Each day is Valentine’s Day

Or at least it will be as soon as Pitchers and Catchers report on February 19th.

Since his hiring was officially announced on December 1st, Bobby Valentine has been the main focus of the Boston sports writers and Red Sox fans.  Will he reach out to the players? (He has, going to Florida, Texas, Arizona and even the Dominican Republic to meet and talk with various players.)  Will he interact well with the fans? (He showed up at the annual “New Stars for Young Stars” Jimmy Fund event in January where he signed autographs and posed for pictures.)  How will the team react to him? (David Ortiz was “impressed” with his new manager’s decision to fly to the Dominican to meet with him and support his charity.  New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter said that Valentine managing the Red Sox will  make the team “more exciting”.)

The most common word to describe Valentine seems to be polarizing and that isn’t necessarily a bad thing.  Coming off of eight straight seasons where the manager was beloved by the fans and media alike, it might be fun to see sparks fly once in a while.  I’m not condoning fights on the mound when he’s trying to take Josh Beckett out of a game, but if Red Sox fans are being force fed this change, they might as well try to embrace it.

There is a lot to get over.  After the epic collapse to end the season, the team lost three of the most popular people associated with the Red Sox in decades when GM Theo Epstein, manager Terry Francona and closer Jonathan Papelbon all took off.  (Theo is sitting pretty with the Chicago Cubs and Papelbon will be closing games for the Philadelphia Phillies while Francona took a job with ESPN.)  They traded their starting shortsop, Marco Scutaro.  J.D. Drew won’t be in right field this year and Jason Varitek and Tim Wakefield most likely won’t see Fenway in 2012 without a ticket.  Red Sox fans have had to absorb an awful lot and all hopes are on Bobby Valentine to make sure things don’t continue in the downward spiral that began last September.

Last Saturday was Truck Day (the day the equipment trucks leave Boston and head to Florida) and ever since people keep talking about how it’s time to turn the page and focus on 2012 instead of what happened in 2011.  I don’t entirely agree.  I want every guy on that team to remember what happened.  Only they know WHY it happened and they need to make sure it doesn’t happen again.  That part isn’t on Bobby Valentine.  Valentine won’t make them straighten up or not do whatever it is they did last year; all he can do is try to get the best out of them. It’s up to them to bring their best and cut out the rest of the crap.

(Originally published on Examiner.com)