Well our long regional nightmare is over. It appears that after two months, the Boston Red Sox have finally chosen its next manager: Bobby Valentine.
After taking forever to make a decision and interviewing a pool of completely underwhelming choices: Dale Sveum, Pete Mackanin, Sandy Alomar Jr. and Torey Luvullo, it came down to Valentine or Gene Lamont.
Lamont was last seen as Detroit's third base coach so a Little League coach from Southie might have been a better candidate than him. He last managed in 2000! Sure Bobby V hasn't managed in MLB since 2002 (when he was fired from the Mets) but he's honed his skills in Japan and more recently, on Sunday Night Baseball.
After all, everyone knows baseball announcers make great managers. Honestly though, with as long as this dragged out (and let's not even mention that the Red Sox still haven't received compensation from the Cubs for Theo Epstein), fans just wanted Boston to come to a conclusion. We weren't into any of these guys but at the end of the day, does it really matter?
Managers in MLB are by far the least important head coaching position in the four major spots. They fill out lineup cards, make bullpen moves and what else exactly? Break up a few fights in the clubhouse, make some cringe worthy public appearances and that's about it. You know the Boston baseball writers will be eating out of Valentine's hand by Spring Training. They love him since he's quotable and a character so there's no doubt they'll go out of their way to state their unrequited love for him.
Who cares? Now that this is settled, can the front office focus on more important things like who's going to close next season for the Red Sox? Not to mention resigning David Ortiz, figuring out who will play right field and adding to the shaky rotation.
Free agency has begun and besides resigning Marco Scutaro, this team hasn't done anything to ensure it won't finish in third place in the AL East for the third consecutive year. Boston finally has a manager, time for more important tasks such as rebuilding this fractured squad.
UPDATE 12/1: I just watched the nauseating introductory press conference and while it wasn't mentioned, various reports said earlier today that Valentine got a two-year deal (with team options for 2014 and 2015) at slightly less than $3 million per season. It is interesting to note since that is rather short for a guy just starting out in a new place.
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