"I am so proud of this group of guys. I know it's an overstated line, but those men played 20 days of hard baseball, hard travel, hard competition . . . We play like this the rest of the season, we're going to win the championship."
OK, so let me be the 1,500th person to freak out over Bobby Valentines postgame comments.
Just hold on a second. I have to get into character:
Ahem . . .
What?! Is he serious?! Theyre at .500 and hes talking about a championship?! Please . . . more like a . . . not-last-place-anymore . . . -ship! Am I right? What a joke. What a LOSER! What a . . . "
OK. I really don't care.
Honestly, how is anyone affected by what he said here?
Boston Red Sox
Is Bobby Valentine a ridiculous person? Yes.
Did he say something ridiculous? Yes.
But why does it matter?
Does it affect his relationship with the players? I can almost guarantee that there isn't a player in that clubhouse who would have even heard about that interviewand still probably haven'tif it wasn't blown out of proportion. (Except for David Ortiz, who DVRs every episode of Extra Innings to make sure everyone's being nice).
Do you even think he meant it? Do you really think that Bobby V. believes that the Red Soxwith an outfield of Daniel Nava, Marlon Byrd and Linsanity 2can win a championship? I don't know. I guess there's maybe some little demented chance that he does.
Or maybe he's actually just proud of his team. Maybe he looks into that clubhouse and sees a group of guyshowever unlikable as they may come acrosswho just finished the best stretch of their season. Who played 20 days in a row in four different cities. Who have lost every outfielder in the organization to injury. Who have still managed to win 10 of 13 games and finallyonce againget back to .500. And maybe he just wanted to say something nice.
And it was a poor choice of words
In a throwaway line . . .
During a one-on-one interview on the team's propaganda news channel . . .
After a mid-May, Wednesday afternoon game . . .
In Baltimore.
All together now: "WHO CARES?!"
Rich can be reached at rlevine@comcastsportsnet.com. Follow Rich on Twitter at http:twitter.comrich_levine