LEADERSHIP IS EARNED, NOT ASSUMED

Bob Klapisch had a good piece in the Bergen Record today about Bobby Valentine and his struggles all season with the Sox.  Read  Bobby Valentine enjoys glimmer of hope ... for one day.

Klapisch writes about what many of us have been asking, although, it's clear BYB is rooting for a failed Red Sox season.  Not just elimination from the playoffs...no, we'd prefer if they just didn't make it in. Klapisch writes: "If they fail, then what? That’s more pressing question for Valentine – not whether he can coax more victories from the front of his rotation, but whether ownership will fire him after just one season. Valentine is doing his best to maintain a positive aura; he lavished praise on Lester for his “confident, aggressive” approach against the Yankees, and when someone suggested things would be better next year at Fenway, the manager shot back, 'What about next month?'"

Bobby has balls, you need to give him that, but with all the reports of players not respecting him, read HERE and BYB suggesting that he just thinks he's bigger than he actually is, one thing is sure, leadership is earned, not assumed. Sure Dustin Pedroia and Adrian Gonzalez denied the rift, but rumors are usually true, you know what I mean? My take is simple; if the players won't play for you, they won't play for you because they don't believe you can lead.

Joe Torre? He was a leader. He was handed a bunch of superstars that he taught to play together and when they gelled, they won it all, 4 times.  Anyone can be handed superstars as a manager, but if they can't play together, be guided, use a strategy like a manager does, you can't win. I believe that.  That was the only thing that puzzled me about Klapisch's piece.  He wrote later on: "Maybe getting fired would be a blessing for Valentine, who thought he was getting a better team and more supportive bosses. If there was anything Valentine wanted to say on Saturday, it was probably this: Good luck to the next guy."  I found that line "who thought he was getting a better team..." interesting. 

These are the Red Sox, they have tremendous talent, but to me, it wasn't about the team playing as much as it was the leader behind the curtain so to speak.  I felt like since day 1, Bobby came in looking to fit in, looking for controversy.  What he should have done was said "Hey guys, you guys are former World Champs and I'm happy and privileged to manage you this year. Let's go kick the crap out of the AL East together."  Instead, arrogance reeked and  the team bailed on Bobby.  Again, leadership is earned, not assumed. But it goes further than Valentine.

I read this report about the idea of Jason Varitek coming back to Boston to manage the Red Sox, read HERE.  Clearly all of Boston is fed up with Bobby Valentine and his antics and in my world, he’ll never work in baseball again.  He’s just not that good. But enough about Bobby. Let’s examine this “idea” of Jason Varitek coming back to Boston to possibly be the manager. I read Joel Sherman's report and I was confused.  Is Sherman suggesting that leadership from Varitek will turn that team around? Or is he suggesting bringing him in because it would be good for the Yankees.  I'm assuming he meant the latter because V-Tek at the helm of the Red Sox would be just as ridiculous as bringing in Bobby.   

Boston is a boys club already, these guys prance around the clubhouse with no respect for Bobby V and now the idea of a Jason Varitek coming in to manage…you gotta be desperate here.  This is the same guy that was the Captain of the team, yet, when the chicken and beer Scandal went down... he disappeared.  I wrote about it extensively in WHY VARITEK'S "C" STANDS FOR COWARD.

As a captain, you go down with the ship, yet, that was exactly what Varitek DIDN’T do.  Now you want to bring him back to manage and that’s going to fix the problem?

You want to fix Boston? Trade away your trouble makers and eat their contracts and bring in and up young energy.  Boston needs to rebuild and half of the problem is the manager and the other half are the guys that won’t play for him.  Why is this so hard to understand? The last thing Boston should do is bring a traitor like Varitek back to Boston to manage anyone, he couldn’t “manage” his own peers as captain when they were getting into trouble. 

Look, in the end, all of this is great for the Yankees.  I could actually care less what Boston does, as long as they don’t win.  Trust me, not making it to the playoffs last year was a tragedy in Boston.  If  they don’t make it this year with Bobby V at the helm, you need to expect the axe to fall. I have no doubt. Why? Because leadership is earned, not assumed.

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