Blog: Hardball
TAMPA — Simple question directed at Brian Cashman: “What is Bobby Valentine going to mean to the Rivalry?”
But, of course, it is not simple. Not when the goal for just about all involved in Red Sox-Yankees is to lower the temperature of the darn thing. So the Yankees general manager tries to figure out a way to say something without saying anything at all. He looks at his feet, kicks at the ground. Seventeen seconds of silence elapses after which, Cashman — of all things — stalls for more time by repeating the question.
Finally, he offers, “I guess we are all about to find out.”
Indeed we are. The teams have played more than 2,200 times — counting spring, regular season and postseason — and quite frankly, the old matchup needed a bit of rejuvenation. Yeah, it was better than Yankees-Royals or Red Sox-A’s. But it wasn’t 2003-04 when every darn game between the teams felt like a mandate on the worth of each organization.
Now here comes Valentine, a human torch. The new Red Sox skipper can create controversy simply by waving, as he did Monday to Ozzie Guillen after the Marlins manager was ejected, to which Guillen said that Valentine could, well, do something physically impossible. This is the effect Valentine tends to have on situations and people, both intentionally and not so.
This is why when Valentine entered the dugout at The George before last night’s 1-0 Red Sox win over the Yankees, he was immediately surrounded by 25 media members or roughly 25 more than, say, bothered to chat up Houston manager Brad Mills the previous evening.
“I worked in your business [at ESPN],” Valentine said jokingly. “So any way I can make your life easier, I am just here to please.”
Though entertaining — because he is genetically predisposed to be that — Valentine steered away from controversy. There was no “I hate the Yankees” declaration like at the Winter Meetings. No statements questioning Alex Rodriguez’s toughness or Derek Jeter’s intent on The Flip, like earlier this spring training.
In a private moment, I good-naturedly challenged Valentine to say something that could knock a Knicks’ six-game losing streak and mounting discord off the Back Page, and he chuckled, “Do I have [until] game time?”
However, like during the scrum with reporters, Valentine was Best Behavior Bobby. He does not do drab vanilla like Girardi. Still, he avoided the rocky road familiar to his past. He did say he was glad to be part of Red Sox-Yankees, and thought he would enjoy the 18 regular-season games more than the rest of the schedule. But he insisted that he would not work to pester the Yankees.
“If you try to annoy people with great talent,” Valentine said, “they usually have the last laugh.”
It is a nice sentiment. However, Valentine always has enjoyed a bit of psychological warfare, finding ways to vex the opponent. He just is not hardwired to quash throwing verbal logs onto fires like his predecessor, Terry Francona, or Joe Torre or Joe Girardi.
Valentine insisted this was the players’ Rivalry, and “they have allowed me to be part of it.” But his bigger-than-life personality is a major reason why he was hired — to help turn the page from the historic September 2011 collapse of the Red Sox. And if you have been reading the dispatches from Boston camp, you already know there is a Bobby Valentine variety show aspect to it, that he has to a large degree changed the subject to his theories and the 2012 campaign.
“I’ve enjoyed every second of it,” Valentine said of the early days of this regime.
He has a team good enough to win a championship or — in the tough AL East — finish fourth. He is trying to solve uncertainty at shortstop, in the corner outfield, the back of the rotation and throughout the bullpen. He says his team has no idea who he is yet, and that will not come until real wins and losses, success and slumps.
His influence on the Rivalry will be similar. The Yankees and Red Sox play just one series in the first three months, but five in the final three, including a season-ending three-gamer. In what projects as a tight race, you already can sense the importance, tension and passion that will be part of these games, especially as the season goes along.
The new ingredient will be Valentine. And my guess is — try as he might — we won’t be seeing much of Best Behavior Bobby.
joel.sherman@nypost.com
Bobby Valentine, Valentine, Bobby Valentine, Red Sox, Red Sox, Red Sox-Yankees, Red Sox-Yankees, Yankees, the Yankees, Brian Cashman, The Yankees, Joe Girardi.Valentine
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