In his weekly radio spot on WEEI Wednesday morning, Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine downplayed the charges of players going to ownership to complain about him and that nobody had gone "up the back stairs" to criticize the manager.
Referring specifically to an incident Valentine brought up last week about someone in the dugout taking exception to a sarcastic comment the manager made to third baseman Will Middlebrooks after a tough inning in the field and then telling ownership Valentine's comment, Valentine was adamant on"The Dennis and Callahan Show."
"I don't think anybody went up the back stairs," Valentine said. "This is all drama stuff. I think guys got together and some of the owners when talking to the guys probably said, 'Hey have there been any situations that have been something other than you expected?' and someone might have said something and it might have gotten back to me. I don't think anybody was running up stairs."
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When asked if he was told by ownership that he can't "say mean things" to his players, Valentine responded by saying, "Once again, nothing mean was said to Will."
Valentine, who received a vote of confidence from principal owner John Henry via an emailed statement to the media on Monday night, said ownership "has been nothing but supportive to him" in his first year on the job.
The manager said he has even reached out to owners to ask them to let him know if there is anything he's doing wrong.