Bobby Valentine about the Red Sox

[Blizzard1090]

The players didn't respect him, and it showed. I don't think Francona would have gotten them to the playoffs, but he would have had them playing hard in more games than Valentine did.

Indeed...you could see that they gave up on the season by August. Shows again the difference between Buck and Valentine. Buck wouldn't stand for the team not playing hard even when the season was over.

[CT203]

On a related note...I can't believe any university would hire this guy as athletic director, even a tiny school. It's a bizarre publicity stunt IMO.

Not a publicity stunt whatsoever. Sacred Heart is in Fairfield, CT and Bobby V is from that area, he owns a bar in Stamford and has for quite soem time. Anyone who goes to the bar has a great chance of seeing and talking with Bobby V. He is a great guy to talk to and extremely friendly.

I've even seen him while talking to people at the bar having a few drinks go take a ladder and change a couple lights that went out. Hes just a regular guy.

Also I dont think Sacred Heart is really stressing for money. They are only 45 years old as a university and have an endowment over $100 million already for comparisons sake UConn endowment is only $300 mil and they were founded over 100 years ago (1881 I believe). They are also the 2nd largest Roman Catholic University in New England, only behind BC, and are located in a very affluent and wealth area.

Their baseball team has performed pretty well also. The SHU Baseball Team has appeared in the NEC Championship game the past 4 seasons (2009-2012) and won the past 2 Northeast Conference Titles. These wins have earned SHU back to back NCAA tournament bids.

If anything the hire of Bobby V was to keep the level of baseball at the level it is now and to possibly raise its baseball profile to stay relevant.