Red Sox Mutiny: Dustin Pedroia and Adrian Gonzalez Reportedly Called For Valentine to Leave in “Ugly” Meeting
The Boston Red Sox’ hiring of Bobby Valentine just keeps getting better, for those who write about the team. According to Yahoo! Sports, Red Sox owners held a meeting after several players complained when Valentine left Jon Lester in to allow 11 runs against the Blue Jays on July 22. The meeting “turned ugly” with players, most notably Adrian Gonzalez and Dustin Pedroia, calling for Valentine to be let go.
There is also, to be fair, a reported faction in favor of Valentine wishing poorly performing star players would pipe down and do their jobs.
The meeting was shortly before Terry Francona drew flack for entering the clubhouse. It is perhaps worthwhile to note that Terry Francona’s specialties were handling difficult personalities – the guy milked two World Series-contributing seasons from Manny Ramirez – and keeping what happens in the clubhouse out of the media. Valentine has been a resounding failure on both counts, in addition to the whole not winning thing.
Despite beginning the season with a payroll north of $170 million, the Red Sox are on pace to have a below .500 record at Fenway for a completed season for the first time since 1983. Like most Red Sox fans, we have checked out on this season. Our only lingering interest concerns this cell phone picture emerging.
Pedroia, notorious among teammates for his wit and humor, is in the foreground with a giddy smile, his tongue wagging and both thumbs up. Next to him is allegedly Valentine, face down on a table, apparently asleep. A caption accompanies the picture: “Our manager contemplating his lineup at 3:30 p.m.”
Not sure where the Red Sox owners go from here. There don’t appear to be any fat, free agent starters to overpay.
[Photo via Getty]
Previously: Bobby Valentine Can’t Quit Trolling Kevin Youkilis
Previously: Bobby Valentine Was Asked About Curt Schilling, and Then Things Got Awkward
Previously: Bobby Valentine is Already Irritating The Red Sox Front Office
Previously: Red Sox Manager Bobby Valentine Will Do a Weekly ESPN Radio Show in New York With Michael Kay
Previously: Dustin Pedroia on Valentine: “I don’t really understand what Bobby’s trying to do”
Previously: The Red Sox Traded Kevin Youkilis to the Chicago White Sox
Previously: Bobby Valentine Bans Alcohol in Red Sox Clubhouse
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August 14th, 2012 at 5:14 PM
Aaaaaaaand here come the pretzels…
August 14th, 2012 at 5:17 PM
Woohoo! Baseball!
And they’re right, just like the faction that complained has fair beef too. The thing with Middlebrooks (“nice inning, kid”) and leaving Lester out to die was total mismanagement. Like Passan wrote, his divide-and-conquer style was no secret. I guess this is what Larry and John wanted. If not, then they’re less suited for their jobs than Bobby is because everyone saw this a mile away.
There’s no patching bridges with Tito. That thing got napalmed. If they fire Bobby after the season, who can they even tap to replace him?
/enjoying this Red Sox season throughly
//partially because the Cubs suck so hard
///mostly because I just like to watch the Sawks burn
August 14th, 2012 at 5:17 PM
Love it.
August 14th, 2012 at 5:19 PM
Or the players could just shut up and stop making excuses for the fact that their two best pitchers have pitched like shit and half the team has been on the DL?
August 14th, 2012 at 5:20 PM
Tim Ryan in the post pleading with the commenters for some kind of sanity.
August 14th, 2012 at 5:23 PM
Their season hasn’t even registered with me.
/farts
//smells own fart
///enjoys it
August 14th, 2012 at 5:23 PM
What was the bullpen situation like the night Lester got shelled? Sometimes a guy just has to eat it for the good of the team if the pen’s been overworked
August 14th, 2012 at 5:25 PM
Bullpen pitched 5 total innings between 8 different pitchers the prior two days. There were options available. Bobby chose not to exercise them. The management of the pen the prior two days was also questionable, which is another fault on Valentine.
August 14th, 2012 at 5:25 PM
Even as I wait for the O’s to fall apart, I’m enjoying this Red Sox season immensely. Fuck them.
August 14th, 2012 at 5:29 PM
Well I tried Bobby, yikes that’s bad
August 14th, 2012 at 5:29 PM
I can’t believe I had never heard of this movie before
August 14th, 2012 at 5:31 PM
I can’t believe I had never heard of this movie before
What I enjoy about that? Written, produced and directed by Shane Van Dyke. Never heard of him? No problem, click on his IMDB page. Oh he’s the nephew of Stacy Van Dyke. Thanks IMDB!
August 14th, 2012 at 5:31 PM
Valentine as Capt Queeg? Gonzalez as Steve Marek? Pedroia as Ensign Willie Keith? I like it.
Bobby V needs to go back to broadcasting. I’d love to see Joe Torre come back to managing with Boston.
August 14th, 2012 at 5:32 PM
When a midget and a guy who looks like a clown are involved, do you expect anything other than a circus?
August 14th, 2012 at 5:33 PM
Valentine as Capt Queeg? Gonzalez as Steve Marek? Pedroia as Ensign Willie Keith? I like it.
Love that movie. And Jose Ferrer plays a guy named Barney. What’s not to like?
August 14th, 2012 at 5:34 PM
Get that god damn picture
August 14th, 2012 at 5:34 PM
He also helped write the screenplay for Chernobyl Diaries (apparently). But I mean. I’m no big fan of the original movie, but at least it looked pretty good. Just look at the ship on the cover of this one. Amazing.
August 14th, 2012 at 5:35 PM
He is such a bad-ass in that movie. Not a lot of screen time, but snark in almost every line.
August 14th, 2012 at 5:35 PM
If I have followed this maze correctly, and I think I have…Dick Van Dyke is the great uncle of Shane.
I am sure Dick loved Titanic II
August 14th, 2012 at 5:37 PM
So these entitled assholes are trying to blame the manager for their lack of performance. I feel for Bobby.
August 14th, 2012 at 5:40 PM
Duffy : Red Sox fan :: McTiBbLe : Baseball fan
/seriously, we get this shit, but you can’t run two lines about Johnny Pesky last night when no one is around anyway?
August 14th, 2012 at 5:42 PM
This is a story worth running. Passan did some digging. Sorry about Pesky though. I saw the Yanks had a tribute for him at the Stadium last night.
August 14th, 2012 at 5:42 PM
Bullpen management has been Bobby’s weak spot, if you don’t count starting pitching management or lineup management. I hear he’s been great on defensive alignments
/not really.
That said, can’t everyone shut up and play? If Lester didn’t want to give up 11 runs, maybe he should have gotten more outs. And I really don’t get the national fascination with the Red Sox. I might just be pulling a ‘nothing to see here, move along’, but if I was a Dodgers fan here and all I got was Red Sox posts, it’d annoy the shit out of me.
August 14th, 2012 at 5:43 PM
We’re lucky we get anything at all.
August 14th, 2012 at 5:43 PM
He is such a bad-ass in that movie. Not a lot of screen time, but snark in almost every line.
Best line in the movie after he pours the drink on Keefer: “If you want to do something about it I’ll be outside. I’m drunker than you are so it’ll be a fair fight”.
Goddamn, what a badass.
August 14th, 2012 at 5:44 PM
The Red Sox have a week before going home, so I’m sure they’ll plan something, but five new crises will have happened and overshadowed it by then.
I’m not saying this isn’t a story worth running, but I am disappointed no Pesky post. Part of ‘fans’ being writers here is choosing content, and I at least figured there would be some catty line about Pesky having to go out on such a bad seaason.
August 14th, 2012 at 5:45 PM
I was under the impression that if you spend money you win in baseball?
August 14th, 2012 at 5:49 PM
I’ll never understand this mentality. It strikes me as loser-thought. Who cares who wins, or does well. The goal is to win, every year. If the Red Sox don’t win, I don’t really derive any pleasure from the Yankees not winning, either.
August 14th, 2012 at 5:51 PM
I LOVE that scene, from him staggering down the stairs in the club until he throws the drink.
August 14th, 2012 at 5:52 PM
Because listening to Dennis and Callahan tomorrow morning is going to entertain me while I work. Should be a great day of calls.
I enjoy when the Cardinals fail. Unfortunately, they’ve ended up on the opposite side of failure recently.
August 14th, 2012 at 5:53 PM
And Pedroia is coming off as a real punk in all this. He’s got gripes, sure. But shut up and play. They’re paying you $8M to do so this year regardless of who is calling the shots. Lots of people hate their immediate superior in the working world. They still are required to do their jobs.
August 14th, 2012 at 5:54 PM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/nationals/stephen-strasburg-shutdown-debate-masks-the-washington-nationals-true-story/2012/08/14/d09ea3ee-e63e-11e1-8741-940e3f6dbf48_story.html
It’s not dramatic enough to get a
title(/Hernia) headline here, but I liked this piece a lot. I’ve enjoyed a lot of random Boswell columns in the past few years, despite not being a Nationals (or NL) fan at all.August 14th, 2012 at 5:55 PM
Listening to 670 the Score out of Chicago the day after the ’10 NFC Championship Game will remain one of my cherished sports memories for years to come…I apologize for nothing
August 14th, 2012 at 5:57 PM
Lisk wrote about Strasburg last week, I think. I disagreed with his stance but it was still a well-drawn post.
August 14th, 2012 at 6:00 PM
WWos, that was a great article.
Much as I disagree with Rizzo, he hasn’t backed down. “Bring your balls to work day”. Good for him.
August 14th, 2012 at 6:02 PM
Yeah I thought it was a decent piece, IIRC. I understand the logic, and appreciate Rizzo’s firmness (why make a decision if you won’t stick with it), I just don’t understand the implementation. Start him up in May, limit innings in June/July, move him to pen or option him for a couple weeks… anything better than having a postseason without your best pitcher, and pissing him off. But the Boswell piece was well-written, and I enjoy good baseball writing, of which there is very little. Even Jayson Stark has gotten to the point where I don’t really enjoy his stuff.
August 14th, 2012 at 6:12 PM
Yeah, me too. Boswell may be the best in the business, but the competition is dwindling.
I’m with you on the Strasburg use rate issue. Plus, you really don’t know how this season is gonna play out. With Strasburg, they may have a chance to win the WS. Without him, who knows?
Plus, they can’t guarantee this level of performance in the future, team or Strasburg.
August 14th, 2012 at 6:13 PM
You two should probably subscribe to BA or BP. Tremendous baseball writing in both places.
August 14th, 2012 at 6:15 PM
Posnanski.
August 14th, 2012 at 6:24 PM
Overall, I like his work. But, just before the Penn State disclosure, I stopped following Joe as much. No good reason, just didn’t track him as before.
Sounds like a good idea.
August 14th, 2012 at 6:25 PM
can’t spell posnanski without POS.
/uncalled for
August 14th, 2012 at 6:30 PM
You had the shot. There was no danger. So you took it.
August 14th, 2012 at 6:31 PM
what can i say…i beat cripples.
August 14th, 2012 at 6:31 PM
can’t spell posnanski without POS.
/uncalled for
Big talk from someone whose favorite team has a coach that likely has the skins of children hanging in his attic.
August 14th, 2012 at 6:33 PM
LET’S GO YANKEES!!!
August 14th, 2012 at 6:34 PM
I started reading his stuff a few years ago only, but never loved it. I just never felt it was interesting. Boswell’s piece I linked was great because it took an existing story, but put a new angle on it, had a theme, and stayed true to it.
Anyone who has read my comments on Duffy’s pieces here knows I am sensitive to rambling nonsense, and prefer succinct points made, with a coherent flow. You can tell Boswell builds his columns up from a central thesis, rather than accumulating thoughts and squishing them down into an article.
August 14th, 2012 at 6:34 PM
if it were big talk it’d have been CAN’T SPELL POSNANSKI WITHOUT POS.
dumbass.
August 14th, 2012 at 6:38 PM
if it were big talk it’d have been CAN’T SPELL POSNANSKI WITHOUT POS.
dumbass.
Urban Meyer eats the dried feet of dead infants.
August 14th, 2012 at 6:40 PM
Does someone eat wet feet of dead infants?
August 14th, 2012 at 6:40 PM
I started reading his stuff a few years ago only, but never loved it. I just never felt it was interesting. Boswell’s piece I linked was great because it took an existing story, but put a new angle on it, had a theme, and stayed true to it.
Posnanski is good at placing things into historical context, which is an important skill when you write about baseball.
And he had a piece today about Pesky. So perhaps if you go to his blog and read it you’ll get the fix you’ve been pining for all day and will change your mind.
August 14th, 2012 at 6:40 PM
i’ll make sure to fast forward the 2013 SI commemorative ohio state national championship dvd through those parts then.
August 14th, 2012 at 6:42 PM
that’s not gonna hap..
/ack!
//urban’d
August 14th, 2012 at 6:43 PM
/hires dantonio
August 14th, 2012 at 6:43 PM
Does someone eat wet feet of dead infants?
Urban might have at one point. But he decided to combine his love of beef jerkey with his love of dead, small things.
August 14th, 2012 at 6:43 PM
gene smith eats just about everything…so there’s that.
August 14th, 2012 at 6:45 PM
//ack!
///dantonio’d
August 14th, 2012 at 6:45 PM
Does absofuckinglutely everyone do a cover of “Such Great Heights” now?
August 14th, 2012 at 6:45 PM
i wish i knew computering things so i could make a gif of that scene in the ladies man where tim meadows eats a buch of shit out of a jar with gene smith’s face. i need an intern.
DARREN.
August 14th, 2012 at 6:48 PM
I don’t know who Tatiana Gil is, but Jesus Christ….
NSFW
August 14th, 2012 at 6:54 PM
/straightens tie
for a fat chick, you sure have small tits.
August 14th, 2012 at 6:57 PM
Does someone eat wet feet of dead infants?
Next week’s secret ingredient on the Japanese version of Iron Chef.
August 14th, 2012 at 7:03 PM
i thought morimoto’s wet infant feet spring rolls with the black truffle hot mustard would’ve taken the day, but i have to agree with the judges that the challengers szechuan feet fuqi feipian was the strongest dish overall.
/mario batali would’ve made wet baby feet ravioli
//bobby flay would’ve made wet baby feet sliders with southwestern slaw and an adobo aioli
///because bobby flay is a one trick pony you see?
////batali’s my boy tho…wops for life, son
August 14th, 2012 at 7:05 PM
Spencer, that hamster is just running a mile a minute in your head sometimes.
August 14th, 2012 at 7:06 PM
it’s a gift and a curse.
August 14th, 2012 at 7:09 PM
But yeah, fuck Bobby Flay.
August 14th, 2012 at 7:11 PM
my roommate’s girlfriend is convinced bobby flay has a tiny dick and is a three pump chump because he cooks the same shit every time and totally over compensates for his lack of sexual prowess with overwhelming flavor.
i don’t necessarily agree, but i wholeheartedly endorse spreading her analysis.
August 14th, 2012 at 7:14 PM
I find her analysis to be both compelling and believable.
August 14th, 2012 at 7:15 PM
i bet he’s fucked a poblano hollow.
August 14th, 2012 at 7:21 PM
And then served the remains as an appetizer in one of his overpriced restauratns.
August 14th, 2012 at 7:22 PM
Boston needs to clean house of these team cancers. Start with Larry Lucchino who forced Cherington to hire Bobby.
August 14th, 2012 at 7:37 PM
The real question is:
Beer and chicken, or chicken and beer?
August 14th, 2012 at 7:39 PM
Tatiana Gil is depressing
August 14th, 2012 at 7:52 PM
SHUT IT DOWN!!
August 14th, 2012 at 7:55 PM
The article says 17 guys wanted him fired so it’s not just Pedroia and Gonzalez who want him gone.
August 14th, 2012 at 8:06 PM
Fit,
Pedroia has been the ringleader. He’s been a petulant child the entire season, purposely throwing bobby v under the bus and not holding himself or the pitchers accountable. Last week when Beckett gave up 8 runs, Pedroia said Beckett pitched great. He’s a fucking disaster and needs to go.
August 14th, 2012 at 10:33 PM
Whatever it is about the Red Sox, it seems to be working. I hope they can keep it up for the rest of the year