Say what you will about Mike Matheny—he hasn't yet brutally and inexplicably alienated one of his best players for no readily apparent reason. Bobby Valentine and Boston Red Sox first baseman/Greek God Kevin Youkilis are playing through just that scenario right now, and as a St. Louis Cardinals fan I'm mostly just happy not to live in one of the absurd media markets on the east coast, where it's not baseball unless two people are sniping at each other through the press. They'd have turned the Colby Rasmus-Tony La Russa spat into a cage match.
↵As for the Red Sox in particular—well, if they didn't know this was coming with Bobby Valentine, I'm more than a little skeptical of their hiring process. This is what Bobby V. does: He makes the team about himself as much as possible. It's kind of like what La Russa did, turning every failure into a La Russa failure, only because of Valentine's apparent egotism and desire for front-of-the-camera time it doesn't work nearly as well.
↵We can't all be Tony La Russa, a deserving Hall of Famer, but Bobby Valentine, at this rate, is going to have a hard time remaining Bobby Valentine much longer unless he shuts up and waits for Kevin Youkilis to break out of his mini-slump.
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