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Valentine's Way: My Adventurous Life and Times

Review

Valentine's Way: My Adventurous Life and Times

When Bobby Valentine passes away (which should not be for a long time, God willing), don’t be surprised if the obituaries feature a photo of him wearing sunglasses, a t-shirt and a painted-on mustache. This is the “disguise” that he assumed after being ejected from a Mets game so he could continue to run the team. According to the rules, this was a no-no for which he was fined and suspended; according to Valentine, it was just a joke.

This seems to be a theme of his memoir, written with the assistance of veteran sports journalist Peter Golenbock. He does things his way. If you agree, you’re his friend for life. If you don’t, change “friend” to “foe.”

"To read VALENTINE’S WAY, no one was faster, played better defense or had a better baseball brain than Valentine.... You may agree or disagree with Valentine’s version of how his life progressed."

To hear Valentine tell it, he was one of the greatest athletes to come down the pike, and if not for a serious leg injury --- which he reports was medically mishandled by the doctors --- he might be in the Hall of Fame. He was Ichiro before there was Ichiro, he claims, invoking the name of the superstar who, after a great career in Japan, came to the US to become a future Hall of Famer.

To read VALENTINE’S WAY, no one was faster, played better defense or had a better baseball brain than Valentine. That last quality carried over to his stint as a commentator for ESPN’s baseball coverage. He was also a renaissance man, taking credit for inventing the sandwich wrap as an ever-expanding restaurateur and coming up with similar groundbreaking contributions to society. (His attempt to become mayor of his hometown of Stamford, CT this year came up short, perhaps due, in part, to his characterization of his female opponent as a “35-year-old girl.”)

To be fair, Valentine was a star athlete in school, much sought-after by colleges, drafted as a high round pick before the injury that cut short what indeed might have been a superlative career. His superior brain pretty much demanded that he become a manager. He managed three MLB teams over a 17-year span, his best result being a World Series loss with the Mets in 2000 against the crosstown Yankees. Overall, his teams --- including the Texas Rangers and a disastrous single season with the Boston Red Sox --- had a collective record of 1,186-1,165. Whatever shortcomings they suffered were, according to Valentine, not his fault, but rather those of subpar or malcontent players, duplicitous general managers and agents, or just plain bad luck.

Valentine did enjoy some success in his second stint as a manager in Japan, which he reminds the reader came as a result of his innovative ways. Those chapters are a bit less interesting, however, as he throws around a lot of unfamiliar names.

You may agree or disagree with Valentine’s version of how his life progressed. As one might expect, such hubris rubbed a lot of people the wrong way. They included fans, sports radio hosts and sportswriters who were out to get him, misrepresenting his comments, although a careful reading will show a degree of disingenuousness on his part. Add to this the aforementioned players, coaches, team executives and owners, and you get a sense of paranoia.

Reviewed by Ron Kaplan on December 10, 2021

Valentine's Way: My Adventurous Life and Times
by Bobby Valentine and Peter Golenbock

  • Publication Date: November 30, 2021
  • Genres: Memoir, Nonfiction, Sports
  • Hardcover: 376 pages
  • Publisher: Permuted Press
  • ISBN-10: 1637580940
  • ISBN-13: ‎9781637580943