this would be the last time that phrase would replay in my mind; the last time hearing or seeing 1918 would make me cringe.

Enter Terry Francona, the 2004 Idiots, and a new era of Boston Baseball. I still can’t even imagine the pressure he must have felt from the expectations he was under. In 4 years as a manager, he had never managed a team to a playoff game, much less a winning record. He was taking over a Red Sox team that had 95 wins the year before; had been in position to win Game 7 of the 2003 ALCS but lost because of a manager’s decision to leave a tiring starter in the game; and then came the 11th inning and Aaron bleeping Boone – and a “curse” that ran back 85 years.

Francona had to have a winning season; make the playoffs; get past the Yankees; win the World Series – If not, his first year could very well be his last. It wasn’t a hope of Red Sox Nation that he manage the Red Sox to victory in the World Series – it was a demand and expectation.

And frankly, the Red Sox got the best Manager they have ever had in team history. Period.

The 2004 World Series Trophy in City Hall Plaz...

Image via Wikipedia

Terry Francona Spent 8 years as the Manager of the Red Sox – only Pinky Higgins (8) and Joe Cronin (15) had as many years as Skipper of the Red Sox. Francona’s 1296 regular season games managed are second to only Cronin (2007).

With that many  regular season games, you’d expect Cronin to have the Most wins (1071) and Francona to have the second most (744) – But Francona had a .574 winning percentage – 9th overall, but only 2nd behind Don Zimmer (.575) with a minimum of 5 years as a Red Sox Manager. He won 192 more games than he lost – a team best, with Joe Cronin a distant 2nd with 155, and Zimmer third at 107. The team average finish in the AL east was 2.3 under Francona, the best of any manager with a minimum of 5 years at the Red Sox helm. The only manager that averaged more wins a season than Terry Francona (93) is Grady Little (94), but Grady only managed the BoSox for 2 years (2002, 2003), and in his first two years (2004, 2005) Francona won an average of 96.5 games.

If you want to look beyond the regular season, and into the postseason, let’s not forget the 2 World Series titles Francona won; Only Bill Carrigan (who?) equals this total, and although he did it back-to-back (1915-16), he did it with some guy named Babe Ruth on his team. Maybe you’ve heard of him…

Oh, the Red Sox made the playoffs 5 out of the 8 years Francona was manager (62.5% of the time). That’s a Red Sox managerial best. Of course he had the wild card…but then so did Grady (50%) and Jimy Williams (40%). Neither Grady or Jimy managed the Sox atop the AL East to make the playoffs, which Francona did in 2007.

So the Red Sox said goodbye to Tito, a manager with a career (including Philly) .529 winning percentage, an average of 85.75 wins per year, winning 114 more games than he lost, and 5 postseason trips over 12 years (41.7%), and 2 World Series wins (16.7%).

He gets “traded” to ESPN for Bobby Valentine.

Bobby V – a manager with a Career .510 winning percentage, an average of 74.5 wins a year, winning 45 more games than he lost, 2 trips to the postseason in 15 years (13.3%), and no world series victories. When you think about it, with the lone exception of managerial experience, Valentine’s résumé is at least on par with Francona’s résumé when he joined the Red Sox for the 2004 season. And the similarity doesn’t end there.

This feels like the start of 2004 – Bobby Valentine has some big shoes to fill and expectations of winning a World Series, the year after the team faltered and failed to reach a goal that appeared complete. No team had missed the playoffs after being 9 games ahead at the start of September.  Bobby Valentine has the additional challenge of managing immediately after the best Red Sox manager ever. Valentine will also have to do it while facing comparisons to Francona, and possibly even criticisms from Francona, all season long.

Like Francona in 2004, I do not envy Bobby Valentine’s position; and I hope that (Like Francona) he can match the high expectations that Boston Fans, especially the Fenway Faithful like me, have for the 2012 Season.

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