Bobby Valentine Refuses To Go Away, Throws David Ortiz Under The Bus

Bobby V is no longer the Red Sox' manager—this alone is cause to break out the duck boats. But he is still talking, and saying inflammatory things, and people are listening because this is the sort of thing that happens every October in Boston, except this time it's coming from a disgruntled former employee instead of a disgruntled current employee!

To recap: David Ortiz went on the disabled list in July with an Achilles strain. He retured on Aug. 24, and went 2-for-4 with a double and two RBI. The next day, the Red Sox blew up the team, shipping Adrian Gonzalez, Carl Crawford, and Josh Beckett to Los Angeles. Two days later, Ortiz went on the DL again, and would not return.

Speaking on NBC Sports' Costas Tonight, Valentine says Ortiz didn't re-aggravate the injury, but rather pulled his own private Operation Shutdown.

"David Ortiz came back after spending about six weeks on the disabled list and we thought it was only going to be a week. He got two hits the first two times up, drove in a couple runs; we were off to the races. Then he realized that this trade meant that we're not going to run this race and we're not even going to finish the race properly and he decided not to play anymore. I think at that time it was all downhill from there."

Ortiz's agent denies this ever happened, pointing out that the decision to rest was made on advice of the team doctor. GM Ben Cherington denies it too, asking if he'd be negotiating with Ortiz on a new two-year deal if he was the type of guy who quits on his team.

Valentine wasn't done throwing bombs. Responding to questions of whether he was undermined by his coaches, he answered with as much tact as he could muster—which is to say, not much.

Valentine related a story in which Tom Landry, the former Dallas Cowboys coach, had advised him years ago to make sure his coaches "speak your language.''

"I should have heeded that advice,'' Valentine said. "I should have made sure the coaches were my guys.''

Also, remember the early-season flap after Valentine supposedly greeted Will Middlebrooks after a two-error inning with a sarcastic "Nice inning, kid?" Bobby V. now says that incident never happened, and the media need to check their facts. Which is funny, because Valentine was the one who said it happened in the first place.

In conclusion, Bobby Valentine is awful and should go back to Japan.

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