Boston Red Sox Fire Bobby Valentine

As a follow up to yesterdays piece about Bobby Valentine possibly managing his last game with Boston, the Red Sox announced just moments ago they have fired Bobby V after just one season.

The Red Sox clearly went into the tank and quit on Valentine. To me that speaks to the players lack of professionalism as much as Valentine's inability to connect with many of the players. The season was a disaster for the Sox. They won only 69 games and were a train wreck from the start.

A feud with Kevin Youklis started the season poorly for Boston and it never got better, save for a little hot streak at the start of the year.

The 93 losses were the most for Boston since 1965.  Valentine was fired with one year left on his contract which called for him to make about $2.5 million next year.

Valentine moved from the ESPN broadcast booth back into the dugout and right away started to kick up some controversy with the New York Yankees. He made comments about Derek Jeter's famous flip to get Oakland's Jeremy Giambi at the plate in the 2001 American League Divison Series. Valentine called the play overrated. Valentine has a way of poking a stick in the opponent's eye.

The final straw was Valentine basically saying his own coaches stabbed him in the back. He made those comments to WEEI Radio in Boston on Wednesday. The Sox had a chance to play spoiler at the end of the year finishing up with six games against the Orioles and Yanks. They lost all six of those games.